Wednesday, August 13, 2014

7 Things About Flowers You Need To Know

1. Fresh flowers have a shelf life. Somewhere between 3-7 days depending on the type of flower. it can be longer.   It depends on where the flower had to travel from before it got to your home.  Columbia? Holland? Canada? Russia?  Once you cut a flower from the plant it's technically "dead", we are just prolonging how long that dying process takes.  Farm > plane to US > Customs > Shipping via plane or truck (or both) to wholesaler somewhere in US > Retail florist > your house. That's alot of travel.

2. Fresh cut flowers do not like direct sunlight.  Again, you have a product that no longer needs the sun's rays to blossom, placing them in direct sunlight will only bake them.

3. Fresh cut flowers do not like extreme cold (below 40 F) or high heat/humidity (above 70-75 F).  Water freezes at  32 F degrees.  Flowers are made up of mostly water and plant cells.  If you need to store them in a refrigerator,  turn the knob to the warmest setting which will keep things cool without freezing them.  
    I once had a client mention in a conversation after their event that by the end of the afternoon the vase arrangements "looked wilty". The event was outdoors, in August, in the afternoon under a tent with no ventilation.   It was 95 degrees plus humidity making the heat index around 99-100 F.  I  was wilty after about 20 minutes of setting up the outdoor event.

4. The back of the UPS/FedEX truck is NOT temperature controlled.  Our delivery vans are.  Keep that in mind when shopping those "online deals" with "same day delivery" through 800-companies.  Our UPS driver told me on a hot summer day the back of his truck hits above 110F easy.  Those companies suck you in on the deal and don't really care what the end product looks like after traveling in the back of truck all day.  We do.

5. Fresh cut flowers like fresh water.  Clean fresh tap water is just fine.   Changing the water every day to every other day is a great way to keep your flowers looking great.   My pet peeve as a floral designer is whenever I am out somewhere and see a vase of flowers where the water is cloudy.  I know it's been several days at that point and the flowers benefit so much from fresh water.  You wouldn't want to drink out of your juice glass that's been sitting there for 3 days right?  Same for fresh flowers.

6.  There is no such thing as "funeral looking flowers".  We have no idea what you mean when you say that over the phone.  Yes, there are flowers that are used in greater frequency in sympathy design but are also used in other areas of floral design as well.  And everyone has a different interpretation of what "funeral looking" means.  For most people, it just depends on what the predominant flower at a funeral that they attended was, thus cementing  the connection between that particular flower and funerals.    

7. "In season" rarely means "cheap".  It may mean "cheaper than the off season" but what it really means is "available during it's natural growing season".   Before mass flower production, tulips and iris were only available in spring, sunflowers in summer, and chrysanthemums in fall.

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