Midsummer Wedding Flower Care: A Guide on How to Process and Care for Florals in the Summertime

It’s that time of year—when the sun bums are out enjoying the heat, the polar bears are taking shelter in their air conditioned havens and weddings are happening every day of the week! In today’s blog post, you will learn about how to care for and process your florals in this summertime weather.
 

Hydration

Flowers grow in the summertime, so they must love the heat, right? Wrong! Flowers thrive in a garden because their roots are submerged in the ground where they reach their nutrients and source of hydration. Anytime you freshly cut a garden bloom or grab flowers from the market, they absolutely need a fresh cut and have to go straight into water. If out of water blooms can easily die within several hours of being out of water, sensitive blooms can die even within just an hour. So, I always have a bucket with me in the car in order to keep my pretties hydrated and fresh! And I always like to repeat to any of my clients: Hydration is key!

Heat

Never underestimate the temperature! Heat is not every flower’s friend, and humidity can even cause mold or botrytis—the brown yucky spotting on flowers that no one likes! So, to best keep the temperature from affecting flowers, I shop or harvest flowers in the morning when it’s still somewhat cool outside. Harvesting in the middle of the day is the worst time to do so because that is when flowers are most exhausted. Flowers and foliages are happiest when harvested in the coolest part of the day, either in the morning or at night. Transport flowers in air conditioning, too. The cooler, the better.

Processing

Once you arrive to your home or design destination, you must process your flowers. “What is processing?” you may ask. It is the process of cleaning and prepping stems of greenery and blooms for designing. This part easily gets overlooked quite often, but it truly makes a difference in the health and longevity of your flowers.To most effectively process flowers, you must start with a new bucket or vase with fresh water and add floral preservatives if you have some handy. Take the stems or bunches out of their current container then remove all leaves and plant debris that is within the waters reach (usually about six inches deep). For stems of blooming flowers, I typically take off all leaves and thorns besides the two or three at the top (closest to the bloom) for extra texture. Then, be sure to cut all the stems of cleaned flowers and put them into a new vessel within a few seconds of cutting. Proceed to do this with all of your flowers.

Storing

When you have finished processing, it is time to store your flowers. It is crucial that your flowers are kept in a cool, dark space. Coolness is important to fresh cut stems because it allows them time to stiffen up and become firm, making it ideal to prepare for designing. The ideal temperature is 40-50 degree temps. Anything cooler than 31 degrees is dangerous and can cause flowers to freeze, turn brown and mush up. Any temperature higher just exhausts flowers and doesn’t help in the longevity of the fresh cut stems. When designing, make sure to apply all of these steps to help your design live up to it’s fullest potential.

Delivery & Event Day

Now that you have done all this work, it is finally time to set up and install those pretty designs and blooms you have been caring so much for. Please follow the temperature rules, keep the air conditioner running and do not put flowers in your trunk. Most trunks are not air conditioned, so you would be suffocating flowers instead of keeping those pretties cool. Unload all of the designs out of the car and into the venue (or into the shade if the venue is outdoors). At this point, set all of your flowers and centerpieces and enjoy the rest of your day!

*****
 

"Fleurology Designs was created from my love and passion for flowers and botanicals. My infatuation with flowers began as early as when I could walk. My family has always had a love for nature, gardening and agriculture so, naturally, I have had florals influencing my life. After 10 years of being in the floral and event industry and with support from my loved ones, Fleurology Designs was created in May of 2016. My goal is to push floral boundaries and create new and inspiring concepts. As a flower obsessor, I love to study, analyze and experiment with flowers, foliages and plants which, to me summarized, was Floral Biology. I wanted to create a word that meant Floral Biology and this is how the fruition of fleurology was created! My mission is to spread the love, joy and education of flowers and botanicals to every client or person I meet!" ~Alyssa Ferguson CF

 

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