AboutCarin Diaz Expertise I can answer most questions about flowers, design, styles and availability. I can suggest places to obtain flowers, ideas for wedding bouquets, styles of arrangements, types of flowers available and their seasons. I can also comment on trends and colors that I am seeing for events and weddings. I also can help with gardening questions about flowers.
Experience I have been a professional florist for 20 years. I have a degree in floristry and have owned several businesses in this specialty. I now own a business that specializes in weddings, events and funerals. I have approximately 3-5 funerals a week and over 90 weddings every year. I enjoy teaching people all that they can learn about flowers and ways to decorate their lives with all that nature has to offer. I teach classes at a large Nationwide chain store and I design for a couple of local shops here in the Seattle area as well. I also own a lanscaping business and enjoy gardening in my 2 acres of land.
Education/Credentials I have a 2 year degree in floristry from 20 years ago. I attend local classes, offered by the United States top designers, to keep my skills current. I ask a lot of questions of my wholesalers and I enjoy searching the internet and magazines for ideas on product and design styles.
Question QUESTION: Please can you tell me the best way to get peony blooms to open quickly.
ANSWER: Hi Sarah,
Are you needing to grow them faster or get them to open faster when they are fresh cut?
To grow them faster, good luck. Peonies are a really touchy plant. Sometimes the growers up in Canada will put a shade cloth tent over them to protect them a little from the elements and sometimes they will think it is later in the spring than it really is.
If you are trying to get the flowers to open faster, try putting them in a warm room, warm water and a fresh stem cut every day. You can carefully peel back the calix on the flower bud as well if it is showing a great amount of color, but just won't get started to open. Careful though because it could cause it to split when it does open up. Sometimes they have such sticky sap on them that a slight washing of the flower head will help to remove the stickyness and will help it to open a little faster.
Thank you. Carin
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QUESTION: thankyou caren- I have decided that they are best left on their plants and that
people will just have to be patient! Once cut the warm water and warm place
treatment does seem to work
Are you a grower of Peonies? Are people needing them for weddings, etc. They can be a little tricky if you need them to be just perfect for a wedding, but glorious if you pay enough attention to get them to the perfect stage. I think they might be my absolute favorite flower. This year with the weather, our area Peonies are definitely suffering. Take Care. Carin
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