You bouquet from Lowe’s Floral last so long in your home or at your office because Lowe’s is your source for expert advice on cut flower care! Your local Minot florist delivers only the freshest flowers that we purchase from all over the world to maintain our excellent selection. Flowers fly in two to three times every week from destinations like Ecuador, Colombia, California, Holland and Hawaii.
After getting off the plane, every bunch of flowers is opened and hand-inspected for quality and freshness. From there, the bottom foliage is stripped off and any other foliage that was damaged in shipping is removed. The bottom foliage is removed so that it doesn’t sit in water in flower buckets in our coolers and cause problems like bacteria build up.
Next each stem gets a fresh cut with a clean, sharp blade. It is dipped into a solution called Quick Dip which helps speed the absorption of water up the stem. All stems are then placed in a room temperature flower food solution and allowed to drink for at least an hour. Flowers are no longer cut under water because current University research shows any benefit from cutting in water is outweighed by the chance of transferring bacteria between flowers through the water (especially when processing large volumes of flowers)
Fresh flowers are then moved to our holding coolers. Flowers that arrive in bud, such as lilies, iris and blooming branches are allowed to develop further at room temperature before being transferred to our coolers. Each cooler is inspected semiannually to ensure we maintain the correct temperatures (34-38 degrees F) and to ensure proper air flow and humidity levels. All coolers also have special panels in them to absorb Ethylene gas. These panels are like giant versions of the baking soda boxes with the cloth sides you use in your home fridge, but instead of eating odors our panels trap a gas that is naturally produced by flowers and foliages that hastens their development.
At the end of every week the coolers are sorted, scrubbed out and all blooms are re-inspected for quality and potential longevity. What little is left over from week to week is usually sent with employees to enjoy so the cycle of flowers starts fresh the next week. All used buckets are sanitized with a professional cleaning solution and are ready to receive fresh blooms again!
It is precisely because of this exacting cycle of care and handling our flowers are unsurpassed in vase life and beauty. For more information please visit our website at www.lowesfloral.com.
{ 1 trackback }
Comments on this entry are closed.