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Allied Florists of Houston

The Association of Professional Florists

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Recommended Care and Handling Procedures for Roses

1.      DO YOUR HOMEWORK:

·       The #1 rule for great care and handling is to buy quality roses

·       Proper care and handling will optimize the potential of a good rose, not increase the quality of an inferior rose

·       Have your water tested to check pH, alkalinity, TDS, and hardness

2.      PROPER TRANSPORTATION:

·       Make sure your roses are transported to your location with Cold Chain intact whenever possible

·       Cold Chain Management is the process of keeping roses in a controlled cold environment of 33 -37 degrees during the transportation from Miami to your location

·       The single biggest factor in the longevity of roses is consistent, cold temperature

3.      COOLER SETTINGS

·       The proper cooler temperature zone is 33- 37 degrees

·       The humidity level should be above 80%, but not higher than 93%

·       Roses will continue to lose moisture and reduce vase life without the proper environment

·       Ethylene gas is present in coolers.  Do not store fruit, vegetables and other foods in cooler

4.      INSPECTION

·       Inspect your roses upon arrival

·       Invest in a probe- type thermometer to measure the temperature of the roses in the box upon arrival

·       If you have received damaged or unusable roses, notify your supplier

·       Please have the labels on the end of the box handy, these labels have important information pertaining to the farm and airway bill that helps us identify and correct the problem

·       Take notes of what rose varieties work best for you, which varieties last the longest, which varieties open or do not open so you can fine tune your buying

5.     PREPARATION:

·       Once the roses have arrived at the retail shop, prepare the roses for processing

·       Leave inner rose sleeve intact around the roses

·       Strip only the foliage that will fall below the solution level.  Foliage below the solution line is a source for bacteria

·       Use only clean buckets!  Have clean buckets prepared with a cold water hydration solution. Cold water means as cold as your cooler temperature… not cold tap water.  This is accomplished by preparing the solutions the day before and placing in cooler to chill

·       If roses are to be cut underwater, make sure water is changed and fresh. If you can’t keep the water fresh… it is best to cut dry.  If you have an underwater cutter, invest in a biocide solution to counter the bacteria

·       Make sure all solutions are mixed and dosed correctly.  Too little and the solution will be too weak, too much and you can burn the flower

·       When refilling containers use the appropriate solution, not plain water

6.      PROCESSING:

·       After the roses are prepared for processing, cut 3/4 to 1 inch off the bottom of the bunch

·       Place immediately into a cold water hydration solution.  This step can be omitted IF the flowers come to you straight from the farm (i.e. standing orders).  If you are buying open market product where the rotation is suspect, you might wish to continue the hydration process.

7.      HYDRATION

·       After each bunch of roses has been cut, place immediately into a long term hydration solution.  A hydration solution does not have a food source

·       Roses like acidic solutions… around 4 on the pH scale,

·       The amount of time the roses spend in the long term hydration solution depends on what brand of hydration solution is being used

·        Move roses immediately inside the cooler.  You do not need to leave outside in room temperature to “harden off” or “firm up”.  Remember the single biggest factor in the longevity of roses is cold, consistent temperature

·       Quick Dip is extremely helpful in opening up the vascular system (xylem) of the rose and killing bacteria around the stems (stem sanitizer) and in the vascular system (xylem)

8.      FLOWER FOODS

·       After the appropriate hydration time, move the roses to a cold water flower food solution

·       When moving the roses to the food solution, take off the inner sleeve at this time.  This will allow for airflow that will help dry up any moisture on the blooms

·       Place roses in one of these two flower food solutions;

·       A partial load food solution or holding solution is designed for holding roses in the cooler and  gives the roses enough food to survive, but does not encourage the rose to open, develop or mature. this food solution should be used to hold your roses in your cooler

·       A full load flower food solution or vase solution has the maximum amount of food to encourage the roses to open, bloom and mature.   This solution should be used in all vases and soaking of all foam for arrangements

·       A holding solution is for roses coming into your shop and a vase solution is for everything leaving your shop

9.      ROTATION

·       Develop a system like First In, First Out (FIFO) to keep old product from getting older and then being sent out

·       Use color coded sticks to alert staff which roses need to be used first

10.  SANITATION

·        Bleach is not your best cleaning agent

·        Bleach’s shelf life is very short (1 hour to 4 hours) and has no residual effects. It kills bacteria immediately but it does not continue fighting and killing bacteria

·        Use a cleaning detergent like DCD or Professional Cleaner not bleach.  These cleaning detergents are used in hospitals as disinfectants and do a great job of disinfecting floral buckets and containers

·        Clean your cooler at least once every quarter (3 months) with a cleaning detergent

11.  CUSTOMER EDUCATION

·       Educate your staff to educate customers on how to take care of their roses. Inform them as to what to expect from individual varieties

·       Give your customer at least 10 grams of flower food and explain the importance of properly mixing (10 grams makes only 1 quart of solution, 5 grams makes only 1 pint of solution)

            RECOMMENDED LONG TERM HYDRATING SOLUTIONS

·       Hydraflor/100 (Floralife)

·       HydraPlus (Syndicate Sales)

·       Professional #1, also known as RVB (Pokon And Chrysal)

·       HydraQuick (Syndicate Sales)

·       Quick Dip ( Floralife)

RECOMMENDED HOLDING SOLUTIONS

·       AquaHold (Syndicate Sales)

·       Professional (Floralife)

·       Professional #2 (Pokon and Chrysal)

RECOMMENDED VASE SOLUTIONS

·       AquaPlus (Syndicate Sales)

·       Crystal Clear (Floralife)

·       Floralife Original (Floralife)

·       Professional #3 (Pokon and Chrysal)

Article by Bill Schodowski  TRANSFLORA