Every now and then the better half will put me in the dog house. Not because I
did anything wrong, she'll invent something with the hope that I shower her
with cut flowers from the florist.
Now everytime I get the flowers, a small pack* of Floralife is included. Mix it
with a pint of warm water, and the cut flowers will last forever.
What is this powder? What are the ingedients? They're not listed on the pack
and it can't be of any danger. No first aid directions, just the usual warning
about keeping away from children.
* I remember many, many years ago I used to buy a product that came in a
similar size pack. The contents of it were to be used if you were lucky enough
to make a woman happy.

Its sugar and chlorine bleach.


"TOM KAN PA" wrote in message
...
Every now and then the better half will put me in the dog house. Not
because I
did anything wrong, she'll invent something with the hope that I shower
her
with cut flowers from the florist.
Now everytime I get the flowers, a small pack* of Floralife is included.
Mix it
with a pint of warm water, and the cut flowers will last forever.
What is this powder? What are the ingedients? They're not listed on the
pack
and it can't be of any danger. No first aid directions, just the usual
warning
about keeping away from children.
* I remember many, many years ago I used to buy a product that came in a
similar size pack. The contents of it were to be used if you were lucky
enough
to make a woman happy.

On 14 Oct 2004 22:25:29 GMT, TOM KAN PA wrote:
Now everytime I get the flowers, a small pack* of Floralife is included. Mix it
with a pint of warm water, and the cut flowers will last forever.

Used to be alum and sucrose, I was told... not sure if it still is.
50-50 carbonated lemon-lime sodapop with sugar (not diet) and water
does about the same thing. Add a drop of bleach if your tap water isn't
chlorinated.

Kay

It probably contains (1) sugar to feed the plant, (2) something to
acidify the water to make it more compatible with the ambient plant
juices and (3) some sort of sterilization agent to kill bacteria which
could otherwise multiply and block the passages that carry water to the
plant.

See
http://www.umass.edu/umext/floricult.../presvcut.html
This site includes a receipe for making your own cut flower preservative
with common household materials (or at least stuff readily available in
your local grocery store [e.g. non-diet Sprite or 7-up {containing both
sugar and citric acid note that I'm a fan of nested parenthetical
expressions |not all of which are relevant|} and bleach for
sterilization -- see the site for proportions]). Since requirements vary
with the flower species, the site gives a few examples.

This mixture doesn't replace roots, so the plant won't last "forever",
but it will extend vase life by as much as a week or two (depending on
plant varieties and pre-vase care).

Note that if you're cutting your own flowers, placing the flowers
immediately (within a second or two) into water will help a lot. If that
isn't practical, cutting an inch off the stem underwater will help.
Essentially, the flower is sucking water from the ground. When cut, it
sucks air into the stem, producing an air bubble (vapor lock) and
inhibiting further water takeup. Placing the stem in water immediately
minimizes the bubble and cutting the stem underwater removes it.

very good info - thanks very much!

dps wrote:
It probably contains (1) sugar to feed the plant, (2) something to
acidify the water to make it more compatible with the ambient plant
juices and (3) some sort of sterilization agent to kill bacteria which
could otherwise multiply and block the passages that carry water to the
plant.

See
http://www.umass.edu/umext/floricult.../presvcut.html

This site includes a receipe for making your own cut flower preservative
with common household materials (or at least stuff readily available in
your local grocery store [e.g. non-diet Sprite or 7-up {containing both
sugar and citric acid note that I'm a fan of nested parenthetical
expressions |not all of which are relevant|} and bleach for
sterilization -- see the site for proportions]). Since requirements vary
with the flower species, the site gives a few examples.

This mixture doesn't replace roots, so the plant won't last "forever",
but it will extend vase life by as much as a week or two (depending on
plant varieties and pre-vase care).

Note that if you're cutting your own flowers, placing the flowers
immediately (within a second or two) into water will help a lot. If that
isn't practical, cutting an inch off the stem underwater will help.
Essentially, the flower is sucking water from the ground. When cut, it
sucks air into the stem, producing an air bubble (vapor lock) and
inhibiting further water takeup. Placing the stem in water immediately
minimizes the bubble and cutting the stem underwater removes it.

On Fri, 15 Oct 2004 23:27:35 -0400, Sterling in
rec.gardens wrote:

note that I'm a fan of nested parenthetical
expressions |not all of which are relevant|

Most likely you are (are used to be) a programmer for IBM software products
where the heirarchy of parenthetical (or braced [including other defined
sub-expression delimiters]) expressions must exactly match.

.....or it don't run at all.

FACE