1. When is the proper time to cut them for longest vase life?

2. What is a good stem length?

3. Do they require any special postharvest care?

4. About how long is the vase life of a hydrangea?

Any info. appreciated. Thanks.

I'm no expert. Hopefully somebody who knows them better will drop in. Some of this I've learned from experience and some of it is directly from THE cut-flower book (Specialty Cut Flowers, by Armitage and Laushman).

Cut when flowers are completely open. If harvested too early, they wilt permanently.

Whatever stem length you need is a good stem length. Bear in mind that if you cut all the stems so long that there is little foliage left, the bush won't do as well next year. It needs foliage to sustain itself and grow. I generally cut some really long but then just deadhead the rest, to keep lots of foliage.

Postharvest, defoliate stems and get them into hot water, 110-120 degrees F., then immediately put them in a cooler at 34-36 degrees. They should stay in the cooler for at least 8 hours. All of the preceding postharvest information is from Armitage. What I did is cut directly into home-made preservative water, then cut again underwater, immediately place in same preservative and let sit in a cool place (only 65-40 degrees, not 34-36 degrees) overnight, and they did pretty well. Armitage's treatment allows for shipping, preservative optional, then the customer is supposed to put them in hot water again. That treatment is supposed to result in a vase life of 7-14 days. Mine lasted at least 7 days, but I don't remember whether I ever kept them any longer. I advised customers to cut stems underwater (in a bowl of water, not under running water) at home before putting in a vase.

They don't like floral foam and perform poorly in it.

I've used them in informal bride's bouquets, just tied with wire and ribbon, no floral foam. The flowers would get my usual conditioning before being arranged, then re-cut underwater and stood up in a vase of preservative until needed. It would be delivered in that vase, taken out of water, dried off, and carried by the bride, and the hydrangeas lasted a good 3 to 5 hours before hopelessly wilting, depending on the weather. That's not bad, for a ribbon-tied bouquet. I always made sure brides knew that the flowers would last through the wedding and at least partway through the reception, but would then wilt. Anti-transpirant sprayed ahead of time helped, as always.

I hope I helped.
Is there anybody else out there who knows hydrangeas???

Jeanne

Jeanne, I think you have shorter summer than we do in the Midwest. This year, though, it's been very hot for a long period of time now. A lot of my flowers and plants are getting scorched. 'Annabelle' seems to do well in the heat, though, since she is a native of Illinois.

Just curious, what is the benefit of cutting them into the hot water?

Also, I had read elsewhere about splitting the stems from the bottom up about one inch. What would be the benefit?

Jeanne, You mentioned that Armitage suggested the hot water. From your post, it doesn't sound like you used hot water. Did you just use room temp. water?

Gardenlover, I just used ambient-temperature water. Using different temperatures just didn't work with my harvest routines. I think the benefit of warm water generally is that it speeds up the uptake of water by the stem. Splitting the stem up from the bottom is supposed to have the same effect. I have no reason to doubt it, but I wouldn't know - I'm way too uncoordinated to split a small stem up any distance without hurting it or me!

Jeanne

Pink Diamond was used with the white flowers just beginning to be tinged with pink and red, and the limelight was a lovely green and ivory. Used Lovely Fairy (No kidding!) roses and the buds of Marinette

Anyway, several family members said that they appreciated the flowers so much, and that they loved the fragrance, and they wanted to plant Hyd. Tardiva as a memorial.

Susan