Best Practices for Christmas Greens and Holiday Flowers
No question, cooler space becomes premium real estate at
the holidays. Depending on your location, sometimes it’s possible to
“house” Christmas foliage and wreaths in a roped area out in the car
park. If you do store greens in the parking lot, make sure they are not
in the path of any vehicle exhaust (combustion engines are a big source
of ethylene!)
If your weather is not cold enough (or too cold) you may find yourself struggling to store holiday greens, boxes of Ilex, calicarpa (Beautyberry) and mistletoe in back-stock coolers that are already stuffed with flowers. When deciding how to stage products, ask yourself these questions:
 1. Do I really have to keep greens in the cooler?
Yes, evergreens, huckleberry, berried branches, even eucalyptus like it cold and are best stored between 33-35 F. Storing at low temperatures helps reduce the incidence of disease problems and damage from ethylene exposure is minimized. When storing product inside a cooler, make sure to stack boxes and bundles on pallets leaving at least 10 inches between cooler wall and pallet to maximize air circulation. Handle bundles as follows: cool foliage bundles before covering with plastic to avoid dehydration. Cooling prior to covering helps avoid problems of condensation, subsequent rot and Botrytis infection. Make easy-to-read laminated signs to hang in different coolers so the staff knows what foliages go where.
2. What about the ethylene that Christmas greens produce? Will it kill flowers stored in the same cooler?
Holiday Greens Separated into Ethylene Groups:
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Christmas greens and wreaths are always popular items for consumers during the festive holiday season.
Photo courtesy of Mex Y Can Trading Inc.
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3. Are the other popular foliages, such as eucalyptus, boxwood and huckleberry, also ethylene producers or ethylene sensitive?
Huckleberry - Not sensitive to ethylene and does not produce ethylene (unless there is rot inside the bunches). Store bunches at 33-35 F.
Boxwood: Not sensitive and does not produce ethylene.
Eucalyptus: Does not produce ethylene and is not ethylene sensitive UNLESS the bunches are warm and water-stressed. Water stress causes eucalyptus to produce huge amounts of ethylene, so keep it well hydrated in a sugarless hydration solution such as Chrysal Professional #1 or Floralife Hydraflor. Store at 33-38 F.
4. What about berried branches?
Berries fall off in response to ethylene exposure, but (with the exception of Ilex sold in the Dutch auctions) most twigs bearing fruit (berries) are not treated with an anti-ethylene product like STS, so it is important to keep them apart from ethylene producing flowers, foliages, fruits and veggies. Rosehips, calicarpa, sumac, privet and hypericum fare best when processed in a hydration solution (no sugar) They gain no benefit from the sugar component in flower foods.
5. I want to make sure I am processing anthurium flowers properly. Those elegant blooms are wonderful to use at Christmas.
In nature, anthuriums grow in tropical climates so these graceful blooms really suffer when temperatures drop lower than 10 C. Chill damage causes the spathe (leathery plate-shaped flower part) to turn bluish or brown. It is absolutely critical to provide protection for these flowers against winter chill. Make sure your drivers know to place tropical arrangements in a protected area of the delivery van buffeted from cold windblasts every time the doors are opened. Remind them never to drop off tropical arrangements in cold entryways.
6. OK, I know how to pack and protect anthuriums from cold air, but how do I process these blooms for maximum vase life?
An easy and effective method of processing these tropical beauties is to drop a slow-release chlorine pill into the water. Anthuriums also love having their faces spritzed with Hawaiian Tropical Mist. It is easy to use and protects blooms from premature dehydration. Spray these tropical beauties once a day or every other day. It is OK to spray both the flower and foliage. Hawaiian Tropical Mist triggers a cellular reaction to prevent blooms from drying out too quickly.
7. Is it OK to store azaleas with Christmas greens?
Only at temperatures between 1-3.5 C. Otherwise you risk possible ethylene damage. Ask your vendor what temperature range he or she recommends for azaleas in a cooler.
8. What’s the difference between holly and Ilex?
Ilex is the botanical name for a wide variety of evergreen and deciduous shrubs and trees. English holly (I. aquifolium) is the most familiar variety mentioned in holiday legends and used in Christmas wreaths. This evergreen species grows well in the Northwest and coastal Northern California. English holly is available with green or variegated foliage and generally sold by the weighted box rather than by the bunch.
Ilex verticulata, commonly called winterberry, is a deciduous shrub and loses its leaves in the fall. Ilex branches sport heavy clusters of red berries with all or most of the foliage gone.
9. My berries tend to fall off juniper, English holly and mistletoe. Why?
Juniper is VERY ethylene sensitive and also produces ethylene – especially if there is any Botrytis inside the bunches. Follow the handling procedures described in #1. Holly is also very ethylene and temperature sensitive! It should be pre-treated with STS at grower level. Ask your supplier what pre-treatments he uses in post harvest.
10. How should I handle holly to get the best shelf life?
Handle holly like a fresh cut. There are varying opinions about the effectiveness of an anti-transpirant like Hydroseal. Most literature on holly focuses on storage temperatures. Holly likes temperatures between .5-1.5 C. At temperatures warmer than 1.5 C branches start a deteriorating rapidly. Berries turn black if exposed to ethylene, so remember to store away from all ethylene sources (cigarette smoke, exhaust, dirty water, fruits, high ethylene producing Christmas greens, flowers and rotting green material).
11. Sometimes the holly leaves, even the berries turn black. Is it OK to dip or spray a leaf glow on holly?
Never spray any berried foliage with an oil-based leaf gloss. Oil-based glosses cause berries to turn black. Leaf cleaner is OK if it is silicon-based. Berries also turn black when exposed to ethylene and/ or freezing temps. Another reason holly leaves start to turn black, is the plant may be infected with a disease, phytophthera ilicis. Sanitize cutters and design tables at least two times daily and throw infected stems into the trash can (not on the floor) to avoid spreading the contamination.
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