EXTENDING THE VASE LIFE OF CUT CLEMATIS FLOWERS

Abstract

Clematis is a popular vine with showy flowers therefore there is an increasing interest in growing it for cut flowers. The results of trials – carried out for over a decade – on vase life of 54 clematis taxa are presented. Only 3 cultivars lasted as short as 3 days when kept in water (‘Krakowiak’, ‘Olgae’ and ‘Pink Flamingo’), 7 cultivars had the vase life of 11–12 days (‘Arabella’, ‘Blue Light’, ‘Nina’, ‘Proteus’, ‘Rooguchi’, ‘Silver Moon’ and ‘Solina’) while for most of taxa it ranged between 6 and 8 days. The efficiency of postharvest treatments depended on a taxon and a preservative. Generally, none of the solutions tested significantly pro-longed flower vase life, though the standard preservative composed of 8-HQC and sucrose markedly im-proved flower longevity in 10 cultivars. Clematis flowers should be harvested when fully open and the shoot length does not affect flower longevity. Though the flowers of ‘Julka’ did not produce ethylene in de-tectable amounts they were sensitive to exogenous C2H4 and 24 h conditioning with the inhibitors of eth-ylene action, STS or 1-MCP, significantly prolonged their longevity. However, this treatment was not com-pletely effective against ethylene as flowers pulsed in ethephon solutions had their vase life decreased rela-tive to flowers untreated with ethylene.

Keywords

• biocide
• ethylene
• preservatives
• sucrose