The Cut Flower Podcast

Cutting and Conditioning Flowers with Roz

• Roz Chandler • Season 1 • Episode 132

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Text Agony Aunt Roz with your Cutflower Questions.

In this episode, we delve into the art of cutting and conditioning flowers to maximize their beauty and longevity. Discover why timing is crucial, with early morning and late evening being the best times to cut flowers when their stems are fully hydrated. Learn about the importance of using clean tools and buckets, and the specific needs of different flowers like roses, tulips, and delphiniums. Join us as we explore practical tips and techniques to ensure your blooms stay vibrant and fresh. Tune in for expert advice and elevate your floral arrangements today!

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Roz (00:00)
Hello and today we're going to be looking at cutting and conditioning cut flowers. It's a question I get asked an awful lot and there's lots of different ways and lots of different cut flowers so let's just dive in. First of all some just some general principles. Cutting flowers really important to get the time of day right. Collect cut flowers in the morning when their stems are fully turgid, i.e. they're filled with water.

Avoid picking in very hot and sunny conditions. They'll just be water stressed. Wait until the evening where they've had a chance to recover. So your first choice is first thing in the morning and your second choice is later in the evening. Place the stems straight into a bucket of water as soon as cutting. We cut into buckets. So the bucket has to be immaculately clean. So give it a good clean first, fill it half full with water and then cut straight into the bucket.

For tools use a sharp clean scissors or secateurs to make a clean cut without crushing the stem. You'll start to get a favorite pair of secateurs, I've got a favorite one which I can never find when I need them but you'll always have a favorite tool. Cut the stems of 45 degrees angles and then that will increase the surface area for the water uptake. Cut stems slightly longer than you're needed to allow you to trim them back for when you want to use them.

and quite often a question is asked about the stage of development. Most flowers are best picked when they're starting to show colour. Flowers in full bloom will fade very quickly. roses, for instance, in full bloom will drop their petals much quicker. But there is a bit of a word of caution here. They don't want be too tight, so flowers like roses or dahlias won't carry on developing and opening if they're really, really tight. So you want to see some colour.

You want to see them coming out. Dahlia's have to be fully out and roses need to be going from bud stage into flower stage. You need to see some color on it. It can't be completely green. For blooms in a spike arrangement such as fox gloves, gladiolus, delphiniums, cut when the lowest flowers have just opened because that's where it's really interesting. So that's where it starts to flower and it goes up the stem. Wait until most of the flowers are open, but not all of them when cutting delphinium spikes.

So again, you want to look to see maybe half on a delphinium spike and then you need to cut it. Conditioning prepares cut flowers to prolong their longevity. People who ask us, do you put anything into the buckets or any chemicals? And the answer to that is no. We strip all the leaves as we're cutting, you know, half to two thirds of each stem. So we don't want any leaves below the water line. Any foliage below the water level needs to be removed because it'll put bacteria into the water.

Use a sharp knife or secateurs to recut the stems when you're going to use them. Avoid crushing them as it reduces their ability to take up the water. Make a clean angle cut again without leaving jagged edges. Place prepared stems in a bucket of clean water and leave in a cool place for at least three hours, ideally overnight. This allows the flowers to drink before being brought into a warm environment.

For plants with soft stems and heavy flower heads prone to bending such as tulips, we all know those tulips bend over, wrap a bunch in newspaper and stand them deeply in water for again at least two hours but ideally overnight. So let's go into some special requirements, every flower has a special requirement. So a woody stem, for woody stemmed cuttings like roses make an additional vertical cut through the base of the stem to about five centimeters or two inches.

Avoid hammering the bottom of woody stems as it may increase bacterial infection rates. What you're trying to do is just increase the surface area. So cut a little out of the stem, cutting it at 45 degrees will really help. Drooping stems. Stems prone to drooping such as poppies, euphorbia, echinacea and helibors can be sealed by dipping the bottom, the bottom 2.5cm of the stems into hot water. Just off the boil will be perfect.

for 20 to 30 seconds. This is called searing. Do wear gloves when handling euphorbia to protect your skin. It's got a really horrid milky sap which can cause irritation. Try to remove drooping roses with the hot water treatment after recutting the stems. So roses are really one of those things that love to be seared. We sear roses, we sear echinacea, we definitely sear poppies.

and helibors they're the sort of main ones that you would sear to stop them drooping. Hollow stems so plants with hollow stems such as delphiniums and lupins you need to fill the stem with water it's got a hollow it's got a long way for that water update to go. Plug it with cotton wool and tie a rubber band around the base to keep the plug in place and prevent splitting so you basically turn it upside down fill it with water try and get water all the way to the top and then plug it and then put it back under water.

Roses, we've talked about roses, cut stems when flowers are in the bud stage but beginning to open, condition them in warm to hot water, remove the thorns and the lower leaves. Lilies, cut when the buds show colour but before the blooms are fully open, conditioning use cold water, remove any pollen laden stamens to avoid the staining. You can get lilies obviously now that don't have the stamens and pollen but actually you need to remove any if they're there.

Tulips cut when the bulbs are still closed but have color condition in cold water tulips are one of those flowers that continue to grow after they've been cut so leave extra length daffodils and narcissi cut when the bulbs are fully colored but not open use cold water condition these separately for a few hours before combining with other flowers as narcissi exude a sap that can affect other flowers

Chrysanthemums cut when the flowers are fully open, placed in warm water and removed any damaged petals. Sunflowers cut when the petals are beginning to open and use lukewarm water, remove excess leaves and provide support as needed. dear, hydrangeas is one that people ask me a lot over. The thing is, cut when they're fully open, submerge the entire head in water for a few minutes to hydrate.

and then place in lukewarm water. I use a bath and wear it down with food cans to make sure I've submerged the whole head because the water is absorbed from the head. Carnations, cut when the flowers are half open, use lukewarm water. Peonies another one, cut when the buds are soft and show colour. We call this the marshmallow stage. So if you grab it between two fingers and give it a bit of a squeeze, if it's the marshmallow stage,

is ready to be picked. Peonies can be conditioned in a refrigerator for a longer vase life. Hellebores. Now again with hellebores the thing is about when you cut it you need them to be going to seed to get the maximum vase life. ⁓ They need to be mature. If they're not mature they will wilt. People often say my hellebores are wilting and it's really because they're too early to pick. The showy petals are actually sepals

that protect the flower part of the centre. Once fertilised the stamens and the petals shed and the seed pod forms at the centre of the sepals. So that's why you need it to be mature. Use hellebores with developed seed pods as the sepals become stiff and waxy helping them resisting the wilting. Mature hellebores can hold up out of water for a day or more making them great for buttonholes and hair flowers which is always quite, people always say the hellebores are wilting but honestly it's when you pick them.

So some special tips, know, once you've got it in the vase or the arrangement, always use clean vases, wash them thoroughly with a bottle brush. If you're using cut flower food, put it in. This feeds the flowers and helps keep the water clean. We don't tend to find the need for it. You can add a little bit of sugar. Check the water level every couple of days and top up as necessary. Change the water and recut the base of the stems every two to four days.

Remove any dead or dying flowers to keep the arrangement looking fresh for longer and obviously not getting any bacteria into the water. You can make a homemade plant food and you can make it really, really effectively by making, if you make one litre of it, you need one litre of water, one tablespoon of vinegar and one teaspoon of sugar. Stir it really well and that will really help. So some problems I see on some of the groups that we're managing, you know, the best bunch,

which is our cut flower membership group. We are asked lots of questions. So the that arise with cutting and conditioning. Drooping stems is likely due to a lack of water or poor water uptake. Top up the water regularly, recut the stems and try treating the cut end with hot water. So try searing it, giving it a go if it's drooping. Go back to basics and go back to what you did in the beginning.

Flowers ageing prematurely. Have you put them in a really hot spot? They need to be in a cool spot and the water needs to be changed regularly. You can try feeding the flowers, like I say, with the homemade food and you need to prevent bacteria build up by changing the water very, very frequently. The buds are not opening. This might be because you picked it too early, especially with roses.

You need to have the loose bud stage. You need to know what colour that rose is going to be and it needs to be coming out. Quite often you might get murky or smelly water. You just need to change it more regularly and again perhaps give your vase another clean before putting the flowers back in. And one that I see quite common is small black beetles. You're obviously going to bring in some insects if you're growing and cutting your own blooms but before bringing flowers into the house

Place the bucket in a dark shed or garage with the door or window open. It's amazing and they'll fly out. The pollen beetles will be drawn to the light, leaving your flowers insect free. So by following these cutting and conditioning guidelines, you will be able to maximise the longevity and beauty of your cut flowers. Each flower has specific needs and we've gone through those. Remember that hollow stems have a specific need, roses have a specific need.

So we know with searing and we see it echinacea as well. Hydrangeas have a specific need. So they're really the main ones. Hydrangeas, roses and hollow stems are the ones that really in the main need to be treated differently. And then the other thing really is when you cut it. So that's the very important thing. So they do have very specific needs, but you can enjoy vibrant colours and pleasant fragrances for much longer.

if you just follow these easy tips. And we'd love you to join us over at the Best Bunch membership. It's been a cut flower membership that's been going for nearly four years now. Over 250 members. have,  as part of that, have monthly guest speakers. We have weekly Q and A lives. We have a Facebook community where everybody asks their questions. We have a discount scheme of many, many suppliers. It's a great...

membership so we will put the link in the show notes and we look forward to welcoming you to our Cut Flower membership. Many thanks!