ON PACKING FLOWERS.

Auckland Star, Volume LXI, Issue 27, 1 February 1930, Page 6 (Supplement)

ON PACKING FLOWERS.

It may be worth while recalling a few remarks made by Mr. George Monro on how to pack flowers for dispatching to a distance. Mr. Monro is the prince of market salesmen, and head of the largest business in Covent Garden, and probably in the world, and he was addressing an audience composed of keen market growers. But his advice is equally valuable to the amateur who •wishes to send a few flowers to a friend or to a show. One point he lays stress upon was that the bloom should be at its best, not when picked, nor when packed, but when it reaches the person for whom it is intended. This means that it should be picked perhaps twentyfour or thirty-six hours before it is at its best. Then, when picked it should be kept cool and have air all round it. Plants and blooms suffer from a confined atmosphere in the same way as do human beings.' Another point is that practically every 'flower of every kind should stand in water before being sent on a journey. This not only fills the right through, but-gives the flower something to sustain it, until it receives water again. After this they should be perfectly drained before packing, otherwise heat is set up through fermentation, and the surplus moisture gets into the-blooms. Finally the packing should be so done that the blooms will riot shift about on the journey.