Vase Life of New Cut Flowers

Stems of promising and productive cultivars from the National Cut Flower Trial Program were pretreated with either a commercial hydrating solution or deionized (DI) water and placed in either a commercial holding solution or DI water for 44 hours. Treatment with a holding preservative produced the longest vase life for 24 cultivars in the genera Antirrhinum, Capsicum, Celosia, Echinacea, Helianthus, Ocimum, Physocarpus, Rudbeckia, Scabiosa, Tagetes and Zinnia, indicating that holding preservatives should be used with most taxa. Compared to the water-only control commercial hydrators had a less positive effect as they increased the vase life of only two Helianthus cultivars and Physocarpus 'Coppertina', and reduced the vase life of 11 cultivars in the genera Ageratum, Callistephus, Celosia, Chasmanthium, Echinacea and Helianthus. Cultivar variation was noted in some genera, such as Scabiosa, where holding solutions increased the vase life of 'Deep Blue Improved' and 'Fama White', while holding solutions had no significant effect on 'Deep Blue' and 'Perfecta White'. All treatments produced a statistically similar vase life for 12 cultivars in the genera Asclepias, Callistemon, Celosia, Craspedia, Dianthus, Helianthus, Penstemon, Salix and Scabiosa.