Buying Fresh flowers – Learn How to Determine Freshness
How do you know when you buying fresh flowers that in fact they are actually fresh? Aside from growing them yourself and being the person who cuts the stem from the plant or being at the flower farm when they harvest the flowers for the day, you can’t be absolutely sure that you’re buying fresh flowers.
There are ways to test for flower freshness depending upon your role in the buying process. It varies whether you are a consumer of a retail supplier or whether you are working in the floral industry as a florist or flower wholesaler.
For the consumer, when buying fresh flowers there are things to immediately look for that can immediately rule out freshness. Ruling out freshness is the best way in the attempt to assure that you are buying fresh flowers. The first place to look is of course at the blossoms – make sure they are bright, colorful and vibrant looking.
There are indications that the flowers may not be very fresh if you see any signs of browning, yellowing, or spotting. Also, look for any damaged flower petals or stems as this likely means that the flowers haven’t been treated properly in the distribution chain and there may likely be hidden damage that will cause the flowers not to last very long.
Use caution as well if you see any signs of wilting as signs of wilting indicate stress on the flowers which many will struggle to recover from A good tip is to talk with the store manager or floral department manager to learn when they receive their flower shipments to buying fresh flowers from them on the day they receive them.
For florists or others in the floral trade it is different from the consumer approach when buying fresh flowers. This is because there is no opportunity to inspect the flowers before receiving them. However, upon inspection at receipt time, the florist or other trade professionals can return flowers for proper credit if they are received in an un-fresh state.
The best way to insure receiving fresh flowers from their suppliers is to utilize a cold chain distribution system. Requiring the supplier to harvest and ship the ordered flowers using the cold chain distribution system helps to minimize any undue stress upon the flowers during shipment and helps to keep them as fresh as possible during shipping.
Even though there are many more ways to insure the best flowers are received when buying fresh flowers, the tips above are a great place to start. For consumers, look for damaged blossom, leaves, and stems along with any signs of browning, yellowing or spotting as these indicate the flowers may not be fresh. For florists and professionals in the industry, it is important to choose to do business with suppliers that utilize the cold chain distribution methods.
November 4th, 2009 at 10:16 am
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