Baskets with hydrangea: how to tell a careful build from a quick one
Few flowers show up a rushed assembly as plainly as this one. A hydrangea head is heavy, the stem holding it is short once it goes into the foam, and there are only so many stems in the basket, so every decision the florist made is out in the open on the day it arrives.
Start with the cut, because everything else follows from it.
The cut and the seating
Hydrangea wood seals itself within minutes of being cut in air, and a sealed stem never drinks again however wet the foam around it is. The cut is therefore made long and at a sharp angle, sometimes split for a couple of centimetres, and the stem goes into the soaked block immediately afterwards rather than being laid on the bench while the florist thinks.
You cannot inspect that cut once the arrangement is built. What you can see is the result two days later, when a badly cut stem is the one head that has gone soft while the others are still firm.
The seating is easier to judge. A hydrangea sits low and angled outwards, so part of the weight of the head rests on the rim of the basket rather than hanging off a short stem, and the arrangement reads as a dense cushion rather than as balls on sticks.
What the foam should look like
Not visible, is the short answer. Few stems cover a large volume here, and the gaps between the heads leave the block exposed unless somebody has covered it with leaves, moss or small filler flowers.
Grey foam showing through in patches is the commonest sign of a fast build. So is a head pressed hard against its neighbour, because hydrangea bruises where it is squeezed and the mark browns within a day or two.
Who it suits
Somebody who is at home. This is the one basket that genuinely needs its owner: the block has a finite amount of water in it and hydrangea empties it faster than anything else, drawing moisture through the whole surface of the head as well as through the stem.
For a recipient who travels, or who will be away for the weekend after the delivery, a hardier composition is the more honest recommendation.
For everyone else the appeal is obvious enough. One head does the work of several roses, the arrangement fills a table without towering over it, and nothing about it asks for a vase, scissors or a free hour on the evening it arrives.
Keeping it going
Top the block up daily, in hot weather twice, pouring slowly at the edge until it stops taking water. A quick splash runs across the surface and into the liner while the middle of the block stays dry. Mist the heads as well, since hydrangea takes water through its petals, and in a heated room that does more good than an extra top-up. When the edges of a head soften and the petal margins curl inwards, a thorough watering plus misting will usually bring it back within a few hours.
Baskets with hydrangea can be dried in place at the end. Stop watering, leave the arrangement where it stands, and the heads lose moisture slowly enough to keep their shape while the colour drifts towards dusty beige or grey-green. Out of direct sun a recipient in Sharjah can keep them on the same shelf for months.
