The Art of the Cut - Late Summer

Why won't they last?

Last week I was teaching ‘Eco-Floristry’ - my opening being that all floristry, can, should be ‘eco’ or regenerative. Floristry, when purely concerned with seasonally lead, garden style arranging, is beneficial, nay essential for biodiversity, soil and the soul. It gives more than it takes*. Sorry, I digress. Anyway, I was sharing my thoughts on arranging naturally grown, seasonal flowers and the appropriate mechanics to work with these to create low environmental impact with high aesthetic impact.

The highlight of the session for most of the attendees was to cut their own flowers, but in the middle of the day. In August. In a hot field. It took all I could to stop me from not letting them!

Why?

The first rule of cutting flowers is to never cut when the sun is on your neck.

The second rule is never cut when the sun is on your neck!

For our class, flowers had been cut the day before and conditioned in deep water, over night, in a cool barn. This way, after some spa ‘rest and relaxation’, they were fully ready for showtime; to perform in the vase. You can imagine what the flowers looked like moments after cutting in the middle of the day? They were starting to wilt. The leaves first transpiring and dropping. Everything going a little soft. It still is a lovely thing to do, and much can be learnt from having that experience. But ideally, we’d cut first thing in the morning. Everything cut from the fields was popped into buckets of water and taken home to arrange. Even if they did condition, their vase life was reduced from the stress. This is why so many think garden grown flowers don’t last! They certainly won’t if cut like that!

My top tips for summer cutting and conditioning with special notes on some of my favourites -