Emergency Hydrating

If you happen to run into a
situation where your roses
have become very dehydrated to the
point of being very wilted you
can always rehydrate them
by soaking or complete submersion.

To do this you can fill the sink or a tub
with cold water, cut the rose stem, and
fully submerge the whole rose and
weigh it down to keep it submerged.
Leave it overnight or for at least 3 - 5
hours and you just might
be a little surprised at how well
the rose will look.

Now this will not work on a rose
that is completely dehydrated to the
point of being dry or crisp feeling.
The best thing to do with those
is to preserve them.

This can be done by drying them or
using a glycerin solution to
preserve them.

This method should really be
considered a last ditch effort.
Sometimes the rose has just dried up to
an extent that no matter what you attempt
it has just become to dry to drink water.


Remember roses are a perishable
item, and only have a certain
amount of life to enjoy. One must
also factor in just how fresh a rose is
as to how long they are going to last.

Some florists use the traditional wholesale
method. Occasionally a wholesaler will
ship older product first. Like the
old adage last in first out.

Hopefully you have a great florist who
watches out for you by making sure they
know where to get the freshest of
roses for you.

Rose Care

A Really important aspect on roses is the care
they receive from the beginning.

Roses are first harvested from the plants in
the fields by the growers at the farm.

The Roses are then sorted by size and
grade, cut, and placed in some water with
either a hydrating solution or in a
container with some floral food and
left to hydrate slowly. Then refrigerated
at a temperature of 34-38 degrees Fahrenheit.

The hydrating solution opens the vascular
system in the rose stem and prepares it
by killing bacteria for the uptake of good
flower food which helps feed the flower
since the roots are no longer feeding the rose.

Some old wives tales suggest using aspirin
in your vase water or Sprite to
help the vase life of the rose. If you had
to pick, Sprite would be the
best, but it really doesn't do much.

Aspirins seem to do nothing whatsoever to
further a rose's vase life. However, we have
found through experimentation of various
methods to prolong rose life that a spoon full
of sugar added to tap water in a bud vase
does seem to prolong the life of a rose in the
event that you do not have the actual floral food.

The proper thing though, is to use a flower
food such as Floralife flower
preservative. Which is available in a
liquid or powder form.

It is unimportant which is used as to
the powder or liquid, just so long
as it is mixed properly according to the
label directions.

Generally we always cut the stems and
immediately placed them in containers with
lukewarm water with the proper amount of
flower food already dissolved in the water.