GOOD FOR CUT FLOWERS.

King Country Chronicle, Volume VIII, Issue 725, 28 November 1914, Page 7

GOOD FOR CUT FLOWERS.

To prolong the life of cut flowers two professors of the School of Agriculture at Rennes, France, have recently compared the effect of various solutions with that of plain water. Over 100 different kinds of flowers were tried. It WBB found that most of them Would live and stay fresh much longer if some sugar was put into the water in which they were kept.

Sugar, however, was no help to tulips, daisies, or chrysanthemums, and it was a positive injury to lilies and sweet peas. It accelerated the opening of the buds, especially of roses and orchids.

Small quantities of chlorEl, ether, glycerine, alcohol, lime water, and even ammonia salts, served to lengthen the lives of various kinds of flowers. The water thus "modified" should come as near as possible to the blossoms. In other words, the stems should be immersed as deeply as possible. Same of the flowers kept in sugar and water lived four times as long as would ordinarily be the case. The amount of sugar required varies. Carnations reyuir3 15 per cent, of sugar, and roses from 7 to 10 per cent. Oichids Bhould have from 10 to 20 per cent.

■° Flowers wilt because of the collapse of tho individual Crlls of which they are made up. They remain fresh as long as the pressure of fluid within and without the cells stays uniform. This balance of pressure depends upon a liquid containing substances in solution, and by "modifying" the water the requisite substances may be artificially furnished.

a The professors of Rennes Etate that to change the water in which cut flowers sre standing is injurious to the flowers, except when it is necessary in order to prevent accumulation of products of decay. The consumption of cut flowers is enormous Nothing takes their place in the decoration of rooms and banquet tables; therefore any available means of lengthening the duration of their freshness —so lamentably brief under the usual conditions—will be eagerly welcomed. FJoral adornments of this kind for a single wedding reception or dance in a home of wealth and fashion would brighten the convalescent wards of half a dozen hospitals. If the length of life and beauty of cut flowers could be no more than doubled, some of them could be put to this charitable use daily in every large city atfer they had served their original purpose.