Maifleur is right--even if you get very early blooming varieties a cooler and/or wetter spring could easily delay blooming until after your date. Also, newly planted peonies don't always bloom 1st spring and they certainly won't be full, pretty plants. You probably could get potted plants from a nursery to put in decorative planters, might work but would probably get pretty expensive really fast. If you're determined to have peony plants though I'd talk to nurseries in your area to see what they typically have in stock by early May.

As a florist who had a client ask for peonies for her April wedding a few years ago (Yikes! Long story short - I got tight buds and had to force them open overnight), it is very important that you work with a florist ASAP in order for them to work with whichever vendors they need to in order to make sure they can get you what you need. I imagine if I could get them in April, May shouldn't be a problem. Just give the florist enough notice. And by enough notice, I mean at least 4 months. And then keep in touch with them to make sure there won't be any problems getting them in. Also, you won't get to pick the specific variety of peony, but you will get to pick a color (i.e., white, light pink, dark pink - very general), because it's one of those "you get what you get" kind of things. Also, not sure about price range where you're at, but they easily run $5-$8 per stem where I am.

Maybe you can ask somebody from Oregon to ship you some peonies from Adelman Peony Gardens or Brooks Gardens Peonies, or you can contact these two gardens to see if they can ship you some cut flowers. The bloom time of their peonies is from Apr.29 to June 10.

Or you can buy some early flower potted peonies from Lowes, Homedepot or local nursery, they already bloom this year and is very possible to bloom again next year.

Thank you all for your advice. I actually went to Cricket Hill Tree Farm in Thomaston, CT. They specialize in peonies and the experts there were able to recommend 3 varieties that are early bloomers. We will stay in touch and I will try and order those to plant soon. Very very grateful for these ideas as well..

It is not realistic to expect a plant to be in bloom on a certain day. Weather conditions affect bloom a lot. In Blanco, Texas many years ago, they decided to have a Lavender festival. The lavender was blooming on June 5 and so they set the festival for that week the following year. Guess what? The festival year the lavender bloomed TWO WEEKS later. Well, they said, I guess we made a mistake and so the second year they moved the festival back two weeks. Well the year of the second festival, the lavender bloomed extra early and was gone by the time of the festival. We were wrong, they said, let's move it up and so they moved it up FOUR WEEKS for the third festival. The year of the third festival, the lavender bloomed around June 5. They gave up and just set a date and if there was lavender blooming, great and if not, there were the plants with buds and lavender products for festival goers top buy. So Mother Nature doesn't always cooperate!

We had a warm winter and very warm late winter -- everything this year was a week or two ahead of schedule. Next year who knows!

Cricket Hill did you a disservice with the information. Yes, the ones that they pointed out may bloom during that time frame if they are established plants. However nothing that you plant this fall would be established enough to give you more than one or two blooms which is probably not what you want. Contact them again to verify by asking if they can guarantee that any peonies you purchase from them will provide many blooms next year. Ask for it in writing.

Thank you maifleur01. They actually suggested I would need more established plants, around 5-6 years old vs. newer plants. But I will take into consideration.