Results
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The carnations were the hardiest of all the cut flowers. Their survival was greatest with an average vase life of fifteen days in the 5% sucrose, control, and floralife solutions (Figure 1).
Roses lived longest in the floralife solution (about 15 days) whereas 5% sucrose and calcium + 2.5% sucrose solutions only supported roses for 9 days. Daffodils did not appear to be a durable flower. The longest surviving flower lasted 11 days
in 5% sucrose solution, though it did appear rather dry prior to that time. Control
daffodils died quickest, only living 6 days.
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Figure 1: Average vase-life of cut flowers by treatment
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The ANOVA of vase life for individual flower type (rose,
daffodil, or carnation) over the five treatments was insignificant. In order to determine the effect of the treatment
group an ANOVA was preformed across flower type. The ANOVA showed a significant difference
(p=0.000) and a Tukey’s pairwise
comparison showed that the vase life of carnations and roses were significantly
different from that of the daffodils in the Floralife
treatment and the vase life of roses and daffodils were different in the control
treatment. |
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Floralife treated roses also showed the least nodding of the flower head as the flower aged measured by the declining head angle (Figures 2 and 3)
Figure 3. Fresh rose (left) and fading rose with
nodding head (right). |
Figure 2. Average rose head angle by treatment group. |
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As the carnation flowers died, the head width decreased (Figure
4). The average head width was the
greatest for carnations in the 5 % sucrose solution throughout the experiment. The ANOVA of carnation head width on day 15
was found to be significant with a p-value of 0.027. A Tukey’s
test revealed that the difference was with the 5% sucrose treatment which was
significantly different from the control and Floralife
treatments. |
Figure 4. Average
carnation head width by treatment group. |
