Cut

On Tuesday morning I cut some of the gazanias.  

My book said that flowers should be cut in the morning when they're firm and fresh.  It also said that they should be cut after their petals were open.  I was unclear about whether it meant after the flower had reached the point of maturity where the petals opened, or after that moment in the day when the petals were fully spread.  It also said that flowers like daisies (which I rather think gazanias are) should be cut when the petals were fully open but the central flower still tightly closed.  I'm unclear about this one.  "Central flower"?  Not following.  My book also said that flowers that secrete a milky liquid should be seared in boiling water and any fresh flowers cut should be immediately immersed in tepid water.  I didn't know that the gazanias would secrete a milky substance when cut, but I found out.  I also found out that the leaves of the gazanias have white undersides.  

So anyway on Tuesday morning I went out with a bowl of tepid water and a sharp knife and sliced into a gazania that had closed petals but I knew was mature enough that had the sun been higher the flower would be open.  It bled milk into the tepid water.  I cut a few more. 

I then brought the flowers indoors, boiled some water and re-cut at a sharper angle, dipping the fresh wounds into boiling water before putting them finally into plain old water from the tap in a tarnished silver sugar bowl.  (I'm not into advanced planning here at the inconsistent house and so the cut flowers were going into the thing that appeared to be the right size.)

They were, of course, still shut.  I had a thought that maybe as they warmed up they would open.  Since we've turned off the heat for the year the outside and inside were not very warm for a couple of days.  It was reaching highs of about 12 and very rainy and grey.  The flowers did not open.  I wondered if perhaps I had cut them at a bad time.  I wondered if they just needed sunlight like their still-attached-to-roots brethren.  

This afternoon, the sun came out at last.  The windowsill with the cut flowers started to warm up and shine up and now I have a little tarnished sugarbowl of pretty bright-faced gazanias.  

   

The theory is that good-for-cutting flowers will actually produce more blossoms if you cut them.  That's the theory.  We'll see what plays out in my garden.