Container Peony Production

We’ve started a new project geared toward learning more about container peony growing for cut flower cultivation.

Tree peonies forced to bloom in containers are popular gifts in Japan. We see peony plants in bloom for sale to home gardeners at nurseries and garden centers. In ground planted peonies in poly tunnels are grown on large production farms to flower earlier than outdoor plants.

But what about smaller farms like ours? Can we utilize our cooling and growing spaces to bring successions of container grown peonies to bloom? How would that look for different varieties? What temperatures are needed for cooling, rooting, growing and what are the appropriate lengths of time for each period? Will our plants be more or less protected from the fungal problems that are most common to peonies? What size pot should we use for the best outcomes? What kind of medium and nutrition creates the best outcomes?

Peony roots are a significant investment, and it’s only now that we’ve become wholesalers that I feel comfortable committing high value roots for a project that may take years.

We’re at the very beginning stages of this project, but we have our first buds in February and we wouldn’t normally see them until May - so that feels like a win.

We chilled our roots in a cooler for several months and planted them around the new year. We are using 7 gallon nursery pots to accommodate the large root size. We planted into Promix. For the longer term, we’ve read that a low dose of a slow release fertilizer and some compost can be appropriate. Growers must be careful to avoid over-watering (root rot).

Here is an article about container production of peonies from Virginia Tech. Note: this article is geared toward nursery production of peonies for gardening purposes. For this purpose, the use of growth inhibitors is suggested. We are hoping to achieve long stems on our plants (same growth habit as outside), so our production will look different. We also avoid the use of conventional fungicides and soil drenches here.