News Morrisons boosts flower power with stress-testing science

• Stress testing a small sample of every batch in a ‘Flower Gym’, acclimatized air conditioning chambers akin to those used by the SAS. This ensures only the most robust blooms are ever used and guarantees the highest quality of bouquet.
• Suspending flowers that can only be grown overseas in a state of ‘sleep’ whilst in transit to maintain freshness. By cooling the plants to just below 6C life processes are temporarily slowed with flowers ‘woken up’ on arrival, warmed and fed.
• Developing sophisticated flower diets to give them the nutrition to survive for as long as possible.
• Eliminating pests from flower crops by biological control. Which is developing natural and unique ecosystems, instead of using pesticides.

The new freshest ‘field to vase’ flower delivery service launches this month as an addition to the supermarket’s raft of shopkeeping services. Over 400 fully trained florists create up to 900,000 bouquets a week and over 260 million flowers a year pass through Morrisons Flowerworld.co.uk.

With Brits spending £2.3 billion on cut flowers and indoor plants every year, British-grown varieties now represent 12% of the market*. British flower businesses, such as Morrisons Flowerworld.co.uk, are ‘blooming’ with many of the home-grown flowers made into bouquets and packed in the field within minutes of being cut. Being involved in growing and bouquet-making means that the time flowers spend in transit is cut by nearly a week – and can be ‘field to vase’ in just 24 hours.

‘The Man Who Nose Best’

A botanist with a family history in flowers and plants spinning back generations, Tim Woodhouse who works with growers directly, as well as managing his own flower fields, handling over five million flowers a week with his team at the Derby-based family business, now part of Morrisons. He also nurtures one acre of wildflower habitats across the Derby site working with bee conservation project Plan Bee to maintain bee populations in the region.

Tim forecasts what flowers customers want to buy based on expert advice from celebrity florists, the fashion industry and home decor trendmakers. He then selects seeds for flowers that may take up to two years to grow.

His tips for maintaining flower freshness at home are:

1. Fill a clean vase with fresh tap water and Morrisons Flower Food** following the instruction on the sachet
2. Cut approximately 1 cm from the end of all flower stems at a 45 degree angle
3. Remove any leaves that will be below the water level Place flowers in the vase as soon as possible to prevent air bubbles getting into the stem
4. Display in a cool location out of direct bright sunlight where possible
5. Refresh the flowers every 3 to 4 days by re-cutting the stems and placing in fresh clean water
6. If the water in your vase goes cloudy it is because of bacteria growing in the water so change the water before the bacteria block the flower stems

And don’t:

• Keep away from ethylene emitting fruit bowls, especially strawberries and bananas
• Do not ‘bash’ the flower stems before putting them into the vase – is an old belief that it supposedly increases the water intake of the flower but it actually helps bacteria grow in the water which is bad for the flowers

Morrisons acquired Flowerworld in 2011 after working with Tim and his team for almost 20 years. Flowerworld bouquets, with striking designs and great value for money, are now available on www.flowerworld.co.uk and in 491 Morrisons supermarkets nationwide.

[*source: NFU] [**Morrisons Flower Food has been developed over many years working with specialist flower nutritionists and gives your flowers all of the nutrients they need.]