3 Lessons Learned This Season in the Peony Field

As fall settles in, it’s time to look back at your season to see what worked and more importantly, what didn’t. While it can be quite humbling to acknowledge your flubs, it’s necessary. (And we all have them!) It is through owning them and finding ways to do better, that we can improve our operations and, ultimately, the experience we offer our customers.

In this article, I’m sharing a few lessons learned from my peony field this season. Hopefully, these experiences can help you avoid similar pitfalls. So, let’s dive in!

Lesson 1: Don’t Allow Photographers in the Peony Field

This season, I decided to open our peony field to photographers at $50/hour. While I regularly welcome photographers on the farm, this was the first time I let them into the peony field itself. I quickly learned it wasn’t worth the trade-off.

Here’s the thing: I’m a “cut every flower” kind of grower. Unless a bloom is past its prime or damaged, I cut it. See the picture below—how it’s mostly all green behind the buckets—that’s how I like it! I know…I know…it’s recommended to leave a few stems for the plant’s health, but it’s just not my style (and, by the way, the plants are thriving!).🤷‍♀️

But with photographers expecting that lush, “magazine-worthy” look, I felt obligated to leave more blooms in the field. You and I both know—a cut peony field doesn’t look anything like an untouched one. As a result, I left a lot of flowers uncut that could’ve gone into bouquets, subscriptions, or to customers. Lesson learned: next season, I’ll keep the photographers out during peony season.

Lesson 2: Memberships and the “Lush Field” Dilemma

Along similar lines, our Muddy Farm Club membership includes a spring, peony, and dahlia u-pick subscription, allowing members to cut their own bouquets. It’s a popular option, but this season, I again found myself holding back on cutting flowers so that members could have a “wow” experience in the field. I wanted a lush look with plenty of blooms for them to choose from, but that led to even more flowers being left to waste. Look at them all!👇

For next season, we’re streamlining our focus to just peonies, so I won’t be offering the Muddy Farm Club—problem solved!

Lesson 3: Don’t Skip Removing Side Buds

And then, parts of my peony field ended up looking like a heap of dirty laundry pooled on the ground. I’ve never really struggled with peonies needing extra support before, so why were they suddenly lying flat this season?

Then it clicked.

I’ve always removed the side buds from my peonies—a standard practice for commercial growers because it directs the plant’s energy into creating one large bloom per stem. But this year, I decided to leave the side buds on. Bad idea.

The flowers lying on the ground were the varieties with excessive side buds. And it makes sense, right? A stem with 5-8 buds weighs a LOT more than one with a single bloom (and I swear, Lady Alexandra Duff must’ve had upwards of 10!). Next season, I’m back to basics—removing those side buds so my peonies can stand tall.

Reflecting on these lessons, I’m reminded that every season brings new insights. Some may seem obvious in hindsight, but that’s part of the process. I hope these takeaways help you in your own fields next season, as we all work toward less waste and more profits. If you want to learn even more about growing peonies for profit, check out Peonies for Profit where I give a behind-the-scenes look at what it takes to farm peonies. And don’t forget to share any lessons you learned this season in the comments!

P.S. If you like to chat numbers and profit, you can read about another incredibly valuable lesson I realized this season here. You don’t want to miss this one!