The secret to buying the freshest flowers

If you talk to any designer here at Hummingbird, they'll tell you that the most important step in making sure your flowers stay fresh for the longest time is by maintaining the cold cycle.  Some of our flowers come from as far away as Holland and South America, so keeping them in optimal condition as they are transported is crucial to extending their lives. But what is the cold cycle, and why is it so important?

A typical display cooler for arrangements

The cold cycle is what floral designers like to call the process of keeping cut flowers at low temperatures from the time that they are harvested to when they are purchased.  Cold temperatures (from 38-40 degrees Fahrenheit) keep the cells in a flower sluggish and slows them from using up their stores of nutrients, which prevents decay for as long as possible.

The cycle begins when the flowers are cut from the areas where they are grown.  After they're bundled together and packaged to be shipped, they're placed in cooled waiting areas, where the cycle begins.

The flowers are taken to the airport in refrigerated trucks and put on a temperature controlled plane (near the back, where it's coldest), and sent to their various destinations.

When flowers arrive at the wholesaler, they remain at optimal temperatures until they're bought by floral stores like ours and again put on a cooled truck to be taken to their final stop in the cold chain: our coolers.

Our Cooler

A good floral store will never leave flowers out at room temperature for long periods of time.  Floral designers use temperature change to their advantage.  Flowers that have tight petals that need to open (like daisies or lilies) are exposed to warmer air to open up so they can be used right away.  Flowers that don't need to be used for a few days are kept in their packaging and left on shelves in the cooler to stay fresh.

So, the cold cycle is integral to making sure flowers stay as fresh as possible.  From the fields they are grown in to your home, Hummingbird Floral uses the cold cycle to make sure you're getting the best flowers you can.

What do you think?  How long do your flowers usually last?  Do you have a secret tip to make them last longer.  Share it with us in a comment below.

-Your flower-loving friends at Hummingbird