89
843.538.3839
Fax 800.471.4248
E-mail: info@floralife.com
www.floralife.com
a wholly owned subsidiary of
Smithers-Oasis Co.
Anil Ranwala, PhD.
Chief Scientist
Research
Update
Vase Life Improvement in
Cut Iris Flowers
The Iris is becoming an increasingly popular cut flower. You can find brilliant colors of yellow, blue
and purple available today. Some possess unique flower shapes as well. The vase life of Iris flowers
is short compared to other commercial cut flowers. Proper postharvest care and handling, and
proper use of flower food can increase the vase life substantially over regular water.
Background
An average of 5.5 days of vase life was obtained when water was used as the treatment. Floralife
®
Crystal Clear flower food improved the vase life by 2.2 days (a 40% increase). Floralife
®
Bulb Food
further improved the vase life by 1.2 days compared to Floralife
®
Crystal Clear food (a 16% improvement).
Conclusions
An experiment was conducted to evaluate the performance of three iris varieties sold by a major
supermarket chain. Flowers were obtained from one of the stores and brought to the Floralife®
laboratory. Upon arrival at the lab, the flower stems were processed for vase life analysis.The ends
of stems were recut in air, any leaves that would be below the water level were removed and stems
were placed in vases containing either water, Floralife Crystal Clear
®
food (10 g/L) or Floralife
®
Bulb
Food (10 g/L). Flowers were held in an interior evaluation room (68 - 70° F, 12 hrs. of light) to monitor
the vase life performance.
Research
Results
Iris (Light Blue)
Time Period: 7 Days
Flower Type
Vase life (days)
Vase life (days)
Vase life (days)
with Water
with Floralife Crystal Clear
®
Food
with Floralife
®
Bulb Food
Variety 1 (Dark Blue)
4.9
6.5
6.7
Variety 2 (Light Blue)
5.8
9.0
10.7
Variety 3 (Yellow)
5.9
7.7
9.3
Average
5.5 7.7
8.9
For further information on the Research Update, contact Anil Ranwala at anil@floralife.com.
Postharvest Care and Handling information can be obtained at www.floralife.com or e-mail: info@floralife.com.
October 2007
Volume 9, Issue 10