The beauty of a flower is evident when it is flourishing and flamboyantly depicting good health. It is however disappointing to have such great looking flowers in a place, only to check back later and find terribly frail flowers that show no sign of good health. Yes, that is what wilting does to your flowers.
Many people have wondered why flowers wilt. While there are numerous reasons why a flower would wilt, the most common causes are as spelt out below:
Poor Water Supply – The plant cells are normally filled with water. This is what makes the flowers rigid and enhance their colorfulness. When there is no proper water supply for the flowers, maybe because of where they are planted or as a result of being cut, the cell walls, known as turgid become water starved, causing their molecular pressure to subside. This subsequently makes the flowers to wilt.
Infections – This is mostly caused by a soil borne fungal infection that penetrates into the flowering plant and causes it to wilt. This is commonly referred to as Verticillium wilt. After finding its way into the plant, the fungal infection is spread throughout the plant’s vascular system, ending up affecting the plant’s foliage. This mostly leads to yellowing of the flowers as they wilt.
Poor Lighting – There are different plants, all of which have their unique sunlight needs. Having flowers planted in a place with the wrong lighting would make them to wilt. When a flower that does not need a lot of sunlight is planted in a place with too much light, it ends up wilting.
Wrong Temperatures – Exposing flowers to very high temperatures is highly likely to cause wilting. The high temperatures drain the moisture from the plants, causing the flower to wilt loose its rigidity.
Cut flower Stems – When a flower is cut from the plant at the stem, air is quickly sucked up into the plant’s xylem. Even if the stem is later inserted in water to protect it from wilting, the air that is already sucked into the xylem blocks water from being absorbed. This ends up causing the flowers to wilt.
To take good care of flowers and to protect them from wilting, it is important to determine the type of a flower you have and the appropriate conditions it requires.
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