How to store cut tulips at home
Proper storage of cut tulips helps to maintain their decorative effect for 2-3 weeks. A number of techniques widely used by experienced flower growers can extend the life of flowers at home. Not all varieties retain their appearance equally well after removal from the flower bed, and this should be taken into account when choosing them.
How to save tulips
What helps keep tulips fresh
When cutting tulips from a flower bed, it is worth adhering to some rules that help to prolong the preservation of the flower bouquet.
- To save the bulbs for later planting, leave at least 2 leaves on the stem to provide the root tuber with nutrition. Watering is reduced by 2 times to prolong vegetative growth, and after the remaining foliage withers, the root bulbs are dug up, dried and stored (for the summer, if they are planted in the fall; and for the winter, if the planting is planned in the spring).
- Only whole specimens that are free of damage, stains, swelling and signs of decay are sent to store.
If you do not need to leave planting material, shoots are dug out together with root tubers.
Cutoff dates
To extend the preservation period, plants are cut and dug out at the flowering stage in the closed phase, but already completely colored in the varietal color of the bud.
In hot, clear weather, they do this in the early morning, while the inflorescences have not yet opened under the influence of the sun's rays, and the stems and foliage have not lost moisture. Cloudy days do not limit in time the possibility of cutting the peduncles and digging them out with bulbs.
It is not worth pruning a flower crop in the rain, because the risk of decay of buds, leaves and shoots from water droplets remaining on them increases.
Water
Water for cut flowers is used standing and cool. Pieces of ice will help to cool it.
During settling, chlorine chemical compounds present in tap water are weathered.
Some growers practice content in mineral water, but here its salt composition is of no small importance, a strong concentration of which adversely affects the condition and color of the buds.
Rot protection
Reduces the shelf life of the bouquet at home, the appearance of pathogenic bacteria in the water. To avoid this, the following conditions are met:
How to store cut tulips
- the optimal level in the vase is 5-7 cm, without contact with the foliage in order to avoid rotting of the lower part;
- disinfection is carried out by adding charcoal or activated charcoal, aspirin (1 table), vinegar essence (1 tablespoon per 1 liter), potassium permanganate (to a weak pink color), citric acid (up to 0.8 g per 1 liter);
- daily replacement of water with complete rinsing of the walls of the vase from the appeared slippery bacterial plaque;
- it is necessary to remove dirt from the stems with subsequent pruning.
Stem pruning
Once every 2 days, the flowers are cut 1 cm.Experienced growers recommend cutting the stem obliquely, increasing the area of liquid absorption. Additionally, you can make several notches on the shoot itself.
The basic rule is that you need to cut the stem under a water jet to prevent air from entering the plant tissue.
Top dressing
Supplements help prolong the life of fresh tulips when kept in an apartment:
- ready-made preparations specially designed for floristry - Bud, Chrysal, Flora;
- sugar - up to 20 g per 1 liter.
Nutritional dressing, containing potassium, pushes back wilting by an average of 3-7 days, and sugar glucose will shift the death of the bouquet by 2-4 days.
Nutrient feeding agents should be added each time the water in the vase is changed.
Before selling flowers, some florists put them in a solution of calcium nitrate with a concentration of 3%, which helps to make the flower stalks stronger.
The stem with leaves is subject to immersion - leave for 24 hours, followed by rinsing under running water. Such processing serves as a guarantee of preservation in a damp way in a vase for 7-10 days.
Storage methods
There are two main ways to store freshly cut tulips at home without losing their presentation.
How to store tulips
Dry
It consists in the preservation of flowers without water. Bookmark technology:
- remove the lower tier of foliage, as well as withered, rotten and damaged leaf plates;
- the stems are cut obliquely with a pruner;
- tulips with buds fixed with elastic bands are laid out in 5-14 pieces, with their heads upwards, pressing tightly, wrapped, optionally, in moistened paper or cloth, cardboard soaked in paraffin.
Do not use plastic bags or printed paper that leaves black spots on the petals.
Packaged flowers are placed in a dark, cool place (preferably folded in a paraffin cardboard box), maintaining humidity at 95-97% and a temperature of about 1 ° C-3 ° C, for example, in a basement or a refrigerator.
Before opening the package, the plants are given time to adapt to room temperature by placing them without removing the wrapper in cold water for 0.5 hours, after which the stems are cut at an oblique angle and the bouquet is placed in a vase.
If, during the preservation process, the curvature of the peduncles occurs, such specimens are again tightly packed and placed in water for 1-2 hours, then the paper or fabric cover is removed.
The dry method is more suitable for industrial storage and transportation. If all conditions are met, freshly cut buds do not lose their decorative effect for up to 2 weeks.
Wet
The average period during which it is possible to store a bouquet with a wet method at home without losing its decorative effect is about 5 days. Before placing in a vase, the greens are removed at the bottom of the stem and an oblique incision is made.
When buying, you should pay attention to the buds. If at the time of sale they are fixed with rubber bands, there is a great risk that the plant was cut already overripe, and such an attachment serves to keep the petals from falling off.
Storage features in summer and autumn
In the hot season, it is rarely possible to keep the bouquet fresh for a long time. The warmer and lighter the room, the faster the freshly cut flowers will wither.
Cut tulips keeping it
High temperature and bright lighting accelerate life processes, activating the growth of the stem, blooming and subsequent wilting of the bud. Immersion in ice water helps to restore the original appearance to faded flowers. Plants are wrapped in paper and soaked for 1-2 hours.
The optimal temperature regime, extending the shelf life of a flower culture at home, by an additional 5-7 days, is not higher than 5 ° C without direct sunlight.
If the tulips managed to be dug out, preserving the bulbs, they can prolong flowering until autumn by placing them together with root tubers directly into the water, moistened moss or sod soil.
Winter storage rules
Closely located heating devices, which dry out the atmosphere, reduce the shelf life of the buds in winter.
In the winter season and early spring, you should not buy flowers on the street. Frozen flower heads will immediately fall off when exposed to warm air.
Adverse factors
There are several factors that can depress the well-being of a freshly cut tulip.
How to keep tulips fresh
The flower culture is very susceptible to inappropriate neighborhoods. So, among the unfavorable neighbors are rose, lily, carnation, orchid, lily of the valley, poppy and daffodil.
You should not put a vase with a bouquet near ripe fruits - they are able to actively release ethylene, which negatively affects the flowers and leads to their premature wilting.
A branch of thuja or cypress, whose tannins have a beneficial effect on living plants, will support and prolong the life of a freshly cut bud.
Direct sun and drafts cause the petals to fall quickly.
Cutting-friendly varieties
The varieties with long stems, 50-80 cm each, retain their freshness best of all. Among them are hybrid fringed subspecies, lily-colored varieties, Triumph and Rembrandt, as well as others with medium and late flowering periods in May.
Tulips with an early onset of budding do not have a long shelf life and are not suitable for cutting.