SAF Information on Hydreangea care

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Submitted by Sheila Santiago on June 20, 2013

in Industry News





Dahlias, hydrangeas and other of the floral industry’s more “fleeting” blooms go under the microscope at SAF Phoenix 2013, when two leading care and handling experts show attendees how to “Overcome Your Fear of Difficult Blooms.”











Industry members can learn care and handling techniques for challenging blooms during the live-demo workshop "Overcome Your Fear of Difficult Flowers" at SAF's 129th annual convention Sept 19-21 in Phoenix.

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Gay Smith, technical consulting manager of Chrysal USA, and Jim Daly, president of Floralife, Inc., will lead the 90-minute live-demo workshop focused on care and handling techniques for some of the industry’s most finicky exotic and specialty cut flowers. A sneak preview of the type of info they’ll share:



“Hydrangea blooms may look like a mastodon sat on them when you open the box, but handled correctly they’ll plump up fast,” said Gay Smith of Chrysal USA. When you give the stems a fresh cut, “take off at least an inch and don’t leave any old stem tissue,” she said. Put the stems in a clean bucket of fresh hydration solution, let them sit outside the cooler for 30 minutes to allow condensation on the florets to evaporate, then place them in the cooler and let them have a good long drink (at least overnight and up to three days). Be sure to top off the bucket with fresh solution often. “It’s common for hydrangeas to drink a bucket dry overnight or during a weekend,” Smith said. “Make sure you let flowers fully hydrate in fresh solution overnight so the blooms fully harden-off before using them in a design.”



SAF Phoenix 2013 takes place Sept. 18-21 at the Sheraton Wild Horse Pass in Chandler, Ariz. See the complete program and register online or download the brochure