Our farm
Prebbleton Peonies is a family farm at 430 Springs Road, Prebbleton, twenty minutes from central Christchurch. John and Kerry Coogan bought the property in 2014 with one idea in mind: grow premium peonies in a place that genuinely suits them. The Canterbury Plains do. The ground is free draining, the winters are properly cold, and a peony needs both to build the root system that produces a good stem.
In 2022 their daughter Sacha took over the day to day. John and Kerry are still here most days, and between them the farm now runs 23,000 plants across 22 varieties, from the early corals through to the late whites.
An export farm that opened its gate
For most of its life this was an export business. At peak season the blooms are still packed and flown out daily to Japan, the USA and Europe, cut and graded to a standard those markets set.
Selling to New Zealanders came later. The flower was too good not to offer at home, and once we started, it grew year on year into the farm shop, the delivery service and the tuber sales that keep the Canterbury growing tradition going through winter.
How the season works
Peonies don't bloom to a schedule; they bloom when the weather says so. Rather than promise a date months out, we open each variety for sale as it gets close, and update the Delivery page every week with what's actually ready in the chiller. If you want a specific variety for a specific occasion, Pre-Order is the way to reserve it. We dispatch as it reaches peak quality, not before.
Everything we send travels in bud. A peony opens over several days in the vase, so a bud gives you the whole show rather than the last day of it.
Export grade and farm gate
Stems that meet our export grade go out by courier, boxed and chilled, on our Monday to Thursday dispatch runs. Stems that are just as fresh but don't quite meet that grading, a shorter stem or a bloom slightly further open, are sold by the stem at the farm. Nothing is wasted, and it's often the best value way to buy from us if you're nearby.
More than the flowers
Through the open months there's coffee, real fruit ice cream, lawn games and room for children to run. The paddock is a working farm, not a display garden, and we like it when people come and see that. Pick your own days, farm tours and workshops run through the first three weeks of November, when the flowers decide rather than the calendar.
Have a question we haven't answered here? Get in touch.