Mark’s Bloomin’ Journal

Although it is still December I was asked to write an article on how best to make a persons V Day flowers last. It seemed to me this information pertains to any day, named holiday or otherwise. So here you go, a few pearls of wisdom;

How do you make your Valentine’s Day flowers last longer, how do you make any day’s flowers last longer if it comes to that? Like so much in life it is simple, absurdly simple, but then as is the way of this world we have made simple difficult to find and impossible to comprehend. I wonder that we sell flowers at all when I see information about purchase, care and maintenance written as so much mumbo jumbo rather than common sense and simple science as “experts” lay claim to common knowledge.
VOODOO
We so often forsake common sense and instead we place upon pedestals the rubbish that is part urban myth and part the pap of monthly glossies that feel bound if not entitled to re create the wheel. Add to that some know it all “celebrity name” and…bingo, you can find yourself cutting stems at oblique angles with fancy French knives, tossing pennies into vases and replacing water with soda, or as hard as this may be to swallow… adding that little blue ED pill! Little wonder you might think that flowers can last for inordinate amounts of time. In your dreams!
EXPEDIENCY/EDUCATION
Wasting no more time or energy lets just cut right to the simple science of obtaining the best bloom for the buck on Feb 14th or 364 other days. Flowers are grown on farms large and small around the world and with air-freight as efficient as it is those flowers are landing on our shores from the farthest reaches of both hemispheres mere hours after harvesting. It is at this point that you need commence your homework.
As landed, the flowers are “fresh” and for the best part have been maintained within “the cold chain”. How quickly they then move through the marketing and distribution system and into your green thumbed hands is key to your satisfaction. Add unnecessary days to this equation and no end of fancy cutting, soda pop or currency in vases will help put the blush on your rose or gild your lily.
Find out when the flower deliveries are made to your provider and learn to differentiate between old stock held over and “the good stuff” that just arrived from the farm. Purchase the new stock as it arrives. Ask questions of staff. No qualified, coherent or believable staff? Take a pass. Would you buy moldy cheese or rotten fruit? Seek fine wine from a beer salesman? Not likely.
AGE/STAGE
Be prepared to buy flowers that are NOT in bloom…they really are supposed to bloom when in your possession, not the vendors. Remember that most flowers in bloom can’t be transported easily or efficiently. Gerbera Daisies are an exception you may recognize. For example it takes approximately four days for a lily purchased from a Flowerbud.com farm to come into bloom and likely seven days to attain peak display which it then might hold for another seven. If in a store you see such a flower in full bloom all scrunched inside a cellophane sleeve, like a prisoner at the bars then you already know that it has done hard time and is not remotely fresh. You are not the parole officer. That’s common sense, right?
DRINKING
So now you arrive home with mostly closed flower buds, or better yet FedEx has just delivered a green Flowerbud.com box laden with farm fresh stems. First things first…flowers are thirsty, especially those arriving in a box by overnight courier. Imagine yourself taking the red eye from Memphis. Immediately clip a new end on each and every stem and place them, while still wrapped and/or sleeved in a supportive, clean container to drink cool clean water for a few hours. More the better is very much the case here. I have been known to use the WC in the spare bathroom to hold them… it makes changing the water a snap.
Take a vase that is sized to the flowers you purchased and cleanse it thoroughly. No vase? Then use a jam jar, an old kettle, a beer mug, a cleaned out paint can. Use your imagination. Remember, whatever the container it must be capable of supporting the stems. They do not fare well when having the chance to bend excessively under their own weight, as inevitably the stem will break. Fill it some half full of clean water.
ARRANGING
Take your now hydrated stems and clipping each one to a length you think best suits the vase, arrange within. Each stem can be of differing length depending on the appearance you seek. Clip a little off the stem and test how it looks to you in the vase. If too long, clip more. Perhaps this takes two or three patient attempts, that being far preferable to clipping too drastically in the first place and then feverishly having to look for a bud vase to cater to the runt you just created from a premium long stem.
All the while remember you are not a florist and not a flower arranger of note and neither are you pretending to be… just yet. Your chance to emulate Preston Bailey lies still just over the horizon. Just think, the rules are yours to make and that your version of flower arranging is above all else, fun. Try and try again might well be the order of the day. The flowers will not criticize, rather they will in due course hide floral faux pas, real or imagined. In the final placement in the vase make allowance for all those opening buds and never ever leave foliage on the stem that will be submerged below the water line. That’s good science, right?
CLIMATE CONTROL
You now have freshly harvested and fully hydrated flowers with lower stems free from foliage arranged to your taste in a container of your choice. Place them in the location you had in mind and turn down the thermostat a few degrees…. a few more please. Flowers, like food spoil less quickly at lower temperatures so you and your flowers must arrive at a compromise that sees neither of you perish too quickly. You really are in control here and the odd goose bump on you will add days to your flowers … while lessening your utility bill and allowing for a smugness over your more dainty carbon footprint.
LONGEVITY/REWARD
Fresh, sated, clean and cool…these are your flowers. They feel so pampered you can almost see them preen and hear them cooing. To keep them this way I want you to carry them over to the sink every second or third day and remove all from the vase. Clip a new end on each and every stem. An inch will suffice, you then rinse the stems thoroughly under running water to rid them of any debris or slime that may be forming. Wash the vase out with soapy warm water until sparkling, refill with clean water and re arrange the stems. You won’t believe me when I tell you how long these simple steps will add to the life of your flowers so I will resist giving you a number. Rather you can brag to me, much as my mother does on a transatlantic phone call when three weeks into the last of her bouquet and the cobwebs are thick.
Bear in mind that differing flowers age at differing paces so within a mixed bouquet some will pass before others. It is your job to remove these and rearrange those left when you are clipping, rinsing and washing. A value proposition thus spelled out is a labor of love. Once learned and witnessed never forgotten. So as you ponder over the weighty yet never asked question of just how long do you really need flowers to last repeat after me…
FRESH FLOWERS ARE SELDOM OPEN UPON PURCHASE.
FRESH FLOWERS ARE THIRSTY.
FRESH FLOWERS APPRECIATE GOOD HYGIENE.
FRESH FLOWERS LIKE IT COLD.
FRESH FLOWERS CONTINUE TO APPRECIATE GOOD HYGIENE.
“OLD” FRESH FLOWERS NEED TO BE REPLACED @ FLOWERBUD.COM.

This entry was posted on Friday, December 12th, 2008 at 5:00 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.