If I were Martha Stewart, selling arrangements on 1-800-flowers.com, I could sell six stems of peonies (in a clear glass vase) for $79.95. But I’m not Martha Stewart, and the market for my peonies is not quite the same as Martha’s.

So as my peonies are getting ready to burst into bloom, it seems like a good time to check out what’s happening elsewhere in the world of peonies. A little perspective might help me — and you — decide how much to charge, and where to sell.

As I write this, on April 21, a Sarah Bernhardt peony flown in from Israel costs $4.50 on the wholesale market. But this is also the day that peony harvest started in North Carolina. So within a week, the price of peonies will have dropped considerably and the domestic market will take over price and supply until the end of June. At that point, peonies will come out of cold storage to fill the demand for a few more weeks. And then there will be a peony void until the fall, when New Zealand’s crop  becomes available.

For most GFM readers, peonies are going to bloom and be sold between now and the fourth of July. So the immediate question is: how much should we charge for our peonies this season? Here’s what growers around the country are saying:

In North Carolina, Bernie Van Essendelft of Dual Venture Farm, had picked his first 30 boxes of peonies on April 21. His crop is mostly shipped to wholesalers around the country. Last year, he charged $12.50 for a 10-stem bunch; this year, he plans to raise prices 3 percent. “Carolina peonies have always been lower priced,” he says. “I have to move 12,000 boxes in two weeks.”

In Vermont, Ed Pincus of Third Branch Farm expects his crop to be ready for harvest the first week of June. He too will sell to wholesalers.

“Our price last year was $12.75 for 10 stems of Sarah Bernhardt, Festiva Maxima, Duchesse, and the like, and $16.50 for Red Charm, Coral Charm, Bowl of Cream, etc.” he said. “I hope we can raise prices 10 percent this year.”

In Oregon, Ray Gray of Sunset Flowers said he sold his peonies to wholesalers last year for $1.25 per stem for a couple of weeks, then dropped the price to 80 cents per stem.

That’s the farmgate price story, and it is the basis of prices elsewhere in the market. Wholesalers will mark up those prices 50-100 percent when selling to florists, wedding planners, and supermarket floral departments. So if you’re selling to florists, you may be competitive if you price your peonies in the $2-3 range.

At farmers markets and other direct-to-consumer outlets, growers are also planning to charge $3 per stem and up. Karen Pendleton, who grows peonies for local sales in Lawrence, Kansas, says that florists don’t blink an eye when she quotes them $3 per stem — probably because they have seen them for $4.50 until this month. But retail customers complain about that price, because they see them all over town and in every rural cemetery. So it’s all a matter of perception.

In Washington, D.C., Bob Wollam sells fancy peonies such as Red Charm and Coral Charm for $5 a stem and standard peonies for $3 a stem or four for $10. Those have been his prices for several years, and he doesn’t plan to change them this year. With 1,600 plants in production, he also sells to florists. Normally, wholesalers are selling to florists for $1.20 or $1.10 by the time most East Coast production is in full swing. Last year, a late freeze wiped out most of the crop in the Southeast and kept prices high. He got $1.80 a stem from florists last year, and will wait to see what the market demands before setting prices this year.

The global peony marketplace
Peonies, once considered a funeral flower, came into fashion about 20 years ago and the demand just keeps growing. But where there’s demand, there’s usually someone ready to step in and meet it. Peonies are no exception; they are now available nearly year-round, imported from countries around the globe.

Ray Gray imports from many of those countries, and he explains when and where peonies now come from.

“Israel starts in late December and goes through April.  They’ve figured out a method of growing in crates and holding in coolers at the right time and for the right length of time to be able to force in poly tunnels and come in way ahead of the normal season.  US starts in April – Bernie (Van Essendelft) is always one of the first – and goes through June.  In years past I’ve always been able to ship mine from Oregon about the last week of April using unheated hoophouses, but this year is not cooperating. Temps have been much cooler than normal and the hoophouses are not enough to compensate.  The poly house plants ARE way ahead of the plants not under cover, but everything is just a week or so late – maybe two weeks.  That will make Bernie happy because typically as soon as Oregon Roses comes on with their acres of peonies, the price really drops.

New Zealand starts the last week of September or first week of October, again depending on the weather, and goes in to December.  Theirs are all field grown for the most part.  We did visit one grower in Christchurch that has some retractable cover and has buried plastic pipes in the root zone to circulate warm water.  When I asked, “How warm?”, she would only say, “Oh, not that warm…..”

“The Aussies produce a few peonies basically in the same time period as New Zealand, but they don’t have a good handle on quality control and consistency.  I think most of theirs go to local markets.  A few are exported, but nothing like New Zealand.

“Chile starts in about November and goes in to January.  Unlike NZ, Chile is not that consistent with quality and packout.  The industry in Chile is still in its infancy and a lot of the necessary procedures haven’t really been worked out yet.  That and it’s not the easiest place in the world to get products out of.  Where NZ has several daily direct flights from Auckland to different major cities in the US and the world, Chile has a bit of hopping to do.

“I think we’ll see a lot of action from China in the near future.  They already product large quantities of roots and tree peonies, and it’s only a matter of time until they have the logistics worked out to ship the cut flowers.”

Prices of imported peonies this past year have ranged from a low of $1.80 for 40 cm Sarah Bernhardts from Israel in April to $4.50 for 50-60 cm Red Charms from New Zealand in October.

New production areas

A few years ago, growers in Alaska got interested in growing peonies for export when they realized that their peonies bloom at a time when they aren’t available anywhere else in the world — summer. Last year, in their first test of the market, they sold 1,000 stems to a wholesaler in Los Angeles, said Patricia Holloway, the Alaska Extension specialist advising the group. She thinks there are currently about a dozen growers with a total of 14,000 plants in the ground, but the number is growing as more people learn about the project. The plan is to build a packing house in Fairbanks and develop the infrastructure needed to export flowers.

“In Fairbanks, we begin harveting around 18 June and continue through July depending on the weather,” Holloway said. “Alaska is so huge, we have a range of climates  from hot, dry continental in Fairbanks to cool, moist coastal. Peonies were in full bloom in coastal Homer and Juneau, Alaska in mid August. We could conceivably cover late June through maybe even early September with the right site and cultivar.”

She says that growers there are cautiously optimistic about peonies but realize that it takes plants three to five years to get to the cutting stage, so progress will be slow.

Ray Gray, the peony importer and wholesaler, has been advising the Alaska peony group. “From a marketing standpoint, they are in a perfect location with Anchorage being the incredible international transportation hub that it is.  They can easily reach any world market from there.  Whether they can organize and cooperate enough to do it, time will tell.  It does look like they are off to a pretty good start.  Most of the growers involved have come to the realization that any type of flower growing is not a get-rich-quick scheme and is going to require a lot of hard work for a few years before they start seeing any payoff,” he said. 

Holloway added: “People from all over the world visit Alaska each summer and marvel at the size and brilliant colors of our flowers,” she said. “If the peony project works, there may be other flowers we can sell in export markets. So far, we have identified two flowers with timing differences, lilacs and lily of the valley, that could be added to the mix. This is truly an exciting project for Alaska’s growers, and I am proud to have a small part in making it happen.”