Thirsty Thursdays

In every floral department there is an emphasis on maintaining a fresh look. It is vastly important that each day, we check all plants for water and grooming. A simple way to test for both of these items is by placing your finger on top of the soil of each plant and pressing lightly. If it feels moist, then moving on to grooming is necessary. If it feels dry, it is extremely important to consider the type of plant before determining how much water it needs.
Grooming consists of pulling all dead leaves, broken stems, and weak blooms from the plant. Allowing any of these issues to remain on the plant will only weaken the plant further and take energy away from the thriving life of the other stems, as well as promote bacteria.
Each Thursday I would like to discuss a particular plant and delve into how to take care of, maintain, and dispose of this plant.

Azaleas-they are finicky and often difficult to maintain indoors. While they love the humidity of our region, they are extremely temperamental in that if they are not maintained properly they will not be able to be revived again. Azaleas require a lot of water. However, if they're sitting in water that will reverse the cause and create root damage. Once you finger test the soil(daily), determine on a scale of 1-10 on how dry it actually feels. After, I poor water on the soil counting to that number. So if it feels about a 6 on dryness(10 being the most dry) I poor water on the soil while counting to six. Then I pull damaged blooms and once the water has seemed to soak through I shake the entire plant over a garbage can. The leaves shed a lot and allowing them to sit on the plant or on top of the soil will again, only promote bacteria. After I have shaken the leaves off, I feel the bottom of the pot cover. If it seems there is water sitting between the pot cover and the base of the plant, I remove the pot cover and dump out the remaining water. Replacing the pot cover and ensuring to do the same thing tomorrow in order to maintain such a beautiful, lustrous plant.