Wooo! It’s a scorcher out there, and it’s only going to get worse! I don’t know about you, but I can barely keep my lawn alive during this heat, and flowers — forget about it! So how is it florists keep such beautiful flowers all year long, even on deliveries?! Here are some tips our florists shared with us yesterday.

Tips For Keeping Flowers Cool In The Heat

• Make sure the A/C in your delivery vehicle is in good shape and prepared for summer.
• Make sure the delivery vehicle is cooled off before loading. – via Lisa from West End Florist, Rome GA
• Invest in a spare key so you can leave the car running while making other deliveries. – via Emily from The Enchanted Florist, Asheville NC
• Check newly arrived flowers for improper temperatures.
• Immediately prep and refrigerate newly arrived flowers.
• Try not to move flowers in and out of the cooler while designing.
• Make sure the temperature of your cooler is adjusted properly for your flowers.
• Choose lighter colored delivery vehicles to help keep them cool.

Flowers and plants need to be kept at a certain temperature in order to breath and intake food properly. Keeping flowers at a consistent temperature is vital for reaching a it’s full vase-life potential. Low temperatures also slow down the growth of bacteria and other micro-organisms, which will extend the vase life for customers.

Before a flower arrives at your local flower shop, it has made a long journey. Starting with the growers, they are shipped in refrigerated planes or trucks to the wholesale level. Wholesalers keep these flowers in coolers until they are shipped to the florist, who also stores them inside a cooler. After all this refrigeration, you can see why flowers would get finicky once they are out of the cool. Florists do their best to maintain the right temperatures for their flowers.

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