ESMERALDA FARMS || Flower Care || Care and Handling Flower Parts

Guard petals are the outermost petals on a rose that protect the flower bud during shipping and handling, and later, processing by flower shops. Although these guard petals may be aesthtically unpleasing to some customers-- often appearing wrinkled and dark brown or green in color, these petals are simply part of the natural flower and guarantee proper performance for the rose opening. As the rose opens and folds back, the guard petals become invisible.

If guard petals have been removed prior to purchase - you never know what problems may have been peeled away and you might be purchasing a deficient product. Roses with guard petals intact open much more beautifully and completely than those which have been peeled. When roses have been peeled excessively, petals no longer unfold properly, but open spoon-shaped.


	Bigger heads generally do not perform well in terms of vase life. The ideal rose petal count is between 25 and 40 petals. If a rose head is too big and has too many petals, it is very difficult for roses to gather the strength only thru water uptake to open all these petals into a perfectly shaped rose blossom. You will probably find that very large rose heads will rarely open completely and will generally wilt prematurely.
	Stem length is another extremely important factor in determining the vase life of a rose. Shorter stemmed roses will last longer. To improve vase life, cut very long stems shorter; it is much easier for a rose to uptake and absorb water from a 20” stem rather than from a 40” stem. Imagine yourself sipping water through a 20” straw and then through a 40” straw… it would require much more strain and effort.

As lilies open, stamen begins to pollenate which can stain hands and clothing. To eliminate this possible problem, remove the stamen as the lily begins to open. There are 2 methods to easily remove these stamen:

You can easily pull off the not-yet-pollenated stamens by hand.

If you prefer to leave stamen intact, you may spray plain, unscented hairspray directly onto the stamen which will inhibit them from pollenating. This will not damage the lily petals as long as the hairspray is unscented (the fragrance from the hairspray contains alcohol and can burn or damage the lily petals).

If you have more than one lily per stem, it can happen that after seven to ten days, one flower may die before the other buds have opened or fully bloomed. Simply cut this single flower off with a scissor and allow the other buds to open to full splendor.