Proper Flower Care and Preparation Guide of Bulk flowers by Scent & Violet
It is crucial to follow our Care and Preparation guide to ensure the best look of flowers for your special event or fundraiser.
Proper Flower Care and Preparation Guide of Bulk flowers
It is crucial to follow our Care and Preparation guide to ensure the best look of flowers for your special event or fundraiser.
Receiving Bulk Flowers
Receiving bulk flowers is completely different than picking up a bunch at your local florist. Your flowers arrive packed for travel with all the extra leaves/foliage, thorns, guard petals and completely dehydrated. They require proper cleaning and hydration to look picture ready (Think of this: You have just spend 8 hours traveling in plane or a car, you haven’t had a proper meal or a shower, and you were stuck in a middle seat – how will you look and feel? Flowers are not different. Give them time to recover from lengthy flight.)
They will look sleepy, thirsty and very often disheveled. This is normal. Follow the steps bellow and watch their transformation into through beauties. You need to provide care and conditioning to your flowers same as the florist would.
General Flower Care
Open your box(es) and inspect your flowers. Cut plastic straps tying flowers to the box.
Fill clean buckets and plastic containers with at least 7” of cold tap water. Mix flower food. Make sure to follow proper dissolving procedures on your flower food packets.
Put on gardening or rubber gloves (we recommend gardening gloves because rose thorns will pierce through rubber and damage your hands)
Remove any foliage that falls before the waterline. Please make sure not to damage or break the stem. (Removing foliage prevents growth of mold and bacteria which can cause premature wilting and dying of flowers)
Cut flower stems (at least one inch from the bottom of the stem) with sharp scissors or garden shears (recommended). You do not need to cut flowers under water!
Place cut stems immediately into previously prepared buckets
Keep flowers in a cool dark location away from direct sunlight, draft or excessive heat/cold. Do not place flowers directly under the vent.
Allow flowers 8-12 hours to properly hydrate, before you start preparing your arrangements.
If you plan to keep flowers longer, recut every 24 hours and change water every 48 hours.
Make sure your flowers have sufficient water. The flowers will drink large amount of water during hydration period.
Keep flowers away from fruits. Fruits release ethylene gas that causes flowers to wilt.
Please do not keep your flowers in fridge/cooler unless you have a proper floral cooler.
Alstroemeria:
Follow general flower care steps
Carnations:
Follow general flower care steps but handle very carefully. Carnations stems are fragile and break easily.
Hydrangea:
Do not follow general flower care steps. Follow these instead.
Fill a plastic (or bath) tub with cold tap water.
Remove carefully plastic cover from hydrangea head.
Submerge hydrangea head into tub (place gently upside down in water. Make sure they are not crowded)
Leave heads submerged for 15-20 minutes only (if you leave your hydrangeas longer than 20 minutes they will turn brown)
Pull hydrangeas out of tub, and gently shake off excess water (Shake very gently to prevent breaking of the heads/blooms)
Fill clean buckets and plastic containers with at least 7” (inches) of cold tap water. Mix in flower food, if you have any (recommended) Make sure to follow proper dissolving procedures on your flower food packets.
Cut off 1.5”-2” from the bottom of the stem (We recommend using sharp garden sheers for hydrangea stems are woody and not easy to cut)
Place cut stems immediately into previously prepared buckets
Hydrate (leave in bucket) overnight (or at least 8 hours)
Calla Lilies
Do not follow general flower care steps. Follow these instead.
Fill narrow container (we recommend tall cylinder vases) with 3” of cold tap water. Do not add any flower food.
Do not remove plastic protection from calla lilies.
Cut 1” from the bottom of the stem (we recommend using sharp scissors)
Place calla lilies in narrow container. Goal is to keep calla lilies as upright as possible, because they tend to bend once given a chance
Hydrate callas for 4-8 hours (please keep in mind that calla lily blooms will not open/bloom further)
Calla lily sap will stain clothes. If you are using calla lilies in a bouquet you need to seal the end of stems (clear nail polish can be applied to seal the ends)
Calla lily stems can curl and split at the bottom. Simply recut the stems to remove split ends.
Sunflowers
Follow general flower care steps. Please note that sunflowers need to be hydrated minimum of 12 hours and possible even up to 24 hours in order to open.
Since sunflowers follow the sun they never have a perfectly straight stem. Take that into account when arranging your bulk flowers.
Baby’s Breath
Follow general flower care steps
Roses
Always wear protective gloves when handling roses. Roses come in packs of 25.
Remove plastic sleeve from roses. Remove rubber band. Leave the cardboard wrap on during hydration.
Fill clean buckets and plastic containers with at least 7” of cold tap water. Mix flower food. Make sure to follow proper dissolving procedures on your flower food packets.
Remove any foliage that falls before the waterline. Please make sure not to damage or break the stem. (Removing foliage prevents growth of mold and bacteria which can cause premature wilting and dying of flowers)
Cut flower stems (at least 1 inch from the bottom of the stem) with sharp scissors or garden shears (recommended). You do not need to cut flowers under water
Place cut stems immediately into previously prepared buckets
You can remove cardboard wrap after roses have hydrated at least 4 hours (Note: Roses still need 8-12 hours to properly hydrate, and sometimes 2-3 days to fully open)
Roses come shipped with guard petals (protecting the rose from premature opening). Once you open your rose packaging you need to remove guard petals from every rose. Guard petals are often different color from the rest of the roses, they can be hard and brownish. It is not unusual to remove 3-6 rose petals from a single rose. (Pro tip: Collect these petals and use them for decoration)
Delphinium / larkspur
Please note that it is perfectly normal for these two flowers to shed some of their blooms. Follow general flower care steps and have them properly hydrated before inserting them into arrangements.
If you have any questions please email us at hello@scentandviolet.com