Roses are fragile. Handle roses with care. Bruises will show, so avoid striking the heads against a hard surface. With a sharp knife (not shears) cut the bottom inch from stems, cutting on a slant to expose a large surface.
Place the stems in deep warm water (about 100° degrees Fahrenheit) to which a good floral preservative has been added. The water should cover at least one-third of the stem. Set the container where it’s cool for six to 12 hours.
Ideally, this quiet spot should have a 35° to 40° degree temperature, but not many homes have such a place, so just put them in as cool a place as you have (not freezing, of course). This slows down evaporation from foliage and flowers while the stems take up the maximum amount of warm water and preservative.
Use clean containers. Unclean ones harbor bacteria and other gunk that clog up flower stems and cause wilting. Washing in hot water and a good detergent produces a clean container.
The floral preservatives developed by chemists in the last few years extend the vase life of roses and other flowers by two or three days. Good ones contain a bactericide (to prevent clogging of water-conducting tissues), sugars (to nourish the bloom and make it last longer), and growth regulators or retardants (to slow down aging).
There is no doubt they delay the fading of colors and the shattering of petals.
Ready To Arrange
When your roses are “conditioned,” crisp, and fresh-looking, you are ready to arrange them.
Remove foliage from the lower part of the stem (leaves submerged in water might start to deteriorate). If there is any unneeded foliage above the water line, remove that too, to cut down the amount of water they use.
Designers frequently cut off thorns with a knife. If you do this, take care not to cut through the bark of the stem. Doing so might sever the water-conducting tissues and prevent the stem from carrying water up to the bud. A few such cuts at various places around the stem might effectively girdle it, stopping the water uptake.
Related: Tips On Watering, Fertilizing, Pruning Roses
Arranging With Foams
To hold the stems in place you might use various devices or substances. Crumpled chicken wire is a favorite. Many other mechanical holders might be used, and as of the last few years the “foam” holders have had rising popularity —Oasis, Hydrafoam, Quickee, Jiffy, Fill Fast Foam, Sno Pak, and others.
These soak up water and then make it available to the flowers. They are wonderfully convenient and let you do things that would be difficult or impractical in any other way.
But observe certain precautions in using them. Generally, roses do not use detergent. Detergents are sometimes added to make the block soak up water easily. Oasis is an example of one that contains a detergent. It works well with many flowers, but its companion Hydrafoam (made by the same company) is detergent-less and seems to work better with roses.
Because this type of block does not soak up quickly when placed in water, you must use an inexpensive injector to force water into it. The same is true of Quickee (which contains detergent) as compared to Jiffy (no detergent and requires an injector) which is made by another company.
No matter which is used, soak the foams first in water containing a floral preservative, before arranging.
Use a container big enough to provide plenty of water. If you are arranging in a foam block, leave room under and around it for a reservoir of water to replace what the flowers draw out. Even though the foams provide some capillarity, they work better if they sit deep enough in water so the cut ends of stems are below the water level.
Provide a way, too, to add water to the container each day. No need to add a preservative, though, if you’ve already had it in the original water you started with.
Keep Stem End In Moisture
If you use floral foam as a holder, be sure the cut end of the stems is in solid contact with the foam. Particularly, don’t pull the stem partway out after you’ve once inserted it, for this leaves a pocket of air at the end. And don’t push stems clear through the foam unless they can come out in the water or a preservative solution at the bottom of the vase.
Reviving A Miter
If a rose wilts, especially if its stem bends over just below the flower, it is not necessarily a sign that the bloom is old. Possibly the bud was cut too tight, and the stem is too immature to hold the head up.
Perhaps at some stage or other, it didn’t get enough water. Remove the wilted flower from the arrangement, and lay the whole stem, flower, and all, flat in a pan of warm water (100° degrees Fahrenheit). When it has recovered, cut the stem tip off again and put the flower back in the arrangement.
Your flowers may be already arranged when you receive them. Often florists purposely do not fill containers with water, to avoid spilling enroute. So inspect the container immediately, and add as much water as it will hold. The florist has probably already put a preservative in the water. All you need to do is maintain water in the container.
44659 by Paul R. Krone