Rose buds rotting without opening

Primrose

Any professional florists out there with tips for preserving the life of rose buds in bunches of flowers?
I recently had two bouquets/bunches of commercially sold rosebuds in tight buds which have rotted in the bud without ever opening. So disappointing !

suki1964

did you condition them as soon as you received them ?

VfM4meplse

suki1964 wrote: »

did you condition them as soon as you received them ?

What does this actually mean?

suki1964

VfM4meplse wrote: »

What does this actually mean?

Oops sorry

It means snipping the stems at a 45 degree angle close to the bottom and plunging straight into a clean vase of warm water with cut flower food

Make sure no leaves are in the water

It has to be done really quickly.

Also a warm room is the death of cut flowers. They need to be kept in a coolish spot

When mum had the florist, when the delivery came in it was all hand to get the delivery conditioned ASAP. Flowers to the shop had at least a 3 week life ( one week shop, 2 weeks home)

Supermarket flowers are not cared for so well

Primrose

Ididsteip offny leaves below water level, it the stalks at an angle and added the sachet of liquid. However as used cold tap water instead of warm water. Does that make a difference?
I may have been unlucky of course in that the flowers had been in the florists or supermarket too long,not leaving much life left for in the house.

As a matter of interest what do you recommend for the longest lasting flowers in a bouquet? I love receiving or giving rose buds they're often disappointing in performance.

Grouchy

My tuppence worth. If you buy roses and do nothing but stick them in water in a kind environemnt they should be ok. Other 'treatments' may prolong life, there is much debate about crushing the ends of the stems etc etc.

The rotting problem has happened to me occasionally. I asked a florist friend about this and they said that the most likely cause is that they had been exposed to extreme cold en route from being picked to your vase. That was his opinion. So many other possibilities though, diseased stock? Some other shock? Infestation?

As an experienced gardener, I think perhaps the exposure to cold is a likely cause. Many of our bought flowers are flown from places far and wide (roses often flown from West Africa these days I think).

I like cut flowers in the house but tend to not buy them anymore as flowering can be so unreliable (except from carnations). Either home grown or I buy a flowering potted plant through the winter, more reliable and long-lasting.

suki1964

Primrose wrote: »

Ididsteip offny leaves below water level, it the stalks at an angle and added the sachet of liquid. However as used cold tap water instead of warm water. Does that make a difference?
I may have been unlucky of course in that the flowers had been in the florists or supermarket too long,not leaving much life left for in the house.

As a matter of interest what do you recommend for the longest lasting flowers in a bouquet? I love receiving or giving rose buds they're often disappointing in performance.

Any reputable florist wouldn't have made up a house arrangement with old stock. Week old flowers would only every have gone into funeral flowers

I'm not a florist or really a gardner so my knowledge of names limited
( I just done the donkey work when required in the shop)

Best thing I would suggest is going to a florist and looking at what they have made up either in the boxed vases or the bouquets. You will notice there is only one or two 'statement' flowers, that's the roses or the Gerbera, etc All the others are the ones that last forever, the multi stemmed carnations etc

Grouchy has a very valid point, flowers don't like variations of temp, hence our florist was always cold and we had very few on show in the warmer shop, most kept in the back and we always advised not displaying in front of Windows or near radiators or blazing fires

Also another thing I was taught, never allow water to drop on the flower head, it causes rot

Money_maker

They are kept cool at the florists to prevent the flowers opening too quickly. Chrysanths seem to be the longest lasting flowers, they can go for weeks. Gerberas and other flowers prone to going 'floppy' are best bought from a florist as they would probably be wired to keep the heads up.

[Deleted User]

I have some cut flowers in my conservatory that my niece gave me in the last week of January. Admittedly I only have the carnations left as the roses sadly have died, but I am still pleased with the pink carnations.

My conservatory had a CH radiator in to keep the chill off but it never gets too warm out there. It backs on to my kitchen, so from my sink the flowers are in view.

DD bought me a pot plant of indoor roses in mid February which are out there at the moment, and I suppose about two thirds of the roses have opened up OK,but there are probably about 5-6 buds that just won't open for some reason Shame really as its a pretty plant, no idea how the get the rest of them to open up

VfM4meplse

suki1964 wrote: »

Any reputable florist wouldn't have made up a house arrangement with old stock. Week old flowers would only every have gone into funeral flowers

I've always thought funeral wreaths are far too expensive for something left to rot after the funeral. Even more so now I know that it's old flowers that are used.