Caring for Cut Flowers

So how did you do on Valentine’s Day?  Did you score a box of chocolates, some naughty underclothes, a fancy dinner, a mushy card?  Maybe all of the above and then some?  I hope so, and I will add my point of view that, as a lifestyle writer and despite some marketing efforts to direct us otherwise, this holiday doesn’t refer just to romantic love but to affections of all kinds. Yes, lovers have their ways of celebrating this holiday, but so do families and friends. However and between whomever it is celebrated, Valentine’s Day offers a mid-winter breath of fresh air, as after the deep digging in of January’s post-holiday rest period we emerge, as ready for a kiss of spring’s early promise as for a chaste peck on the cheek or a more focused effort on the mouth.

However we celebrated Valentine’s Day, chances are it involved flowers. Even during these times of economic challenge, most florists report that Valentine’s Day is their busiest delivery day of the year. (If you’re curious, as I was, Mother’s Day, though neck and neck [is that hickey and cameo?] with Valentine’s Day, is second). No one could be surprised to learn that the red rose is the official ambassador of Valentine’s Day, but what do you think comes in at number two? If you think a rose by any other color smells just as sweet you’re right, but after roses the most popular floral arrangement for Valentine’s Day is the fragrant tussie mussie. A tussie mussie is a compact cluster of flowers. Valentine’s Day floral arrangements presage spring, so the Valentine’s Day tussie mussie typically incorporates such spring blossoms as dependable carnations, vivid tulips, fragrant hyacinth or freesias, and a few roses if there were any to spare.

Once fresh flowers are delivered into the home, they become part of the household, however temporally. They provide beauty and I, for one, am convinced they facilitate harmony. If you doubt this, just ask any hapless mate who forgot to order flowers last week if disharmony resulted, and what it took to restore it. Anyone who’s encountered an arrangement of them, from modest to spectacular, will affirm that cut flowers have a definite presence. Most decorators cannot fathom designing a living space without plants, floral or otherwise. Whether your flowers are cut or living and whether your garden is indoors, outdoors or both, plants add so much to a home. They really do become members of the family, and they merit your care.

Florists refer to the care of fresh cut flowers as conditioning. It is simple to provide for cut flowers, and below are some guidelines to help you do that. In return for your learning to condition cut flowers, they will reward you with the beauties of color, fragrance and form for as long as their vase life allows.

CONDITIONING CUT FLOWERS

There’s no delicate way to phrase this: to cut a stem from a flowering plant is to remove an appendage from a living being. Don't worry: if the cut was done properly, there should be no harm to the parent plant. This is among the reasons to always and only obtain cut flowers from a certified florist or to correctly take cuttings from your own garden.

Caring for cut flowers is the skill of prolonging such qualities of the plant as color, fragrance or form that are represented by the cutting while understanding the specific needs of the cutting in order to provide them. Though some species of cuttings have their own requirements, the primary needs of all cuttings are water, nutrition and a sterile life support system.

The most pressing need for a cutting is water. A flower stem is filled with vascular cells that behave like straws, absorbing water into the cells of the cutting through a mechanism known as capillary action. As long as the cut end of the stem is submerged in water, capillary action continues, but some harm is done to the capillary process upon the cutting as air molecules cluster around the cut and form a barrier to the open end of the capillaries. This is why a cut flower’s demand for water is continuous and must be satisfied: the longer that cutting goes without water after the cut, the less vascular capacity remains. The less vascular capacity the stem retains, the shorter its vase life will be. It is vital to place a cut stem into water as soon as possible after cutting – the ideal timing is immediately – which is why some gardeners actually cut stems under a spray of water.

Flower food is the term for what's contained in those little packets that florists supply with cut flowers. These packets contain a formulation that supports the processes of the cut stem. Typically, the components of these formulae are a biocide, an acidifier and a sugar. The biocide is a compound that destroys the microorganisms (principally bacteria and fungi) that begin to collect at the site of the cut as well as those present in the water. There are biocides that can be dusted onto the cut -- one primarily encounters these at flower farms -- but most floral biocides are dissolved in the water that houses the stems. The acidifier supports the stem's vascular system, and the sugar acts as a nutrient.

Most florists supply flower food with an order of cut flowers, and you can order a good one here. You can make your own effective compound by adding a drop of household bleach (click here for an explanation of what compound at what level must be listed on the label to qualify) and a tablespoon of sugared lemon-lime soda to the vase water. Whether you choose to fortify the vase water with commercial plant food or a home-made compound, always use cool filtered water, and be prepared to change it often, treating every change of water with a new dosage of food.

Fresh cut flowers are delivered either as arrangements or as individual stems, and arrangements are categorized either as fancy or informal.  Fancy arrangements are those that are designed either professionally or avocationally and anchored into a display vessel. Informal arrangements are gatherings of flowers housed together in open water. Individual stems are either chosen on site at the florist or taken as live cuttings from a private garden. These distinctions inform conditioning. After admiration, the first step upon receipt of fresh flowers is to determine what kind of arrangement they are, and then condition them accordingly.

Fancy arrangements will be anchored into a display vessel using a crosshatched or spiky cage known as a flower frog, a block of drenched foam known as floral foam, or a combination of these. You may also encounter such tricks of the trade as floral tape. For arrangements packed into foam or arranged into a frog, use your finger to feel under the greens to monitor the moisture level and to locate a place to add water. Mix floral food into cool, clean water in a watering can with a thin spout. Working carefully, water the arrangement either at the spot you located with your finger or, if the arrangement allows, into the center of the arrangement. The water level should reach just below the lip of the display container. Monitor the arrangement daily, and water as indicated. So conditioned, fresh arrangements should last 4 – 8 days.

Informal arrangements may be presented in a vase or, as may individual stems, may be wrapped in cellophane or tissue and either presented that way or in a box. For wrapped flowers, the cuts will be either wrapped in drenched paper or housed in individual water-filled vials. For informal arrangements or individual stems, the best conditioning for your flowers is to refresh them with cool water and then arrange them in fortified water.

To do this, clean the bathroom or kitchen sink with a disinfecting wipe and stop the drain. Place an unfolded towel on a flat, sturdy surface near the sink. Fill the sink with a shallow pool of cool water.  Working quickly but delicately, place the flowers into the shallow pool of water in the sink, making sure that all of the cuts are submerged. If they aren’t, run the tap on cool until the pool of water is deep enough for the cuts to be submerged.  For flowers delivered with individual vials of water dressing the cuts, work below the water line to remove and discard the vials with the cut ends of the flowers submerged in the sink.

If the arrangement was delivered in a vase, once you have placed the flowers into the sink, empty the water from the vase down the bath/shower drain. Add a drop of household bleach to this vase or one from your own collection and fill the vase ½ full with warm water from the bath/shower spigot. Swirl the bleach-water compound in the vase and then empty the compound down the bath/shower drain. Rinse the vase and fill it ½ full with cool water. Mix flower food into the water in the vase. Place the filled vase upright on the towel beside the sink.

Working below the water line, use floral clippers or strong household shears to administer a new cut to each stem ½ inch above the previous cut, while keeping the cut end of each stem under water. Still working below the water line, use the clippers/shears to remove any leaves that will be below the water line once the flowers are in the vase. Working quickly but delicately, lift the re-cut flowers out of the sink and position the flowers in the clean, fortified water in the vase. Monitor the arrangement daily, and change the water as indicated using the steps above. So conditioned, fresh arrangements should last 4 – 8 days.

When placing flowers in a room, do not subject them to extremes of light, heat or electronic activity, as such exposure shortens the vase life of fresh flowers. Do not position fresh flowers near heating units or electronic equipment (including television, stereo, computer equipment and chargers) or in direct sunlight. Tabletop is the traditional placement for fresh cut flowers, but that can extend to shelves (including windowsills if the light is indirect), countertops, and dressers and nightstands. As a rule, cut flowers do well in cool (though not freezing) conditions, and some, such as orchids, must be kept cold.

Exposure to adverse conditions leads to listless flowers, a condition known as wilt. Wilting flowers may exhibit discoloration or drooping flower heads, shed their petals, or emit an unpleasant odor. Though a conditioning bath in the sink as detailed above can sometimes revive wilting flowers, for the most part when a flower starts to wilt, that is an irreversible process. Preventing wilting is another reason why conditioning is so important, and another reason why it is so important to obtain flowers from an accredited florist.

It is worth noting that many cuttings that find themselves in the flower vase are not flowers at all. Some of these survive perfectly fine in the vase and some should not have been cut for arrangements to begin with. For example, many vegetable cuttings from kale to peppers can contribute wonderful color, texture and interest, but be prepared to replenish these as they will not last as long as the blooms in the arrangement will, and you may find that chlorophyll from some vegetable cuttings will leach into the water. Fresh herbs can contribute much to an arrangement, or even make a lively one of their own. Flowering branches are a wonderful addition to arrangements, especially during autumn and winter, and like herbs can make wonderful arrangements on their own. Other non-flowering stems that can contribute to an arrangement include palm, fern, ginger, bamboo and holly.

Some plants should never be included in the vase. For example, though both bromeliads and poinsettias have flowers, the most widely recognized colorful parts of these plants are not their flowers, they are leaves pigmented differently than green. Though cuttings from these plants can be propagated by someone who knows how, they do not easily survive life in the vase. Nor do cuttings from cacti and succulents. In all of these instances, doing a cutting for any reason other than one done correctly for propagation harms the plant. It goes without saying that poisonous plants should never be approached at all.

Roses and other flowering branches and woody stems require adjustment to the conditioning process. Strip any leaves that will be submerged while leaving thorns, hips, buds, berries or secondary branches alone. Working individually, use strong garden clippers to re-cut each stem at an angle one inch above the original cut. Use a tack hammer to lightly distress the new cut, which broadens the space across which the vascular system can spread. Place the conditioned stem into fortified water into a display vessel, and monitor as above.

You need only to learn these basic precepts and to master these basic skills to become a certified amateur florist, but don’t neglect building a good relationship with a local florist.  Your local florist will appreciate your business and will respond to interest in their profession. They are an invaluable resource for questions about floral design and flower conditioning. Most importantly, whether you ask your florist for a few blooms to tuck into a vase in your home or to deliver an arrangement on your behalf to another location, one with whom you have a relationship will be able to interpret your sentiments and represent them through the magical language of flowers.