Autumn roses and green bunnies steal the show!Yvette

Stunning autumn roses and cute green Easter bunnies were the stars of The Bloom College exhibit at the Melbourne International Flower and Garden Show last week.
Thousands of visitors stopped to admire our display which incorporated the very best of Victoria’s autumn roses, examples of the arrangements that you can learn to make through our courses, iPad App and DVD, and several very cute green bunnies.

Our roses came from Soho Rose Farm: growers of scented, hand-picked garden varieties including David Austin and Hybrid Tea roses. Many visitors to our display asked about both the source of the roses and the names of individual varieties that were featured. We are working on a way to have such information accessible for fans next year, but for now we can suggest that you visit the rose gallery section of Soho’s website to find out about the roses we used.

For now, however, we can share with you a few tips on caring for and using cut roses. Check out the Tips below.

The much admired bunnies were sourced from The Flower Dispensary in Geelong and the hand-painted eggs and recycled terracotta tube pots nestled around them from Nepal and France via Lily Pond, also in Geelong. Whilst the bunnies, pots and eggs are not naughty edibles, they are preparing to star as props in more than one Easter hunt over the next few days and we are pleased to be reusing and recycling.

Tips

• To choose the best freshly cut roses always look for roses with vivid colour and clean stems. If you are still unsure of the freshness of a rose, gently pinch the petals above the calyx: if the petals are soft, the rose is not fresh.
• Before placing your roses in a vase, remove the leaves that will be below the water level.
• You do not need to remove the thorns when arranging roses in a vase, only when creating a bouquet in your hand.
• When you put roses in a vase, cut the bottom 2cm from the stem on an angle to create a larger surface area for the rose the drink from. The angle cut also prevents the end of the stem sitting flat at the bottom of the vase, blocking water getting up the stem.
• Once you have arranged your roses, place them out of direct sunlight and in a draft-free place. Most importantly, place them somewhere you can enjoy them. The the bedside table works well for allowing you to admire your roses at the end of the day as well at the start.
• To keep cut roses in your care for longer, change the water as regularly as you can and keep re-cutting the stems. Shorter stems last longer!
• Did you know? … roses are the best healers I know. They begin healing themselves once we cut them. Just as we humans scab, they seal over and therefore cannot drink water without a fresh clean cut.