Cut-Flower Care: How to Make Fresh Flowers from Your Garden Last Indoors - Brooklyn Botanic Garden (2024)

It's late spring, early summer. Your garden is in peak bloom, filled withvibrantly colored flowers. And now you've picked up an article urging you tocut those beautiful blossoms. "No, never!" you say. But this is precisely thetime to create a stunning bouquet from the fruits of your labor, so you canenjoy the sights and smells of the garden inside your home as well as outsideit.

As soon as the plants in my small border garden begin flowering, I begincutting. I know that it only takes one gusty wind or heavy summer rain todestroy my beloved blooms. Cutting guarantees that at least some of my flowerswill be spared this cruel fate.

There is another reason I cut: It encourages more flowering on my plantsthroughout the summer months and even into early fall. Periodic cuttingperforms the same function as deadheading—promoting more blooms bydelaying the onset of fruit.

Of course, the main reason I cut is for the tremendous satisfaction I getseeing my garden-grown flowers sitting pretty in a vase on the kitchen table.The number of flowers needed depends on the size of the vase used. In order toavoid cutting too many, I add foliage to the arrangement. I use a branch or twofrom a tree or shrub, or some groundcover with assorted grasses. Thesematerials help me create bouquets of various sizes and shapes.

I make sure to pick and condition my flowers properly, so they'll have anextended vase life. There are many tricks in the cut-flower trade for creatinglong-lasting displays. Following are some of the best of them.

When to Cut

Early morning is the ideal time to cut fresh flowers. The flowers have hadthe benefit of cool night air and morning dew. Their stems are filled withwater and carbohydrates and so are firm to the touch. As the day warms up,flowers gradually dehydrate. Midday is the least auspicious time to cut, astranspiration rates are at a peak and plants are rapidly losing moisturethrough their leaves. Flowers become limp; their necks become bent. If cut,they will not recuperate well and their vase life will probably be short.

When harvesting, have a bucket of water on hand to put the flowers in. Don'tdillydally; place the cut flowers in the bucket immediately. I like to use aplastic pail rather than a metal one because metal can affect the pH balance ofthe water.

Different types of flowers must be harvested at appropriate stages in theirdevelopment. Flowers with multiple buds on each stem should have at least onebud showing color and one bud starting to open before being cut. This is truefor spike flowers (salvias, agastaches, delphiniums, Eremurus, gladioli,snapdragons, stocks, larkspurs, and the like) as well as cluster flowers(agapanthus, Alstroemeria, baby's breath, Clarkia, lilacs, phlox,Queen Anne's lace, verbenas, yarrow, and silenes, for example). If gathered tooearly—while they're still tightly budded—these flowers will not openin a vase of water.

By contrast, flowers that grow on individual stems (such as asters,calendulas, chrysanthemums, dahlias, Datura, gerbera daisies, marigolds,sunflowers, Tithonia, and zinnias) should be cut when fully open.

When selecting foliage, look for firm leaves and stems with strongcoloration.

Cutting Tools and Techniques

Always use clean, sharp utensils when cutting flowers. Knives, clippers, orshears can be employed. Never use ordinary household scissors. The gaugeon scissors is set for paper or fabric, not for flower stems, which arebulkier. Using scissors will crush their vascular systems and prevent properwater uptake.

Flower and foliage stems that have been left out of water, even for a shortperiod of time, seal up and inhibit the absorption of water. Air bubblessometimes enter the stem and prevent a steady flow of water. In order toprevent this from happening, some people cut their flowers under water beforetransferring from bucket to vase. However, I have found this to be awkward.Custom-cutting the flower stem in open air and immediately placing it in thevase of water is usually fine.

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Cut all flowers and foliage about one inch from the bottom of a main stem.Make the slice at an angle of about 45 degrees. Cutting at an angle provides alarger exposed area for the uptake of water. It also enables the stem to standon a point, allowing water to be in contact with the cut surface. Remove allthe lower foliage that would be submerged in water. This will retard bacterialgrowth, which shortens the vase life of flowers and makes the water smellfoul.

Water Temperature

Professional florists and commercial growers always use lukewarm water fortheir cut flowers. The water temperature should be 100°F to 110°F.(An exception is when you are using bulb flowers, such as hyacinths and tulips,which need cold water.) Warm water molecules move faster than cold watermolecules and so can be absorbed by flowers with greater ease. The objective isto get water and nutrients as quickly as possible to the head of theflower.

Preservatives

Using a preservative definitely increases the longevity of cut flowers. Tosurvive, flowers need three ingredients: carbohydrates, biocides, andacidifiers. Carbohydrates are necessary for cell metabolism; biocides combatbacteria and are necessary for maintaining plant health; acidifiers adjust thepH of water to facilitate and increase water uptake.

Under normal circ*mstances, flowers get what they need from the plant. Whensevered from the plant, however, flowers are deprived of these essentialsubstances. But they are present in ready-made commercial preservatives, likeFloral Life. Such solutions contain sugar for nutrition, bleach to keep thewater clear of bacteria, and citric acid to gently acidify the water. Whenusing commercial brands, be sure to follow recommended measurements fordifferent container sizes.

One common suggestion is to place an aspirin in the water to keep flowersfresh. It is likely that aspirin's effectiveness is simply the result of thedrug's carbohydrate content. Another well-known suggestion is to drop a pennyinto the water. Apparently, the copper in the penny works like an acidifier,decreasing the pH of the water. Unfortunately, solid copper pennies are nolonger being minted.

Preparing the Stems

Garden flowers require some additional preparation after cutting. The typeof preparation depends on the type of flower stem: hearty, hollow, soft, woody,or milky.

Hearty Stems

Flowers with hearty (or solid) stems, such as co*ckscomb, Clarkia,marigolds, statice, and transvaal daisies, need only the diagonal cut to absorbmaximum water. They should be left to drink in lukewarm water with preservativefor a minimum of one hour before arranging.

Hollow Stems

The stems of hollow-stemmed flowers, such as amaryllis, bells-of-Ireland,dahlias, delphiniums, and hollyhocks, need to be filled with water. Simply turnthe flower upside down and pour water into the open cavity of the stalk. Tokeep the liquid in, you can plug the stem with a small piece of cotton and thenplace it in the vase. Alternatively, place your thumb over the opening at thebottom of the stem and then put it in the water. The water trapped inside willkeep the stem strong and straight. I have noticed that when I fill the hollowstems in this way, the heads of my dahlias stand upright and the small buds onthe tip my larkspur actually open!

Soft Stems

Bulb flowers such as hyacinths, iris, and tulips have soft stems and shouldbe cut where the green on the stem starts—just above the white bulb. Placethe flowers in cold water. Since most bulbs bloom when the air and ground arestill at low temperatures, they do better in a vase of cold water.

Woody Stems

For woody plants such as lilac, dogwood, mock orange, pear, and heather, besure to split the stems at the ends rather than smash them. This will keepvascular tissues intact and create more surface area to absorb water.

Milky Stems

Flowers such as euphorbia, lobelia, poinsettia, and snow-on-the-mountainsecrete latex sap that oozes into the water and clogs the vascular system ofother flowers in the container, preventing them from absorbing water. For thisreason, the ends of the stems need to be seared before the flowers are placedin the arrangement. There are two ways to accomplish this: Either dip the cutend of the flower in boiling water for 30 seconds or apply a flame from a matchor candle to the precut flower stem for about 30 seconds.

Do not use these flowers with a pin holder, because each time the flowersare cut they need to be seared again. Searing is not effective in halting theseepage of secretion from daffodils. Therefore daffodils should not be mixedwith other flowers if you want a long-lasting arrangement.

Designing the Arrangement

Now that the flowers you have taken from your garden are conditioned, it'stime to create an arrangement. Here are three design tips used byprofessionals:

1. The height of the flowers should be in proportion to the size of thecontainer—that is, the height of the flowers should not exceed one and ahalf times the height of the container.
2. The arrangement should appear uniform all around. Visualize a circledivided into three equal sectors, and then select similar flowers for each ofthe sectors.
3. Support the flowers to keep them in place. One simple approach, whichavoids the use of props, is to use the flower stems themselves for support. Byplacing each flower into the container at an angle, you can form a grid or webthat will hold the design together. The only flower that should be insertedstraight up in the container is the center flower. This flower cannot standwithout the support of the other flowers and should be placed in the containeronly when the grid has taken shape.

Care of Cut Flowers in an Arrangement

Here are some general rules that will help you make your cut-flowerarrangements last:

• Don't overcrowd the flowers in the container.
• Check the water level in the vase and replenish it frequently.
• Flowers that go limp are not drinking well and need to be recut.
• Always discard wilted blooms.
• Keep flowers away from drafts, direct sunlight, and ripening fruits, whichemit ethylene gas—a substance that causes buds to remain closed, petals tohave poor color, and flowers to have a shortened vase life.