Flowers Without Pesticides

The FINANCIAL — Cut flowers make us feel happy. Flowers are one of the best ways to say “Thank you”, “I’m sorry” and “I love you”.

They help us to celebrate special events. Many people have no idea that some flowers contain many different pesticides and chemicals. While buying flowers for our friends, loved ones or just for our family members, we don’t usually think about what these beautiful flowers could contain. Everyone knows that pesticides are used in fruits and vegetables, and due to this fact people prefer to buy organic products. But many flower shops all around the world including in Georgia use chemicals to make cut flowers look better too.

Flower shops in Georgia use some special chemicals to keep flowers looking fresh for longer.

“We actually use special vitamins to make our cut flowers last longer,” said Natali Jariashvili, Director of Geoflora, Orchid and Bamboo. “We always try to sell the cut flowers as soon as we can, but they are often kept for a long time. In this case we buy special German pesticides, chemicals that are sold in the hypermarket Goodwill. These chemicals aren’t harmful to people’s health, they just help the flowers keep their beauty for slightly longer.”

“We don’t use a huge number of chemicals in our cut flowers. Of course they’re not harmful, but even so you should try not to use a large dose, as they are chemicals nonetheless. We don’t use any chemicals or pesticides for potted plants flowers. If people need any vitamins for potted flowers we suggest they buy special fertilizers which are natural and don’t contain any chemicals,” Jariashvili said.

“Flower shops mostly use chemicals for cut flowers in order to maintain the beauty of bouquets. They use fairly well known chemicals which are widespread all around the world. Many of these products are imported from the USA or Russia. These are vitamins used to stimulate the growth of the flowers. These chemicals aren’t dangerous for the health and don’t cause allergic reactions, but even so it is best to keep the flowers naturally,” said Temur Gureshidze, Director of Ecopark.

“We don’t use chemicals as we only sell our customers potted flowers. They are absolutely free of any chemicals and are natural. Cut flowers may be kept for a maximum of 5 days before they begin to wilt,” Gureshidze said.

“We import flowers mostly from Holland and Ecuador,” said Natalia Chkonia, from ‘Flowers.Ge’.

“Flowers demand special care, they need to be kept at a specific temperature and constantly have fresh water. We change the flowers every 7 days. We don’t keep flowers any longer than that so there is no need to use any additional pesticides or chemicals. We look after our flowers in the right way so we don’t need to use any chemicals,” Chkonia said.

According to the Clean Air Gardening Store, you can always use floral preservatives to help extend the life of your cut flowers, but there is no need to add artificial chemicals to the equation at this stage of the game. As Clean Air Gardening notes, to help your flowers stay perky for over a week the organic way, follow these tips:

• Start with the freshest flowers possible.
• If the flowers are from your garden, be sure to cut them early in the morning, but after the dew has dried.
• Make sure that at least some of the flowers are just budding, and are still tightly closed.
• Include naturally long-lasting flowers like chrysanthemums, carnations, and statice.
• Keep the flowers as cool as possible until you can get them into a vase.
• Select a large, capacious vase so the flowers won’t be crowded.
• Clean the vase with hot, soapy water to ensure that it’s sterilized before you add the flowers. Any surviving bacterial or fungal spores will decrease the shelf life of your bouquet.
• Fill the vase with 3-4 inches of tepid water. Any more than that will promote excessive stem decay.
• Remove any foliage that will be below the water line, because it will degrade quickly and encourage bacterial growth. Too much bacterial growth will reduce the stems’ ability to take up water.
• Use a pruner or floral shears to cut 1-2 inches off the ends of the stems. Never use a pair of household scissors, no matter how sharp, because they tend to crush the stems, not cut them cleanly. Crushing encourages bacterial growth.
• Cut at a 45-degree angle underwater for best results; either running or standing water is fine.
• Immediately place the flowers in the vase, and move them out of direct sunlight.
• Keep your flowers away from ripening fruit, because the ethylene gas the fruit emits will make your flowers wilt very quickly.
• To avoid using commercial preservatives, which contain chemical biocides, you’ll need to change the water in the vase every day.
• Be sure to trim the stems every time you change the water, in order to remove decayed segments and limit bacterial buildup. A quarter-inch at a time is fine.