spring bulbs | office plants | bedroom plants | UK growers | organic and fair-trade | mystery plants | latin names | hard to kill houseplants | working in the industry | black flowers | blue flowers | reflowering poinsettias | DIY wedding flowers | pets eating plants | overgrown houseplants | weird flowers on plants | starting a business | flowers with specific names | naming flowers and plants |
Click on the above to jump to a specific section
Your question not listed? Try the search facility or send us an email
Q My amaryllis/daffodil/hyacinth/cyclamen/spring bulb has finished flowering - what do I do with it? return to top
You can throw it on the compost, plant it out in the garden, or you can encourage it to flower again indoors next winter. Keep on watering and feeding the plant for about six weeks after flowering, then reduce the watering until about September, when you stop. The leaves should die back during this period of their own accord. Put the plant somewhere dry and frost free; in the spring the bulb will put forth shoots. Then you should start watering and feeding again. Simple.
Bear in mind that some bulbs prepared for Christmas flowering can exhaust themselves putting on a spectacular show earlier than they would normally. The next year’s flowers may not be as large or numerous, while the bulb replenishes its resources.
Amaryllis
Daffodil
Cyclamen
Hyacinth
Q Which plants are best for an office? return to top
Indoor plants can reduce fatigue and cold-related illnesses by more than 30%. They also alleviate stress, help us relax, and increase our general wellbeing. They suck harmful chemicals from photocopiers and traffic fumes out of the air, and improve humidity, making it easier for us to breathe. So indoor plants are great for office and work spaces! (Unless you hate your job so much you’d rather be ill...)
The best plants are easy-care foliage (green) plants – F&PA recommends ivy, dracaena, palms, peace lilies and spider plants. If you want a bit of colour on your desk too, pot chrysanthemums and gerbera are perfect. Some F&PA members will come in and look after the plants for you – these companies will maintain office plants.
Healthy Plants
Hard to kill plants
Q Will the plants in my bedroom suck the oxygen out of the air while I sleep? return to top
Simple answer? No. Plants do give off carbon dioxide at night, but they absorb it during the day, giving off oxygen and improving the air we breathe. So at the end of the day there is a balance. Besides, you would have to sleep in a bright airtight room crammed full of plants before you noticed CO2 levels rising enough to affect your breathing. The plants are also absorbing harmful chemicals from furnishings and decor, traffic and smoke, thereby improving the air quality a second way.
Q Do we grow any flowers here in the UK? return to top
There are many flowers grown in the UK, though in much smaller quantities than a generation ago. Most commonly available are daffodils and tulips in spring; sunflowers, sweet Williams and stocks in summer; gladioli and foliage in autumn, and chrysanthemums all year round.
Source of Import
Q How will I find organic/fairtrade flowers and plants? return to top
Many flowers and plants are ethically grown without being labelled as such. Rules and regulations make it difficult for retailers to label their products without getting into trouble with the organisations that run the schemes. For instance, if ethically-grown imported roses are included with UK-grown foliages, the bouquet cannot be called “fair-trade”. Around 50% of some retailer’s product may be ethically grown, but only 2% able to labelled as such.
There are increasing amounts of flowers being grown organically but it is still a small market. However, growers are constantly reducing their use of pesticides and chemicals and have been for many years. Like ethical products, it can take up to five years and large amounts of paperwork to be called “organic”. Some flowers cannot be successfully grown commercially under organic methods – they are fine in the home garden where only one or two are required, but if several thousand are needed in perfect condition, this becomes impossible.
Some F&PA members specialise in sourcing ethical or organic products – you can find details of organic and ethical suppliers here.
Q I've been given a mystery plant. How do I look after it? return to top
The first step is to identify it. All retailers should label their plants with the correct botanic name (the name a scientist would use for the plant) – if the label has a brand name like “pink bubbles”, or just says “houseplant”, go back to the retailer and ask them to identify it for you.
If you have been given a plant with no label, then follow some basic rules.
-
Furry-leaved plants and juicy-leaved plants usually come from deserts or dry areas and need less water and bright light.
-
Plants with big glossy leaves usually come from tropical regions and need warmth and regular misting, plus an occasional wipe with a damp cloth.
-
Plants with lots of tiny leaves often need cooler, shadier spots.
-
Flowering plants can be treated as a long-life bouquet, and composted after flowering. However, many will re-flower after loving care, the same time next year. A flower is often easier to identify than a leaf.
-
Bulb plants need a period of rest and dryness to recoup their energy for re-flowering.
Go through our plant fact pages and see if you can spot your plant. Chances are it’s there.
Q Why do we need complicated Latin names? Why can’t we use English ones? return to top
1. It’s universal. With the correct botanic name you can look up the plant in any reference book anywhere in the world and get the same information. Sometimes a plant will have a common name, but this may not be what everyone calls it, or not what it is called in other areas. A common name is like a nickname for a person; everyone might call you “blondie” or “matchbox”, but that’s not how you’re listed in the phonebook!
2. It’s accurate. Engligh or common names don't help identify the plant – for instance, primroses, guelder roses, and rockroses are not roses! A snapdragon in the UK is called a wolfmouth in France. What we call lily of the valley, the Germans know as May bells. See the confusion? However, every country calls these flowers Antirrhinum and Convallaria, their botanic names. So you always get what you want.
3. It’s identifying. To simplify, the first part of the botanic name is the “surname”, and identifies the family the plant belongs to. Just like people, members of the same family share resemblances. Some plants have few family members or few differences, and so just the surname – Tulipa - is enough to identify them for most purposes. Sometimes the botanic name is similar to the common name, which makes it easier to remember.
4. It’s informative. The second part of the name identifies particular members of that family; some families are very large and varied and so both parts of the name are needed. Euphorbia pulcherrima will get you a Christmas poinsettia; Euphorbia tirucalli will get you a funny-looking succulent. Occasionally this second part also tells you something about the plant – nanus is small, alba is white, fragrans is scented.
Flowers - Common Names
Flowers- Botanical Names
Plants - Common Names
Plants - Botanical Names
Q I'm hopeless with houseplants - what do you recommend that I could keep alive? return to top
If you think you can't look after houseplants, or if your houseplants die on you, don't despair. You don't necessarily have black fingers instead of green ones! You may have the wrong environment in your home for the plants you chose, or you may have picked plants requiring more specialist care. The two things to find out are 1) what conditions your home has, and choose plants to suit; and 2) what you do to plants when caring for them, and choose plants that like that type of care.
Q I want to work with flowers/plants - where do I go for advice? return to top
Good choice! There are plenty of ways to work with flowers and plants - if you want to get your hands dirty outside, or want to stay clean in an office; if you like getting up early or prefer to work late; if you like practical projects or are better at academic study.
Many Local Education Authorities run basic flower arranging courses as night classes. In addition, local NAFAS, WI or church groups may provide opportunities for flower arranging. This will help you find out if you have the aptitude for putting colours together and creating intricate designs in 3D.
There are also opportunities for volunteering with nature groups or local authorities in clearing undergrowth, or gardening for the housebound, which will help you decide if an outdoors, hands-on career is right for you.
If you don’t want to get creative or dirty, then perhaps wholesaling, importing, buying for a supermarket, or checking quality at a packhouse is right for you. Thousands of people are employed in the horticulture industry, and not all of them are making bouquets or planting trees; but many of them love the work they do. We do here at the F&PA.
Q Is there such a thing as a black flower? return to top
Jet black flowers rarely exist in nature, but many flowers have very dark purple or red variants. The blackest flowers include forms of violet, kangaroo paw, tacca, and Salvia discolor. Roses, tulips, and calla lilies all have deep purple forms that satisfy most of us with Gothic or Emo tastes.
Q Are there any true blue flowers? return to top
True blue is the rarest flower colour in nature, but there are still some naturally blue flowers to be had. Delphiniums, cornflowers, echinops, iris, grape hyacinth, agapanthus, eryngium, campanula and hydrangea are probably the most readily available.
Q How do get my poinsettia to reflower? return to top
You don’t; that’s the simplest answer. It is possible to get them to redden up again – if you have the patience of a saint, a lightproof black binbag and nothing else to do for the next twelve months. Most of us have jobs. The plant will have probably cost you little more than a fiver so treat it as a temporary winter ornament and compost it once the leaves begin to drop. You’ll thank us for it in the long run.
Q I want to do the flowers for my own wedding – how do I go about this? return to top
Well, if you are sewing the dress and baking the cake yourself, why not? It’s not like you’ve got enough to worry about on the day, what with making sure your make-up’s in place, trying not to spill anything on the dress, and keeping grandma off the champagne until the reception.
There is no reason to imagine that providing wedding flowers is easy. First you’ll have to work out the quantities of flowers you need for all the venue displays, bouquets and buttonholes. Make sure you’ve got enough containers, wire, ribbon, pins, foam etc. to make everything with. Then you’ll need to plan a couple of weeks ahead so you get all the flowers open in perfect condition in time for the day, not too “blown” or tight in bud (a tricky business). Then you’ll need to condition them overnight somewhere cool (buckets all over the kitchen and green scratched hands). After that you arrange them, with enough skill so they don’t look like something off the Generation Game, and you’ll need to do this on the morning of the wedding so the buttonholes and bouquet are fresh and not squashed and droopy...
Otherwise leave it to the professionals; they can work to your budget – however small - and your colour choice, to give you exactly what you want. They’ll also know the techniques for attaching flowers to a barn roof or pew end, and getting a delicate bloom to last through the day out of water. “Doing the flowers” requires a considerable amount of skill and creativity.
If you’re really on a tight budget, ask for a hand-tied mixed bouquet as your wedding bouquet, let the guests bring their own buttonholes, and stick to seasonal flowers and foliages in the venues rather than demanding a particular flower.
Q My baby/pet has just swallowed a leaf – what should I do? return to top
Don’t panic. Most plants aren’t harmful in tiny quantities , and those few that are, we tend to vomit up immediately. The only exception is lilies and cats – for some reason cats are very susceptible and should be kept well away from lilies; dogs and other pets are fine around them. We would also say do not deliberately eat any flower or plant unless it has been specifically sold for this use.
Q My swiss cheese plant/yucca is out of control – help! return to top
You can prune both these plants to manageable proportions. Just be brave, and use very sharp secateurs for the Swiss cheese, and a wood saw for the yucca
Q My mother in law’s tongue/cactus is flowering – is this normal? return to top
Sanseveria (mother in law’s tongue) don’t often flower, and it’s not a particularly glamorous flower –you wouldn’t wear it as a corsage – but it’s normal. You’ll see a small pale green flowerspike nestled amongst the leaves.
Cacti on the other hand have gorgeous flamboyant blooms in bright colours, which always surprise the unaware – how can something so ugly and small have a flower so beautiful and big? (Now you know why some people get fanatical about cacti...) Happy adult cacti could flower every year.
Q I want to start a florist business – what’s the best way to do this? return to top
Firstly running a florist business is very different to being a florist. You’re basically running a shop, that happens to sell a product with a short shelf life that needs specialist handling.
We recommend some training not only in floristry, but in running a small business. You’ll need to understand employment law, health & safety, VAT, marketing, managing staff, payroll, contracts, and basic bookkeeping (even if you outsource this). Unless you are rich you will also need a robust business plan to take to your bank manager to persuade him to fund you; so do some thorough research in your area into potential customers, suppliers, and competitors; and work out all your expected costs.
There are organisations that help entrepreneurs and new businesses; and the government has just implemented a fund to help women set up businesses (sorry guys but you’ve had it your way for years!)
Take a look at our industry section for more information
Q Where can I buy a flower that’s called Lucy/Esme/Delores/Archibald/Rotherham? return to top
The Royal Horticultural Society has a service on their website rhs.org.uk which they will let non-members use without payment. You click the Plant Finder link and type in the name, and it will find varieties of plant which share that name, and link you to nurseries which might sell them. If it’s an obscure plant, or an obscure name, you might find that only one nursery sells it and they are out of stock or it’s out of season. Then you buy a nice pot mum or an orchid instead.
Q How do I name a flower after my Uncle Bert/Aunt Edna/cat Percy? return to top
First a quick lesson in developing a new plant. The breeder “crosses” the parent plants (that is, s/he takes pollen from one flower and spreads it on the anthers of the other flower) and waits for it to set seed. Then s/he takes all the seed and sows it and waits for it to germinate and grow. When the plants are big enough to flower, s/he then looks at the results, takes the best of those plants and repeats the process again. This takes many years. Several thousand plants are eventually whittled down to one or maybe two good plants with new characteristics – if the breeder is lucky. At this point most breeders understandably want to name their hard work after their loved ones, rather than a complete stranger...
However there are one or two companies that will take a plant and name it for you, for a fee; usually one of the rejected “crosses” that will not go into commercial production and sale, but which is a perfectly serviceable plant nonetheless.