Niramon Suntipabvivattana
Mae Fah Luang University
David Aldred
Naresh Magan
Cranfield University
The popularity of mixed flower bouquets has increased in the cut flower industry. The longevity of mixed bouquets is limited by the individual life of each flower in the bouquet. Various factors have been studied on the individual life of each flower in mixed flower bouquets.
The results indicate that the differences in vase life of each flower in mixed bouquets may come from the influence of their phenotype. In cut rose flowers, there are various contents of fructose, glucose, sucrose and myo-inositol in all cultivars. However, levels of sugar contents are not related to the long-lived cultivars.
For cut lily flowers, the contents of fructose, glucose and sucrose have been measured in the primary and the secondary bud of ‘Tiber’ lilies. Differences in the contents of fructose, glucose and sucrose between the primary and secondary bud do not relate to the longevity of individual bud life. However, experiments have found increases in sucrose contents in both positions before the time of opening. This increase in sucrose may relate to the role of the carbohydrate energy source for bud opening.
Bacteria found in this study seemed to be largely specific to different flower types. As well, species of bacteria found in the vase water of mixed flowers were less than in that of single varieties. Difference in species of bacteria may be due to differences between plants and the conditions they exert in the vase water. In general, bacterial numbers were high at the beginning of all the experiments, indicating a strong inoculum effect from stems, although there was no straightforward relationship between stem numbers and inoculum size, in all cases.
(Presented in the 2014 Chulalongkorn Asian Heritage Forum: Flower Culture in Asia, 8-9 July 2014, Imperial Queen’s Park Hotel, Bangkok, organized by Institute of Thai Studies, Institute of Asian Studies, and Faculty of Arts, Chulalongkorn University)