Illuminati-R-Us

Cyndi and I were discussing cut flowers and the subject of re-cutting the stems before putting them in water came up. She commented that you should always re-cut them under water so they last longer. I know you should always re-cut them but I'd never heard the under water part before so I tried to confirm it.

All I could find was, more or less, many people all citing each other or "everyone knows this" kind of answers. Recognizing that "the plural of anecdote is not data", I wonder if there is any real science to support this.

I have no idea where to look for more information but this group of really smart people seemed like a good place to start.

Universities. Here I have MSU, which has extensive horticulture and agriculture departments, not to mention the extension services. I can get and have got expert information on just about anything. You have various universities in Chicago, try them.

Just my own uninformed opinion, but how could cutting the stems short under water be any different from doing it in air?

Anecdotally, I know people who swear by dissovling an aspirin in the water in the vase, others swear by a teaspoon of sugar there.

And ther has to be national organizations of florists and similar professions, who likely have good information.

And be ready for the American organization of florists to contradict the National organization of florists. When I see purportedly knowledgable entities in disagreement on something like this, I usually assume it means the actual advice is irrelevant. As in it doesn;t matter which way you do it, either will work well.

A university is a good idea. I just need to decide how much effort I'm willing to expend. I don't think it will be much.

Enzo wrote:Just my own uninformed opinion, but how could cutting the stems short under water be any different from doing it in air?

Supposedly it keeps air out of the stem. Air is bad because it can cause the stems to dry out faster and air bubbles in the stem can inhibit the uptake of water.

Those sound like good reasons initially but I can't believe 15-30 seconds can make that much difference.

You still have to pull it out of the water to put it in the vase or what-have-you, so I don't really get it.
And how about grafting, never heard anything about using water there.
This article seems to have actually gathered some data:
http://hortsci.ashspublications.org/con ... 80.5.short

Interesting. Thank you.

I like that in some cases not only doesn't it help, it actually hurts.