Commercial Floriculture

Characteristics of good embedding materials

1. Fineness: - The material should be very fine (0.02-0.2mm) to fill the crevices and cavities present in flower and completely envelope them leaving no gaps.
2. Inertness to water vapour: - It should not react with water vapour released during drying, as well as with floral parts and form lumps.

   Eg:- Borax and alum tend to form lumps when damp, sometime they harden and crack.
3. Optimum weight:- Very light weight powders are not suitable, since these are difficult to handle and leave gaps during embedding.
4. Non bleaching: - Drying material should be free from any type of salt and chemical. Strongly hygroscopic material should be avoided as it bleaches plant material.
5. Embedding and drying in room

   • For flowers with weak stems, stems are cut about 2.5 cm from the base of the flower.
   • If stem is too soft, a thin but strong wire of 5 cm length is inserted from the back in the center of the flower after removing the flower stalk. Such flower can be easily dried in shallow earthenware or metallic trays.
   • About 5 cm layer of the desiccant is made at the bottom of the container and flower stems and wires are pushed into it so that the flower remains upright.
   • Desiccant is then gently and gradually poured all around and over so as to fill all the crevices in between the petals without disturbing the shape of flower. Flowers are covered up to a cm on top.
   • Flower such as bougainvillea, candytuft, perennial chrysanthemum, pompon dahlia, gerbera, marigold, rose, limonium etc. can be dried with their own stems.
   • Embedding in such cases is done in deep containers so as to accommodate the plant material without disturbing its shape and form. These embedded materials are kept at room temperature in a well ventilated room till the plant material gets completely dried.

   Advantages :

   • No shrinkage of petals

   Disadvantages :

   • Takes longer time for dehydration
   • Weather dependant.
6. Embedding and drying in sun After embedding :- the containers are daily exposed to sun. Containers are shifted under a roof during the evening and again brought to sun in the morning.

   Advantage:

   • Rapid dehydration as compared to earlier method.

   Disadvantage:

   • Weather dependant.

   Flowers like gerbera, zinnia and chrysanthemum dried well with minimum shrinkage when sun dried after placing them in a box containing sand. This takes 4-5 days for drying.
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