Care and
Handling
Background
Hoogasian Flowers adheres to the highest, state of the art standards
for product care and handling. The standards and practices used are the
result of research conducted at several leading universities (Ohio State
University, University of California, Berkeley, Cal Poly San Luis Obispo
and University of Hawaii, Hilo to name a few) to assure that flowers reach
the consumer in the best possible condition with the best chance for the
longest enjoyment…providing our customers the best value in floral
products. Our goal is for the longest possible enjoyment of the living
gifts we provide. Incremental additional costs provide dramatic increases
in value (how long the flowers last).
Hygiene
“Wash behind your ears.” Although it may not always be visible, clean
buckets, vase and processing areas are very important and basic parts of a
comprehensive program of care and handling of floral products. At
Hoogasian Flowers, every vase and bucket is cleaned thoroughly with
disinfectant cleaners and warm water. Our standard is that our buckets are
clean enough that we would be willing to drink out of them. When vases and
buckets are not clean and a residue is allowed to form, the residue is
comprised of dirt, floral waste products and bacteria. When adding water
with floral food to an unclean container, a medium for culture of bacteria
is created… that’s where the murky, clouding water seen in some vases
finds its start. That bacteria can clog the stems of otherwise healthy
flowers and mean a sentence of premature death for flowers. Clean, pure
water with the right amount of flower food is the only thing that should
be in your vase… besides beautiful flowers and greens!
Hydration, Water Purity, pH, and Temperature
It has been proven that when flowers are cut, they are under stress…
imagine that! Cut off from life support of the plant, the flower struggles
to find water and nutrients. All the nutrients must be drawn from the vase
into the stems. Scientific research has shown that flowers are more likely
to hydrate (draw water) when exposed to optimum conditions. Commercial
hydration treatments “wake up” the floral tissue to be receptive to the
water and nutrients (flower food). At Hoogasian Flowers, we use Floralife
Quick Dip as a pre hydration treatment for all our cut flowers to assure
rapid uptake of water. This is especially helpful with our imported
products which come from as far way as Holland, Ecuador, Thailand or New
Zealand.
Water purity is a factor more today than ever. Every drop of water used
for flower life support either for stock containers in the shop or for
arrangements sold and delivered to consumers is processed aggressively to
assure the purest possible water. Our shops are equipped with multiple
physical micro filters.
Our reverse osmosis deionization process strips our water down to…
water! Through this process, we end up with pure H2O and neutral pH (more
on pH or acidity later). Temperature is another factor in proper
hydration. The optimum temperature for most (not all) flowers to draw
water initially is 100 degrees Fahrenheit. We make sure that when we
process our flowers the water is at that temperature and allow them to
hydrate until the water and product reach room temperature.
Water prepared as thus far explained is just that… water. We now need
to turn our water into a life support solution for our flowers. Neutral pH
is great for people, but not the optimum for flowers. A pH of 4 (somewhat
acidic) is really the best for flowers to drawn water (and flower food).
We use Floralife Pure Flower Food which is formulated for use with water
purified with reverse osmosis. The product “buffers” (adjusts the acidity)
water to the optimum pH. The use of Pure Flower Food and deionized water
makes the best possible life support solution for long life. The little
green packets of flower food provided with purchases at Hoogasian Flowers
contain a flower food that if formulated to work with most bay area tap
water. If you use reverse osmosis at home, ask us to provide you with Pure
Flower Food with your next purchase. The Hoogasian Flowers flower food
packets will work adequately with any water, including deionized water.
A Fresh Cut for Fresh Cut Flowers
“Oh, such beautiful flowers,” then…plop into a vase with no water. We
have all seen how fresh cut flowers are treated on TV and in the movies.
We now know the importance of water/ flower food solution in a clean vase
(see above). Now let’s talk about the kindest cut of all: the fresh cut
right before the flowers go in water.
When flowers are cut from the plant, they keep on living… metabolism,
respiration, life continues after removing flowers from the plant. As a
result, the fluids in the stem are depleted, used up, by the flower and
leaves to stay alive. The place that the fluids occupied at the bottom of
the stem becomes a bubble of air. In defense, the tissues at the end of
the stem seal up to cut down on fluid losses. It is imperative that
flowers receive a fresh cut immediately before going back into water.
The ideal cut is with a sharp knife (scissors will pinch and squeeze
the cells) underwater. Cutting underwater is not always possible, but is
advisable. At Hoogasian Flowers, we have an underwater cutting device to
give our flowers the very best chance for survival.
Optimum, State of the Art Floral Refrigeration Conditions
While our flowers are not held in our refrigeration units any longer
than necessary, our units are the very best quality with state of the art
specifications. The three factors relevant to long flower life (called
“vase life” in the floral industry) are temperature, humidity and air
quality.
The technology of modern refrigeration creates a relationship between
temperature and humidity. The colder the air is, the less moisture it can
hold (that’s how we get the “morning dew”). When air is passed across the
expansion coils of a floral cooler, the air is chilled. The amount the air
is chilled on any given unit is called the Temperature Differential (or
TD). Most coolers chill air 10 degrees or more. That is fine for cartons
of milk or a six pack of beer. It doesn’t work for flowers. As you may
recall, the colder the air is, the less moisture it can hold. Chill it 10
degrees, it loses twice as much moisture than if you cool is 5 degrees
(roughly speaking). Our TD is less than 5 degrees to provide a relative
humidity in our coolers of over 90% which means the tissues don’t dry out
(wilt) as quickly.
Air quality is affected by… (to be continued)
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