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The Cutting Garden

Bugs in your Cut Flowers?

15 years ago

Though I'm not selling them, I have a pretty extensive year round supply of flowering plants and shrubs. We of course cut them and take them in for our own arrangements, but we just can't figure out what to do about the bugs. How do you get rid of them in your cut flowers? I'd love to just refrigerate them, but don't have a spare fridge for this! We try to wash them, but we either wind up ruining the flowers or we don't get all the critters. Some of the worst ones to deal with & the bugs -

Peony - ants

Hydrangea - this year, Predatory Running Mites

Dahlia

Oriental lily

Daisies

Lilac

Butterfly Bush

Cherry Blossoms - mealy bugs, some other weird black things

The only ones we had no bugs on were Hyacinth, Forsythia and Daffodils because there are no bugs out that time of year!

So, how do you all get rid of the bugs?!

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Comments (2)

Pudge 2b
15 years ago
I use a large tub of water, hold a bunch of flowers by the bottom stems and swish them heads down into the water. This works very well with peonies, lilies and sunflowers.
kneecop
Original Author
15 years ago
Thanks pudge! I will give that a shot. So the idea is to sort of drown them or hope they float to the top? Sounds like a good plan...
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