Care Of Cut Flowers

Auckland Star, Volume LXVIII, Issue 270, 13 November 1937, Page 9 (Supplement)

Care Of Cut Flowers

FDWERS should be eut early in the morning before the sun has shone

on them. If they are placed in vases forthwith, the blossoms will not show any distress at all. Even when fresh-cut fluiren are not required until the latter part of the day, it is advisable to cut them and place them in the vases, and put them away in a cellar or cool, dark room until required. They will be much fresher «o treated than if cut direct from the plant and transferred to the dwelling rooms in the afternoon. The early morning is certainly the best part of the day for replacing old and arranging fresh flowers in vases.

Hard-wooded plant* which possess many fibroue roots filling the ball of soil with a network of them, are often wrongly treated when placed in dwelling rooms. Ga* is, of course, injurious to plants and flowers, but the chief fault

in treatment can often be traced to wrong watering. Either too much or not enough water ia given. When too much is given, you usually find that the saucers have been kept constantly filled with it; when not enough, the plants have most likely suffered through being placed in a sunny window, where the soil in the pots dries quickly. When once the soil and roots get very dry, there is only one sure way of getting them sufficiently wet again; that is, immersion for twelve hours in a vessel of water. From time to time water should be given to flowers in vases, which should be kept scrupulously clean. Water, if left at the bottom of a vase for a long time, soon becomes offensive. Plants in pots, should not be watered while they are in vases. Lift the pots out, water them in the sink in the scullery, and when they have drained sufficiently, replace them in the vases.