How to Pick

You may harvest any of the flowers or foliage in the garden. Please cut with scissors or pruning shears (best for large stems).

Containers and vases are available with prices for filling. Your flowers will last longer if you put them in water immediately.

Cut the stems a little longer than you will want for your vase and strip off any foliage that would be in the water.

 Most flowers benefit from “flower food”. Take a packet for each bouquet - it makes 1 pint.

 How to Pay

Please pay with cash or a check to Old Mission Flowers in the white money tube below the Old Mission Flower sign on the garden shed door.  PayPal is also accepted.

 Tips for Keeping Flowers

Keep flowers in deep water with flower preservative added. Change the water once a day or so.  If the bouquet is large, flush it out with fresh water in a sink. 

Keep bouquets cool but not cold, away from direct sun and out of the wind. Keep the flowers away from fruit and vegetables; many blooms are sensitive to ethylene gas given off that can cause deterioration.

Groom bouquets every day or so to clip or pull faded blooms.  Re-trim stems with a sharp knife on an angle, especially if any flowers are looking limp (to open their vascular cells).

Some flowers, generally ones with a sticky sap, benefit from having their lower stems seared with a lighter or you may plunge the lower inch in very hot water before being placed in your vase.

Bouquet Making Tips

Remove foliage that would be below the water line and re-cut stems with a sharp knife on an angle.

If you want flowers that will last a long time, pick ones that are just starting to open or have buds.

 Table flowers shouldn’t be more than 12” tall so that guests can see over them.

 Clean rocks or marbles in the bottom of a vase will keep it from tipping over, especially for outdoor events where wind may be an issue.

 To prevent flowers from flopping over in a vase, here are some suggestions:

• Place foliage or large stemmed flowers in a vase first to form a structure that will help support smaller stemmed flowers.

• Florist’s pin holders, glass “frogs”, crumpled chicken wire, pebbles or glass beads can be used to keep stems in place.

• Tape can be used to make a grid across the top of a vase, tape a band around the ends to hold it in place.  Adhesive tape is adequate for small vases and doesn’t show.  For larger vases, use florist tape or gorilla tape is easy to cut up (duct tape is not).  Hide the tape with foliage.