Found out the hard way why you don't store tulips near fruit

Last month I had a big order for a wedding in Des Moines, and I put a bucket of tulips right next to the bananas in my cooler. By the next morning the tulips were all droopy and opened way too fast, like they had aged 3 days overnight. The bride's mom noticed and I had to run to the wholesale house at 6am to grab 6 new bunches. Has anyone else had ethylene gas from fruit mess up their flowers like that?

3 comments

3 Comments

noranguyen19d ago

Actually it's not just bananas, pretty much any fruit that's ripening gives off ethylene gas. Apples and pears are just as bad, so keep all your flowers away from the produce section.

adam_robinson19d ago

My fridge has a drawer labeled "humidity control" that I've always ignored. Is there like a science to that or is it just marketing? Because if ethylene gas is the real issue here, wouldn't the drawer setting change how much gas builds up? I just shove everything in there and hope for the best, but maybe I'm wrecking my flowers and produce at the same time without realizing it.

ericb6619d ago

Wait, are you saying there's actual science behind those humidity drawers and I've been ignoring it this whole time? Yeah, the drawer setting does change airflow, so a closed drawer traps ethylene gas more than an open one. But honestly, even with the right setting, if you stuff flowers next to a bunch of ripening apples, it's still a problem. Noranguyen nailed it - pretty much any fruit that's softening up is pumping out that gas, so I just keep all my flowers in a separate cooler now. Learned that lesson the same way you did, just with pears instead of bananas, and it cost me a Saturday morning run too.