I'm sharing all of my tips and tricks for creating easy and beautiful peony arrangements. We're covering everything including where to buy, how to arrange, and tips for keeping your arrangements looking their best.
Start by removing your peonies from their packaging. Discard and recycle any paper or plastic.
Fill a clean vase about 3/4ths full with room temperature water. Add in flower food.
Next, you'll want to remove some of the leaves from your stems. You want to avoid having any leaves in the water. (This goes with any flower.) Leaves in the water tend to rot which will significantly decrease the life of your arrangement and leave your water looking cloudy and smelling unpleasant.
Using a pair of sharp scissors, cut off at least 1 inch of the stem and then place it directly into the water. Cut each stem and place it into the water as soon as you cut it. Generally speaking, I like to see the stem length as approximately 1.75 times the height of the vase. This means that the length of the stem/flower sticking out of the vase should be about 3/4ths as tall as the vase.
When placing the stems into the vase, I like to move around the vase rather than concentrating on one area at a time. I think this helps to create a fuller-looking arrangement. Plus, when you work this way, the stems almost create an interlocking grid helping to hold each other up.
If you're working with multiple types of flowers, I like to start with my biggest flowers first and then work in the smaller ones. If you're using peonies that are open, they are likely to be one of the first flowers. If you're using hydrangeas as I recommended above, start with those.
Finally, refresh the water in your vase and recut your stems at least every other day if not daily. This will keep your blooms lasting the longest.
Notes
If you're growing your own peonies, one issue you may encounter is ants. Peony blooms can be full of them. To avoid ants in your home, just cut your stems, put them into a bucket of water, and leave them outside in a shady area for a couple of hours. In a hurry? You can dunk the blooms into water and the ants will be removed.
If you're cutting peonies from your own yard, it's recommended to cut them when the bloom is closed and when lightly squeezed feels like a marshmallow.
The peonies I'm using for this post are from PetalDriven. PetalDriven is a go-to for me when I need a lot of flowers. They offer direct (straight from the farm) wholesale flowers shipped right to your door. You can save 10% on your order by using the code "INSPIRED10" at checkout. PetalDriven was kind enough to provide all the stunning peonies you see in this post.