Air conditioned work room v. florist cooler/fridge

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lorinajac

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Jul 17, 2007
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What are your opinions on this. I have a florist fridge that I am using to keep my flowers and arrangements fresh but of course there's never enough space in there. One of my colleagues uses one of her rooms in her house as a work room for her floral business and she told me she is using a portable air conditioner to cool the room, which she sets at 65 degrees. She swears her flowers stay as fresh as in the cooler.

What are your experiences with air conditioned rooms and floral fridges? I still swear by my fridge....
 
34 degrees is where I want my flowers held. We have a 24' X 8' display/walkin.

Be pretty cold working in there.
 
I agree....A floral refrigerator with proper humidity levels is really the best for our delicate flowers...ideally 34-38 degrees F with a 90-95% humidity......UNLESS.....They are tropical blooms.....then your cooler does not need to be below 55 or 60 degrees F
 
lorinajac said:
What are your opinions on this. I have a florist fridge that I am using to keep my flowers and arrangements fresh but of course there's never enough space in there. One of my colleagues uses one of her rooms in her house as a work room for her floral business and she told me she is using a portable air conditioner to cool the room, which she sets at 65 degrees. She swears her flowers stay as fresh as in the cooler.

What are your experiences with air conditioned rooms and floral fridges? I still swear by my fridge....
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Your colleague is wrong.

Cooler temps will prolong vase life, but the best scenario for our delicate flowers is a high humidity low velocity condensor.
 
Joe Mioux said:
Your colleague is wrong.

Cooler temps will prolong vase life, but the best scenario for our delicate flowers is a high humidity low velocity condensor.
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YOu are ahead of me again Joe...as you should be...but what is a "high humidity low velocity condensor".

thanks
 
air conditioned room

I use a window air conditioner set at 60 for 24-48 hour storage and holding for larger events and weddings and it seems to work out really well for most flowers and certainly tropicals. Spring bulb flowers like tulips and renuncula really need to stay in lower temps though.
 
If you're doing event work and know that the flowers will be used for a shortened vase life.....then the extra cool AC should be fine.

Tropicals and all other flowers with the fewest exceptions really respond well to high humidity levels though.....whether or not they are in a home or cooler environment.
 
On average how long do florists in the US hold their stock for?
We ordered flowers twice weekly and had very little wastage as we used those flowers straight away. Shop down the road (where i worked breifly), held flowers over for almost a week in the window so that it looked like you were getting beautiful fresh flowers but the were rotated out the back to be used up when the next lot arrived. It was also a busy shop.)
How extreme (on average) is the weather? (sorry we work on celsius so not too sure of the temps).
In NZ most florists do not keep all their flowers in the chiller. Mostly just roses & spring flowers etc would be kept there, the rest in the shop. We got air con/heat pump unit installed in our shop as it would be horrible hot (uncomfortable for us, not to mention the flowers) during the summer and freezing cold in the winter. The flowers loved the steady year round temperature (as did we)!
How fresh are the flowers you get from the growers? Is this an issue with how long they last?
Just very curious today!!
Thanks in advance for your knowledge:)
 
We follow all care and handling practices...cutting underwater, floral preservative, the whole bit.....and we practice stock rotation - I would say that 90 percent of the flowers we get at the beginning of a week are used and sold by the beginning of the next week.

Temps here in the Southern United States average 90 to 110 degrees F in the summer and average 30-50 degrees F in the winter - we have had temps as high as 120 and as low as -5 F
 
Rick King AIFD said:
We follow all care and handling practices...cutting underwater, floral preservative, the whole bit.....and we practice stock rotation - I would say that 90 percent of the flowers we get at the beginning of a week are used and sold by the beginning of the next week.

Temps here in the Southern United States average 90 to 110 degrees F in the summer and average 30-50 degrees F in the winter - we have had temps as high as 120 and as low as -5 F
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Cutting under water is a mistake. I know what the industry says, but it is just common sense.

The bacteria that builds up in a container of water is astounding. Even after 10 bunches have been cut under water, bacteria problems emerge.

We cut under running water. Doing it this way you also wash away any dirt on the bottom of the stems.

Joe
 
Rick King AIFD said:
Temps here in the Southern United States average 90 to 110 degrees F in the summer and average 30-50 degrees F in the winter - we have had temps as high as 120 and as low as -5 F
Click to expand...

For the rest of the world outside of the U.S.:), that would be about 32 to 43 Celsius in the summer versus -1 to 10 degrees in the winter.

Extremes would be a high of 49 celsuis, with a low of minus 21.
 
I am interested in purchasing a cooler. What do I really need to look for? Any tips or suggestions are appreciated. Thanks in advance!
 
Joe Mioux said:
Cutting under water is a mistake. I know what the industry says, but it is just common sense.

The bacteria that builds up in a container of water is astounding. Even after 10 bunches have been cut under water, bacteria problems emerge.

We cut under running water. Doing it this way you also wash away any dirt on the bottom of the stems.

Joe
Click to expand...

Actually - according to the neweest information from SAF, they now say that cutting underwater does not help the flowers....that cutting underwater makes little or no difference.

Cutting under running water is better than cutting in a tub or sink of water.....however, in those cases where you can't, then Floralife makes a great product called Microbloc....which keeps bacteria from forming in the water.....and we always change the water after 10 bunches of flowers cut.
 
shbain said:
I use a window air conditioner set at 60 for 24-48 hour storage and holding for larger events and weddings and it seems to work out really well for most flowers and certainly tropicals. Spring bulb flowers like tulips and renuncula really need to stay in lower temps though.
Click to expand...


That;s what my friend said....she swears by it....we do wedding flowers and arrangements so yes, a vase life kinda thing.....
 
shbain said:
I use a window air conditioner set at 60 for 24-48 hour storage and holding for larger events and weddings and it seems to work out really well for most flowers and certainly tropicals. Spring bulb flowers like tulips and renuncula really need to stay in lower temps though.
Click to expand...


That's what my friend is doing...she ahs a window air conditioner and she leaves on overnight .

Rick King AIFD said:
If you're doing event work and know that the flowers will be used for a shortened vase life.....then the extra cool AC should be fine. .
Click to expand...

Yes, I should have specified....i was referring to wedding flowers and arrangements used for a short vaselife.
 
We don't cut under water at all... We did test years ago and found VERY little difference. We do place all flower in preseritive (sp?) when they first arrive.

I am in the extreme upstate NY area. Our temps in the summer can spike up to 100 F or above and in the winter -10 F with wind chills as low as -50 F

We have three walk in coolers. One for our main stock. One for our roses and glads. and one we turn on during holidays and large events.
 
what if I have a window air conditioner running and also a humidifier.....do they cancel each other out? :hammer:
 
Rick King AIFD said:
Actually - according to the neweest information from SAF, they now say that cutting underwater does not help the flowers....that cutting underwater makes little or no difference.

.
Click to expand...

I stopped doing it years ago. I still make the staff cut under running though.

However, with that said, it is still a very good idea to wash away any debris and dirt from the stems that will grow "stuff" in the water that will eventually clog the xylem and phloem.

Joe

P.S. I am WAY WAY faster than they are with cutting and placing in the stock vases!
 
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