What do you guys/gals know about flower food for cut flowers from a florist?

October 9, 2005 4:21 PM

What do you guys/gals know about flower food for cut flowers from a florist? Any of these foods available with a particularly convenient form of application (dissolving tab? Something easy to bring to someone else's house when you bring them flowers?)? Any of them particularly fantastic?
posted by sirion to Home & Garden (12 answers total)

Most of the time the florist will give you a little packet of powder to put in the vase. No idea what's in it.

I've also heard anecdotally about 7-Up or aspirin but have no personal experience w/them.
posted by SashaPT at 4:40 PM on October 9, 2005

Ideally, I'm looking for stuff I can buy myself in relative bulk, as I tend to buy flowers from a wholesaler, and it'd be nice to have a big box full of little individual packets or dissolving tabs or something.

Oh yeah: I've heard that some versions of these flower foods make the flowers smell bad. If this is sometimes true, what varieties of these things mess up the flower smell?
posted by sirion at 4:45 PM on October 9, 2005

I think the only stuff that works has some form of antimicrobial action to keep down growth of organisms which will decay the flowers. pH changers can achieve this as well by making an inhospitable growth environment for microbes. None of this of course actually answers your question.
posted by caddis at 4:46 PM on October 9, 2005

The American Rose Society suggests Listerine mouthwash -- two ounces per gallon of water, which is one tablespoon per quart. Listerine contains food (sucrose) and a bactericide, and is acidic. Those are the three things a flower preservative needs.

I wonder how much of that distinctive Listerine aroma comes through at that concentration.

You can find lots of recipes for homemade preservative mixtures, but almost all contain liquid bleach to kill bacteria. A number of them call for lemon juice or aspirin for acidity. Aspirin is portable, but those others... not so much.
posted by wryly at 4:53 PM on October 9, 2005

Have you asked the wholesaler where you buy your flowers? Surely they would either be able to sell you a box of packets themselves, or direct you to a floral supply place where you could order them yourself.
posted by boomchicka at 5:35 PM on October 9, 2005

Tossing a penny in seems to help, too. I think the copper helps kill stuff.
posted by five fresh fish at 5:35 PM on October 9, 2005

wryly has the answer. You could mix citric acid (instead of lemon juice) with sugar, and then all you'll need is a bit of powdered bleach. (What's that you say? Powdered bleach? Open up another question!)
posted by StickyCarpet at 5:41 PM on October 9, 2005

You can buy Chrysal in bottles from Pokon-Chrysal. It's the name-brand stuff you get from good florists.
posted by scruss at 5:45 PM on October 9, 2005

The brand my florist uses is Floralife Crystal Clear. It comes in little packets. It looks like you can order them from their website. (Go to the consumer section.)
posted by MsMolly at 6:22 PM on October 9, 2005

From the Floralife site:

How does it work?

- Acidifier - to adjust the pH of the water
- Sugar - as an energy source
- Stem unpluggers - to help keep the stem's plumbing free flowing

The first two are easy, the third just sounds like some electrolytes (salts) to me.
posted by caddis at 7:14 PM on October 9, 2005

I've used the 7-up technique and it seems to work. I use 1 part 7-up for 4 parts water. Also, it is very important to re-cut the tips of the stems underwater. This is one of the first part of the cut flower to dry out and seal itself. Re-cutting allows the flowers to take in more moisture and nutrients and makes them last longer. I had a set of Easter lillies last for two weeks by re-cutting a little bit every few days and keeping the flowers in a 7-up mixture.
posted by Alison at 7:56 PM on October 9, 2005

Actually, believe it or not, the same prostaglandins that help your own body regulate blood clotting and inflammation help plants regulate their xylem and phloem, and when to make petals, leaves, and needles drop off. That's why people use aspirin in the water.

I usually dump in a bit of aspirin and some table sugar. Lots of these packets contain vitamin B-1 (thiamin), but as far as I can tell that just instructs the cut stem to grow roots, which is not particularly helpful.
posted by ikkyu2 at 12:05 AM on October 10, 2005