care & conditioning
TLC for flowers The essential guide to Care and Conditioning
Actually not just bored but scared that so many florists are actively spreading old wives tales about how to make flowers last. Because not only are these
W
theories all total bunkum but it shows a woeful lack of industry professionalism about flower care as well. And that doesn’t just mean florists are probably losing money with excessive wastage but failing to give their customers the full benefit of longer vase life as well. No florist, however quickly
they turn their stock or good they believe their flowers to be, can ignore the right way to care for flowers… unless they want to throw money away! So we decided it was time to have a definitive guide to looking after your flowers and prove why olds wives’ tales are old for a reason!
Why use flower
food? Flower food is a necessity not a luxury. Because as soon as flowers are cut they no longer have access to water, food and growth regulators and are beginning to die. Flower food… both in the shop and in the home... ensures they continue to receive these food and regulators, stimulates water uptake and reduces the pH of the water.
e are getting seriously bored of seeing so many garbage comments about flower care.
All of this generates an
improvement in the development of stems, leaves, petals, size colour and scent. It extends the vase life of flowers by more than 60% compared to water alone and means you can guarantee your customers a vase life of some, seven days and far longer with some varieties.
Why NOT use
home remedies? The press coverage over Valentine’s and Mother’s Day was positively scary with florists feeding the media with old wives tales on how to care for their flowers. Truth is these myths are all so yesterday! They may sound good and make a fun headline but the fact is they do more harm than good. Flower food is the scientifically
proven method for prolonging the shelf life of flowers in the same way that tooth paste is the scientifically proven way for cleaning your teeth, so why do anything differently?!
Saying you must use flower food isn’t marketing hype to sell a product… it genuinely can make a huge difference.
Here we explode some of the most common old wives’ tales...
Chlorine: This is an aggressive product for plant tissues, clothing and human skin. Dosage must be very precise in order not to damage both flowers and leaves. Even if applied properly, its effect is very short- lived, because household chlorine stops working after half a day, while the cut flowers require support during their entire vase life.
Copper coins: Copper only affects the vase water and because the release rate of is very slow it is totally ineffective. In addition UK and US copper coins no longer contain copper but a copper coloured steel alloy so there isn’t any to release!
Soft drinks: The amount of food supplements in soft drinks is too small to support natural leaf and flower development as it would occur on the plant. Any positive effect of this remedy is because of the sugar content and the pH level. While the citric acid keeps the water “somewhat fresh” and the sugar feeds the flowers, this mixture actually encourages bacterial growth, which harms the flowers.
Sugar: Sugars are actually a dream come true for micro-organisms who
Would you like to see your ad here? 86 F&wb Spring 2013
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