### Rose bouquets in Phuket: the fortnight is won at the vase A rose arrives in whatever condition it arrives in, and after that almost everything is down to two minutes of work every other day. Well kept stems hold for one to two weeks, which is the top of the range for fresh cut flowers. Neglected ones give up on day four with the petals still looking healthy, which is what makes the failure so confusing. Change the water every two days and rinse the vase properly at the same time. Slime builds on the glass walls faster in warm rooms, and it goes straight back into clean water within the hour, so a refill on top of a dirty vessel buys almost nothing. Wash it with a brush if the neck is narrow. A rinse under the tap only moves the film around. Rinsing the glass matters as much as refilling it. Recut a centimetre off the stems at every change, at an angle, with a knife rather than scissors. It takes a minute for the whole bunch and is often the difference between a week and a fortnight. Top the vase up between changes as well. A large bunch drinks a surprising amount in a warm room, and stems that reach air for a few hours behave much like stems that were never put in water at all. > "Two questions cover most of the calls we get about roses. How often is the water changed, and is the vase washed when it is. The second one surprises people." > JFLOO florist Where the vase stands does the rest. Direct sun through glass is the obvious problem, and an air conditioner blowing across the flowers is the less obvious one, because dry moving air pulls water out of the petal edges faster than still warm air does. The fruit bowl is worth mentioning separately. Ripening fruit gives off ethylene, petals drop early in response, and a bowl of mango on the same table will shorten the bunch by days. Move one or the other. The island adds its own timing to this. We cover the west coast in 90 to 180 minutes, with separate windows for villas, marinas and airport runs, and between May and October we build extra time into the route because a shower on the hill roads costs more than the distance suggests. Evening traffic on the same roads does the same thing. Marinas and villas keep separate windows for a practical reason. A berth or a gate takes longer to reach than the map distance suggests, and quoting the real slot is better than quoting the optimistic one. Roses travel dry, which is why the box wants opening on arrival rather than after dinner. Air gets into the stem while it waits, the head is the first part to be starved, and the neck folds over a day or two later with no way back. In air at 25 to 33 °C that happens sooner than the same box would manage in a cool hallway. Orders are taken 9 AM to 10 PM, and a delivery slot agreed with the recipient beats a guess every time. For a hotel birthday or an anniversary dinner by the sea we aim the drop at the hour before the table is booked rather than at the middle of the day. Rose bouquets in Phuket start at 2200 THB, and payment goes by bank card, Apple Pay, Google Pay, PromptPay, bank transfer or cash to the courier in baht. There comes a point where the bunch stops repaying the work, and it shows earlier than people expect. Outer petals go papery at the edge, the head widens and flattens, and the dark centre stops being hidden. Pulling out the two or three worst stems and rebuilding the rest into a smaller vase usually buys a few more days. If a head has already gone over there is one thing worth trying, and it works occasionally rather than always. Cut that stem again, sharply and higher up, then lay the whole flower flat in a basin of cool water for an hour or two with the stem and head both submerged. Sometimes the neck takes up water and stiffens. If it does not, pull the stem out before it drags down the look of the rest of the bunch.