Pins in tulips

[Dutchoma]

Posted this in chat, but got no replies. so: here goes again:

My sister-in-law bought me some tulips yesterday. As I arranged them in a vase, they flopped - as they do.
My dsil said that she knew a trick to make them stand up and stuck pins in the stem crosswise about an inch below the flower.
Lo and behold, this morning they are all standing up straight. She told me to take the pins out, which I did and they still stand up.
Does anybody else do this? Does anybody know how it works?

i do this too. no idea how it works - but it does!

bye!!

Hey, Housewife, come back ... no need to nick and run

So how do you this exactly ?

how many pins in each stalk ? 2 ?

I do this! Its witchcraft!

One pin in each tulip. Cross wise. some have now fallen over again, I broke one when I took the pin out but five out of eight are still standing up.

Ok am back to say thanks! Excellent tip

Weird, wearing my biologist's hat I have no idea why that would work.

I shall have to try it, I don't buy tulips because they always droop.

No idea about how it works, but the florist pulled a face when I said I wanted tulips as my wedding flowers, and mentioned all the time it would take to pin them.

As an aside, tulips carry on growing after they have been picked. Might the pin stop or limit this growth, keeping them neat?

That sounds plausible nextphase apart from the fact that they pick up and get tos tand up straight after you have pinned them.

I'll let you off now housewife

Oooh I think I know this one.

I believe it's because tulips have hollow stems and an air bubble can form at the top, causing the stem to flop. The pin makes a hole, the air escapes and water can reach the flower head.

Oh Maud how clever, I must tell dsil

Martha Stewart agrees with me

:;wink::

Well, at my local Dutch market - tulips galore - none of the sellers ever told me that.

When you take them home, put them in a bucket of water, even in the paper, just cover the bottom, to let them acclimatise.

Then cut the stems diagonally as you put them in the vase. Works perfectly.

who wants to be picking out pins when throwing them out?

You don't need to keep the pins in the stems - just pierce the stems as you put the flowers into water.

::first and last time I will ever know the answer to a question in GH::

Which market do you go to suburbophobe? We were watching Michael Portillo in Amsterdam and the Hague and got terribly homesick, expecially as my husband is poorly and unlikely to ever see it again

Just pierce each one, no need to keep a pin in them all.

I find that if they flop it helps to cut off a bit at the bottom (diagonally) and to top up the water everyday (but not totally replace it as it contains some bacteria they actually need). They will last for about a week.

If you want flowers who stay nice for a long time then Astromeria are a lot better. They last for about 3 weeks.

I've heard the bubble in the stem theory too. Also, no idea why, but if you put a 1 or 2 pence piece in the water with the tulips that works too.

A match in the water also helps for some reason.....