water lilies as cut flowers

by a.stevens
(lennox head)

i want to cut the flowers of so i can give them in bunch to some one but not sure what time to pick them eg night morning t avoid drooping also how long will the they stay straight for?

Doug says that water lily flowers make great cut flowers. The trick is to cut them on the first day of blooming. Short stemmed flowers can be floated on a bowl of water while the long-stem flowers should have their stems wound with florists wire to hold them upright.

If you get the flower on it's first day, don't let the stem dry out, wire up the long stems and keep the stems always in water (with cut flower food), you should get the normal blooming length of time from each flower.