When are peonies in season in Melbourne, and how long do they last?

Peony flowers reach Melbourne from Australian growers in late spring and early summer, from about late October into December, with November the peak. Any one farm picks for about three weeks inside that, and the dates move each year with the weather. Outside that window, peonies sold in Australia are imported, and they are not always available. A bunch arrives in tight bud and opens over the next few days, faster in a warm room.

Two readers arrive at this question. One has a date that cannot be moved, usually a wedding or a big birthday. The other is looking at a vase of tight green balls, wondering what happens next. This answers both.

When are peonies in season in Australia?

Peonies are a late spring flower in this country. Gardening Australia, filming at a peony farm in Victoria’s Macedon Ranges, put it plainly: in Australia, peonies bloom in late spring. November is the month brides ask about. Growers’ own picking dates put the national season at roughly late October into December.

Peonies need a stretch of winter chill before they flower well. Cool and temperate districts suit them, and warm ones do not. That is why the flower comes from the ranges and Tasmania.

One farm’s season is much shorter than the country’s. Growers in Victoria’s Macedon Ranges publish a picking run of about three weeks. They say the dates shift every year with the weather through the winter and spring. Their plants run later than other districts because their country is colder. A cold Victorian spring pushes the window back, and a warm one pulls it forward. Last year’s dates are a guide, not a promise.

Can you get peonies out of season in Melbourne?

Outside the local window, any peonies in Australia have been flown in, and they are not always here. If your date is in March, there may be none at all.

The page for our peony bouquet carries the shop’s own windows rather than the country’s. Local stems run from about late November to late December. Imported stems run from about late May to late July. Outside those, the page asks you to contact the shop first. Those windows are narrower than the season, because they are what one florist can get. Ask early, and ask about the week rather than the month.

How long do peonies last in a vase?

Peonies are cut and sold in tight bud on purpose. A vase of them spends part of its life closed and part open, so where you stand it decides what you get.

Warmth opens them and cool holds them back. Growers keep cut stems in cool rooms, or chilled stores, for that reason. A bunch on a sunny kitchen bench will be open in a day or two. The same bunch in a cool hallway takes its time.

As a rough guide, expect about a week from a bunch kept somewhere cool, and less in a warm room. There is no fixed number, because the flower keeps changing while you have it.

Buying matters too. A Tasmanian grower told ABC Rural that a bud picked too tight will not open well. Look for a bud with a little give and a hint of colour showing. A hard green ball with no colour is the one that can let you down.

Why are peonies expensive?

The cost sits in the growing, and a peony crop is slow. Growers wait three years from planting before the plants are worth picking. The trade sums it up as the first year sleeps, the second year creeps, the third year leaps. Most cut stems come from herbaceous peonies, which die back each winter and shoot again in spring.

Then it is hand work. Side buds are taken off stem by stem, six or seven of them, so everything goes into one head. At the peak, the rows are picked twice a day.

The short season does the rest. Another Tasmanian grower says less than two months of picking pays the wages and carries the farm for the year. So the price is a slow crop and a narrow window, not a mark-up.

What to use instead of peonies when they are not available

A garden-style rose is the closest thing. The ones we keep come from a local brand grown for scent and a big, full head. Roses are not tied to a three-week window, so the date is rarely the problem.

Butterfly ranunculus answers a different part of the year. Its petals are layered and it opens with the same slow unfolding. Our butterfly ranunculus bouquet publishes a season of late winter into early spring, the opposite end of the year from local peonies.

Neither one is a peony. Neither has the same size, or that trick of opening from a tight ball into something far wider.

A three-week window sells by pre-order, not by walking in on the day. If your date falls inside it, the enquiry to make is months ahead rather than the week before. Our wedding and event flowers page asks for the date, the venue and a budget.

To find out whether one week is possible, ring Monet de Fleur in Camberwell on 03 9813 2002. Say the date and ask what will be in. That is a better answer than any page can give you.