News & Updates:

Light, rather than heat, seems to cause blooms to open quickly. Heat is the greater factor in wilting; roses keep best under cool, dark conditions. As soon as each flower is cut its stem should be recut under water and placed in a separate container of water up to within two or three inches of the calyx. The petals should be kept dry, especially in flowers cut more than a day before a show.

When possible the temperature of the atmosphere and water should be about 50 degrees Fahrenheit but never near freezing point (32 degrees Fahrenheit). A Coolgardie safe is useful; refrigerators must be watched carefully lest they become too cold. Keeping flowers at too low a temperature causes them to look stale and slightly crinkled. Never try to keep air cool by draughts-it is a sure way to cause wilting of the blooms.

A few exhibitors and many commercial growers are now keeping rose blooms for up to three weeks, sealed in alkathene (or polythene) bags and without water, in refrigerators. The temperature is kept just above freezing point and the blooms do not open or lose colour under these conditions.

The addition of sugar, acetic acid, and other substances to water has been advocated to help in keeping either form or colour in roses. I am quite certain they are all useless.

Many exhibitors remove all the foliage from specimen blooms, claiming that this increases their lasting properties. There does not seem to be much evidence to support this contention, and blooms are apt to look artificial. Never remove the uppermost leaf unless it is badly damaged, even if you see fit to remove all the others. Of course, the lower leaves of the stem of any rose must always be removed, along with the thorns, irrespective of the intended use of the bloom. The immersing of stems deep in water helps a little in keeping blooms fresh, probably only by preventing transpiration of water from the stem and leaves that are covered.

Next to water, darkness is the most important factor in keeping roses. In the garden, flowers will open very little between midday and sunrise, but in the next hour or two development is very rapid. Indoors, roses should be retarded by being kept in a dark or dull room; if it is cool it will be better still. The hessian sides of a Coolgardie safe will make it a fairly well-darkened small "room", even if the safe is kept in a room almost normally lit.

Some exhibitors prefer to work late into the night preceding a show; others choose to rise early on show morning. There is a lot of work to be done if one aspires to staging many blooms or arrangements, and, with either choice, as little as possible must be left for the few hours at the hall preceding the time for staging of the blooms. Wiring of the flowers is the most important work that can be done. Spare foliage must be gathered, and brush and wire collected and packed. Sometimes exhibitors are asked to provide their own containers, even for specimen blooms.