HO-158
Add Hours to Your Flowers
HOME YARD & GARDEN • PURDUE UNIVERSITY COOPERATIVE EXTENSION SERVICE
DEPARTMENT OF HORTICULTURE • WEST LAFAYETTE, IN
Michael N. Dana and B. Rosie Lerner
The addition of cut flowers is an excellent way to bring color into your home any time of the year. Whether the blooms have come from the florist or from your own garden, you will want them to remain attractive for as long as possible.
All flowers have three important characteristics that determine how long they will remain attractive and useful. Certain methods and practices optimize these three characteristics; they are described in this bulletin. Attending to these methods should significantly extend the useful life of your cut flowers.
The first important characteristic of a healthy flower is abundant internal water, or high water content. Cut flowers take up large amounts of water from the vase (see procedures 1 through 5 and 7). The loss of water through the leaves, stem, and flower parts must be kept to a minimum (see procedures 6, 8, and 9).
Secondly, because a flower is a living organism even after it is cut, its need for food to carry on life processes is a critical characteristic (see procedures 1 through 5 and 7). Conversely, some metabolic activities of a cut flower are degenerative, so slowing down those processes will extend flower life (see procedures 8 and 9).
Finally, flowers are sensitive to toxic substances, so it is advisable to avoid both gaseous pollutants in the air and toxic materials in the water (see procedures 5 and 10).

Ten Procedures for Longer Lasting Flowers
1.	Re-cut the flower stems using a sharp knife or shears. Remove at least one-half inch of stem to expose a fresh surface. Stems, especially rose stems, should be re-cut under water. A freshly cut stem absorbs water freely, so it is important to cut at a slant to avoid crushing the stem and to prevent a flat-cut end from resting on the bottom of the vase. The slant cut facilitates stem insertion into florists’ foam. Place all re-cut flowers in water immediately.

2.	Use special methods to treat cut stems in special cases. A milky fluid flows from the
stems of some flowers such as poinsettia, heliotrope, hollyhock, euphorbia, and poppy. This fluid plugs the water conducting tubes of the stem. However, this problem can be avoided by placing about one-half inch of the stem in boiling water for 30 seconds, or by charring the end of the stem in a flame (Figure 1). Protect the flower tops from the heat by wrapping them with paper while you char or immerse the stems.
Figure 1. Char the ends of stems which exude milky fluid, or immerse stems in boiling water.
3. Remove excess foliage. Excess foliage exposed to the air increases water loss. Submerged leaves decay and hasten the decline of cut flowers by encouraging microbial growth (Figure 2).
Figure 2. Remove excess foliage to keep water loss to a minimum and to keep the vase water cleaner longer.