Todich Floral Design Blog

Most of us can recognize the scent of a rose or a dandelion from afar. Science might have a hand in changing this fact. Shakespeare’s famous quote, “ That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet,” may not ring true for all time.

Researchers at the University of Florida, have found a way to chance the scent of a flower. The genes that control the chemicals that make up the scent of a flower have been isolated. This means that the different compounds of a flowers scent can be increased or decreased, making it possible to create different fragrances.

Flower breeders have mainly worked on changing the appearance of flowers, changing their size, colour and the length of the blooming period. Scent has not been addressed this closely.

Due to this breeding of larger, enduring and colourful flowers, it appears that unintentionally flowers with a weaker scent have been selected, and many flowers are losing the strength of their scent.

In the future it might be possible to choose flowers not only according to appearance, but in terms of scent as well. We might soon be bringing vanilla scented flowers! Or an entire wedding could be designed not only according to one colour scheme but its scent as well. If you are planning an event this is something you do not have to worry about, and Todich Floral Design, will make design and decoration all that much more simple.

Another interesting the research team made was that, flowers like petunias release their scent from their petals. The scent is only released once the petals have opened.

Studies are set to continue, in an effort to set the scents of flowers, without affecting the appearance of the flower.

Growth patterns of plants and flowers due to change, alongside other natural phenomenons

Flowers and plants are expected to bloom up to two months earlier by 2080, says University of Edinburgh Professor Ray Thompson. Based on data going back to 1775, temperatures are forecast to increase by 5ºC in the next 60 years.

According to the same scientists, each 1ºC increase in temperature brings flowering 11 days forward. This early flowering could increase the risk of disease and the potential for severe crop damage by late frosts in the year.

Predictions such as this highlight the importance climate change has in the floristry industry. If temperatures continue to rise, it is almost certain the price of cut flowers will increase. The varieties of flowers will change and the current seasonal flowers will be in different seasons.

The worst hit areas are likely to have oceanic climates, such as Western Europe, the US east coast, New Zealand, Chile and North Africa.

Working with a natural resource such as flowers means we need to have an even stronger outlook. We as an industry must ensure we do our utmost to reduce climate change and prevent the effects of global warming by reducing our carbon emissions and waste material, reusing as much as possible and recycling everything we can. To find out more about what we do to save the planet, email us or call us on 020 7737 1166.

(29.09.09, Horticulture Week, HortWeek.com)

It’s orchids again…
Would you live in a house shaped as an orchid? Apparently, there is one available for just a couple of million pounds relatively close to London. The architects took the bee orchid as a model for designing the Orchid House - a very interesting approach to country living. It’s (or should be) located at Lower Mill Estate, here in the UK. Coincidentally (or not) there are a number of orchid species that can be found there, but it was the particular camouflage of the bee orchid that generated the design.

The house, to be built from laminated veneer lumbar (LVL) ribs and clad with timber shingles is to blend well with the environment, offering flexible living spaces, with the kitchen at the very center, and the surrounding space like a ‘whorl’ of leaves encircling the seed of the flower.

As far as interior flower decoration in the house, the architects didn’t say, but orchids seem like the way to go.

It goes without saying that everyone one of us should do whatever we can to reduce the negative effect our lifestyles and businesses have on the environment. In fact, we’ve done a lot over the past years to ecologically improve our business operations to ensure we have the lowest possible ecological impact. Needless to say, this is far from over. There is always something new and different we can do to make things cleaner and greener. We are always happy to salute an effort in that direction. This time we salute a small company from France, called La Petite Reine.

We’ve all gotten used to having things delivered to our addresses in the cities. Many of you probably use our flower delivery services. What if there was a way to do this in an absolutely clean and environmentally safe way? The guys from La Petite Reine seem to have found an answer - human powered vehicles or Cargocycles as they call them. These are basically tricycles with a cargo space attached on the rear axle. The cargo space allows for about 180 kg of weight, or about 1400 litres of volume, to be delivered to distances of up to 30 km. The vehicle itself weighs only about 80 kg. Best of all, they are completely silent and emit no pollutants whatsoever.

Deliveries are so far available in three major cities in France - Bordeaux, Rouen, and Dijon, but the company is looking for partners in order to expand its services to other countries as well.

The road to a clean and green business is a long one, sometimes very slow even, but we will get there eventually with persistent efforts and a will to improve.

Every once in a while the Japanese make a discovery that rocks the world. Well, if not the whole world than the world of horticulture at least. The latest advancement is Pafcal (fake soil), that has been developed by a Japanese company called Suntory. Pafcal is basically a urethane based product that resembles soil in almost every way, but weighs only half the weight of natural soil. This came up as a solution for a problem that the Japanese are having in big cities (mostly Tokyo), where soil is used on roofs to provide heat insulation. Since natural soil can prove to be heavy for this job, especially since Tokyo is built upon “shaky” grounds prone to earthquakes, pafcal was the perfect way to by-pass the weight problem. Plant growth on roofs with this new soil can reduce roof temperatures by about 10 degrees C (18 F), and bring a little life to an otherwise lifeless atmosphere of concrete and steel.

Luckily, it’s not that warm in the UK , but roof gardens are definitely interesting, and fake soil will certainly make it a lot easier to put some green on the old roof. We’re definitely looking into this further. If it proves economic and ecological, you may see pafcal in your office plant pots in the future.

[Via: Zmescience.com]