Valentines prep for Florists!

O my goodness! Next time you get a flower arrangement, know that a lot of time went into that masterpiece.
I've been working at Fiori Floral for the last couple days to help prep flowers for the upcoming Valentine's Day and we still have a lot to do! Boxes upon boxes of flowers to process.

This is one of the MANY boxes of roses that I helped to prep. The flowers are wrapped in corrugated cardboard to protect them in transit. On top of that, is a layer of protective plastic and they are bundled together in groups with rubber bands.

You start by taking one of the bundles out of the box, removing the rubber bands from the stems, the protective plastic and then start stripping the leaves from the stems up to the corrugated cardboard which stays on the protect the flowers while processing.

Stripping the leaves off is easy if the roses don't have thorns, but these did! I started off doing it by with bare hands the first day because using the glove was so awkward, but figured out how to use the glove the second day! Trust me!
(It takes some people longer, ok?..........)

Not a great picture, but this shows what the flowers look like packed up in the protective cardboard. After each flower is given a clean cut (underwater to prevent air bubbles that will damage the flower), they are dipped in a product to help keep them fresh and put in floral buckets and off to the cooler they go until the floral designer uses them in their beautiful arrangements!
I believe I am proccessing Hydrangeas today..... gorgeous!

 

These are some of the Fiori creations ready to be delivered to some very lucky individuals!