Cutting Rose Blooms for Arrangements
It is best to cut roses in the morning or evening. Cut rose from bush at desired length. Have a bucket of clean water in the garden and immediately put stem under water and re-cut the stem under the water. This prevents air from blocking the cells, preventing good hydration of the cut flower. When all the desired roses are cut in this manner, set bucket in cool area for at least an hour to "harden", or preserve, cut bloom for arranging or setting a bouquet of your lovely roses in the house to admire. This bucket should be full of water, so that the roses can be submerged to the bloom. Any stage of bloom may be cut as long as the sepals have opened. The sepals are the green covering around the bud, that drop down when the rose bud is exposed. As long as the sepals are down, the bud will open, in time.
If you have access to an old refrigerator, (one that does not defrost), or your kitchen refrigerator, if you have no fruit or apples in it giving off gasses which roses do not tolerate, place the roses in water after they have hardened and in the refrigerator to hold, if necessary, in hot weather. I use a solution of RVB and distilled water and have kept roses in the refrigerator for up to ten days. The RVB can be ordered from mail order from the American Rose Magazine, and instructions will come with it. This solution can only be used with refrigeration as it becomes ineffective at room temperature. You may add 7-UP or Sprite to the water in your arrangement, to prolong the life of the flowers. Please remember to remove all leaves which are under the water level in your arrangement, as the foliage tends to rot and shorten the life of your cut roses.