Valerie, I have had good luck withthe following method. Pick very early in the morning. Break stems rather then cutting and plung into hot tap water with flower food added. Place in the shade and allow to cool naturally. Leave in solution for atleast 3 hours or overnight before arranging. IF any wild then rebreak and put t through the same process again. Also, pick your flowers atleast half open.

I re-cut underwater, on a slant, then tap end of stem with a mallet or hammer to open it up a bit (not smash it) and place in fresh preservative water, which can be anywhere from warm to cold. Other than that, I do the rest the same way LizaLily does.

Jeanne

Thanks! I'll pull these Friday evening, let them sit in preservative water overnight and then arrange them into bouquets (new experience!) Saturday morning for our new farmers market.

Valerie

Valerie, if you can pick them early in the morning on Friday they will likely last better then evening picked. Pick and treat and set in a cool place through the day.

Thanks, Lizalily...and yet, may I say, RATS!!!..Have I mentioned, I'm SO NOT A MORNING PERSON?!!! (Uhm, I think I hear appropriate jeers from all around the country.) I'm more in tune with the idea of wearing a headlamp at 3 am to harvest flowers. I'm almost always up that late anyway!

Valerie

Valerie,

Last year I did half of my harvesting after 10:00 p.m with a white LED head lamp on. Thanks for asking for the woody stemmed advice because I was wondering the same thing. I've read several different methods. I've found if Jeanne says it, it is the truth, because she is the voice of experience.

Steve

Steve,
It must be quite a sight you running around with that head lamp on your head. I'm sure there are places around there where you can get help.
Regards,
Pete

Pete,

Thank goodness I live out in the sticks, I seem normal to most around here, jk. Fortunately my DW is in the mental health field so I get free couch time. Actually, I really like cutting at night. It's cooler out and it doesn't interfere with my Q time with my kids because I'm working while they are sleeping. A biolgy teacher friend of mine said if I wait a few hours after sunset it is a good tiime to cut because the plants aren't actively growing anymore so it would be less of a shock. He also mentioned them being in a state of torpur(sp.?) and would be more rigid from storing sugars all day. I don't know about all the phisiology, but it worked well for me. I just have to make sure I always have a fresh set of batteries so I don't have to make the midnight run to Wal-Mart.

Steve

Steve, I thought it was you who had sung the pleasures of night-time harvesting! I'm seriously considering your approach. On the other hand, I have this pipe dream that getting up early to do something I want to do will finally reset my diurnal rythym to something resembling the rest of the country's....expect future reports when I've ordered the lamp. Do you ever see other nightowls, animal version?

I'm quite happy about the lilac conditioning. I haven't yet ordered individual flower food packets for the customers, so I sold without. I stuck the unsold blossoms in a vase at home after the market--still going strong in water only.

Valerie

Valerie,

It's easier to not even go to sleep, you get a second wind and once you are done cutting you (I) sleep like a log, which is not the norm for me.

As far as owls, yes I do. I rehab owls and birds of prey for the Raptor Center at the Univeristy of Minnesota. We usually have some Screech owls and Long eared owls around that we have released. I also practice the ancient art of falconry and fly goshawks, hence my forum name goshawker. I don't get paid to rehab, I just really enjoy the birds and I get good health care for my birds should they ever be injured. My girls also love working with the birds, not many little girls get to hold and feed Raptors. O.k. I'll stop now, because my passion for Raptors is greater than my love of growing things and I feel a rambling on sensation coming on.

Steve

Steve, thanks for telling us about your raptors. Fascinating!

Steve,

Wonderful. Your volunteer work sounds very interesting, and rewarding--what a gift to your children. We also have a number of screech owls nesting in our woods. They are startling to see (and startled) when caught in the headlights on a late night car run. I wonder if they would come to accept that headlamp, and go about their activities of nightly living without a sense of disruption.

Most of our raptors are high-flying hawks. We do have some small hawks--maybe red-shouldered?--that live along the creek, under the forest canopy. When stirred up by the car, they head immediately for the creek ravine, and seem almost to bump along the air currents above the white water. Gorgeous.

Well, if I didn't live in the country, I'd probably have a small container garden on a balcony, so I guess this story is tangientally relevant to cut flowers!

Valerie