Why Sugar Water As A Flower Preserver Will Fail You
The Most Common Advice On The Internet
Search for help with a cut flower preserver and the top results will always involve sugar as flower preserver. So then why do flowers still die so quickly?
Flowers Often Travel A Long Distance To Get To Your Table
And May Have Had A Rough Journey
The commercial flower industry has become a global business with flowers grown to endure travel, not give you value for your money.
Most people are disappointed with flower performance because most of a flower’s life is wasted in transit. That makes choosing a flower preserver after you get your flowers home, even more important today than it was 20 years ago.
Over the last 30 years, flowers have increasingly been produced outside the USA.
While the major consumers of fresh cut flowers are North America, Japan and EU, the flowers are no longer being grown locally.
To achieve global production and delivery, the shipments are usually handled by air transport to get product delivered as quickly as possible. We know as humans how stressful air travel can be.
And it’s not much different for cut flowers. Air travel is just plain stressful.
Cooler Temps Keep Flowers Alive Longer
But What Happens When Flowers Reach The "real World"?
One of the most common techniques to ensure flowers handle transit and stay fresh longer is to make sure the flowers stay cool.
In fact, many florists (and even grocery stores) will keep the flowers in the coolers overnight to ensure the flowers stay fresh longer.
The result is flowers that are reaching the end of their life span but look “fresh” in the store but fade quickly (even if you treat them with sugar water as a flower preserver or even if you use the free commercial cut flower food that is often included with your purchase).
Flower Boosters vs Free Packet
From left to right: Flower Boosters vs Free Packet
Each version got the same purified spring water, the ends were cut on the stems and they were placed in a cool room at 75 degrees.
So, why did the free packet of flower food go so wrong as a flower preserver? These formulas are based on providing sugar water as a flower preserver, just like the internet advices. And sucrose (more commonly known as table sugar) is the main ingredient of most commercial cut flower solutions.
Here is where the internet can send you down a dark ally trying to get your clicks: the sugar water concentration can vary from 2 to 20%, depending on flower they are targeting.
So that internet advice to add sugar as a cut flower preserver can be downright wrong. But they don’t care. They got your click. But some flowers just can’t tolerate the too high (or too low) of a solution they are recommending.
Starch and sugar are stored in the stems, leaves and petals and provide much of the food needed for cut-flower opening and maintenance of fresh blooms.
And to make it more complicated, the experience of extreme transit, changes in air pressure and being shocked from low temperatures to “room temperature” (and often back and forth a few times), will stress the flowers and limit their ability to thrive no matter what you do.
That’s why skipping on extra flower preserver food is cheating your flowers out of a longer life.
Water Quality
Cutting Corners Will Cut The Life Span Of Flowers
Everyone is watching their money nowadays.
So if a retailer wants to save money they are likely to use tap water instead of filtered water to treat their cut flowers.
That will also decrease the available lifespan of the cut flowers you purchase.
Both hard and soft water will make your flowers fail faster.
Water is critical because it delivers everything your flowers need to stay fresh. When your flowers can’t take in water, they quickly fade away.
The Secret To overcoming Travel Shock
And getting the most out of the flowers you buy
You take your flowers home. You put the stems in water as a flower preserver.
And The buds still wilt. What went wrong?
If you didn’t trim the stems, your flowers might not have even taken a single drink.
It is possible that the stems are clogged by tiny air bubbles that develop when taken out of water.
In order to get the flowers home and start to overcome all the shocks of transit, you need flowers that respond to the care you provide.
Make sure you set your flowers up to thrive by trimming the stems.
Whenever flower stems leave water, they can develop tiny air bubbles at the base.
That’s why it is important to trim the stems when replacing water.
Just as important as having fresh, clean water for your flowers is your flowers having the ability to actually drink that water and take in any flower preserver in the form of the cut flower food you provide.
make cut Flowers Last longer
Ordinary Flower Food Or Internet Recipes Won't Do it
Use Flower Boosters for the win.
Enhanced with caffeine, Flower Boosters gives your cut flowers an extra burst of energy and makes them live longer — and stronger – – than ever before.
Better than water alone, better than the free packets or internet folk recipes. Flower Boosters makes your cut flowers live their very best life!
