This article is for orchid enthusiasts who want to know how to keep orchids alive to their fullest using these orchid water tubes.
Orchids are precious, long-lasting flowers that signify love, beauty, strength, and elegance. They are a prominent character in many floral arrangements due to their pleasing beauty.
However, cut orchid flowers are fragile and easily dehydrated, so they require gentle support to stay fresh and last longer.
The most common practice to keep cut flowers fresh for a period of time is to place them in water. Orchids, on the other hand, are not big fans of water. Too much water can result in root rot in flowers, leading to the corsage’s demise.
To address this issue, floral water tubes have come to the stage. They are incredibly useful for keeping the flowers attractive for a sufficient time period.
Why is an orchid water tube used?
Orchid water tubes, or floral water tubes, are small plastic cylinders like containers that can be filled with water to accommodate the cut orchid flowers, so you can keep the flowers fresh and hydrated for a long period.
It would be better if you could treat the water inside the tube with a floral preservative. It will help the flowers stay awake even further.
Floral water tubes are available in different lengths and several shapes, including rounded bottom tubes, tubes with a barb on the end, tubes with long stems, and flexible plastic sachets. Floral plastic sachets are also called FLOSPAC.
Each tube comes with a flexible soft rubber cap. You can insert the stem of your orchid flower through this cap. These caps seal around the stem of the flower tightly, so you do not need to worry about any water leakage through the cap.
Typically, a floral tube can hold 8 to 18 mL of water. There are specialty orchid water tubes with 15 cm or 30 cm long stems.
They are useful in making flower bouquets. Floral tubes with a barb on the end, called anchor vials, are used to anchor flowers to floral foams.
If you are not sure that the use of floral water tubes can hinder the beauty of the flower arrangement, the straightforward answer is no, it is not going to interfere with the beauty of your decoration.
Some floral tubes are also available in green, allowing you to easily blend them into a greenery background.
If not, you can use regular white colored transparent tubes and mask them by wrapping them with a suitable tape or something.
It is not unusual for flowers to wither rapidly in hot and dry climates unless you take good care of them. So, in such environments, floral tubes will do a marvelous job of quenching the thirst of your orchids.
Further, if you wish to use natural floral decorations for an event, the use of water tubes is ideal to keep the flowers fresh and beautiful throughout the event. Certain water tubes come with a sharp end, so they can be easily embedded in floral foam.
Individual orchid flowers do not have a long stem to use in floral arrangements. In such situations, you can use water tubes with a long stem, so the long end will act as an artificial stem.
How do you fill a floral water tube?
Well, filling water into floral water tubes is so easy. You can use a test tube filler to fill water into floral tubes. If not, just submerge your water tubes in a water bath and place the cap. Now they are ready to go.
If you want to refill the tube after placing the flower, you can do it by just removing the cap along with the flower. Once you’ve refilled the tube, place the cap again.
You can decide what should be inside the water tube, is it just tap water or water with added floral preservatives.
The water inside the tube correlates with the life time of the flower that it flourishes. In fact, if you wish to extend the lifetime of your cut orchids, the use of water with floral preservatives is the best way to go.
You can mix a little bit of chrysal (commercial floral preservative) with water for your cut orchids. If you’d prefer a homemade preservative to commercial ones, you can certainly create your own preservative mixture. Just mix a little bit of sugar, lime, and bleach with water and use it for your orchid flowers.
How to put orchids in water tubes?
Here we have given you the step-by-step process of how to place your orchids on floral water tubes.
- Choose the flowers you’d like to cut. To ensure a long vase life, choose buds or half-opened orchid blooms rather than fully bloomed blossoms if at all possible
- Cut the stem of the orchid diagonal with a sharp knife. You can use a pruning shear too. We recommend you cut the stem under water if possible. It helps prevent clogging up the air bubbles from the cut stem.
Note: To ensure flowers last a considerably long period of time, make sure to cut the flower along with the plant stem, not just the stem of the orchid flower itself.
- Take the orchid water tubes filled with water.
- Pierce the cap with the stem of the flower. Alternatively, you can put a little slit or small hole on the cap with a sharp knife and slip the stem through it.
Note: Be mindful that the hole is not too small in a way that it squeezes the stem. If not, it will disturb water absorption by the stem.
- 5. Spot the flower in a suitable place. Avoid direct sunlight and extreme heat. The best room temperature for your orchid cut flowers lies between 12 to 18 oC. Avoid placing your flowers near ripening fruits . Ethylene gas that emitted from ripened fruits has the ability to shorten the vase life of your orchids.
How long do orchids last in water tubes?
When compared with other flowers, orchids are durable flowers. However, though orchids can last for a few months on the plant, they won’t live that much longer once they are cut from the plant. The length of time that the orchid flower will last depends on the orchid species.
If properly cared for, cut Dendrobium and Cattleya flowers can live for around 1 week, whilst Phalaenopsis, Paphiopedilum, Mokara, Cymbidium, and Oncidium species last for 3 weeks in water.
Most importantly, it is crucial to maintain a desirable environment around the flowers for them to reach their fullest. For the sake of maximizing the life of your lovely orchid flowers, avoid stressful and harsh environments.
Where to buy floral water tubes?
Floral water tubes are not rare. Indeed, they are readily available. You can buy them for an affordable price from your local market or even order them online from selling platforms like Amazon, eBay, Etsy, Bonanza, and so on.
To keep your cut orchid flowers fresh and vibrant for an extended period of time, the use of orchid water tubes would be an effective approach.
Orchid water tubes are very simple and easy to handle. Because of their light weight and variety of shapes, they are an excellent choice to use for floral arrangements.
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