Whether you own a huge, wholesale flower growing business with millions of dollars in turnover a year, or a small-town florist selling arrangements and bouquets, keeping your flowers fresh after they are cut and before they are transported or sold is probably your most important concern. One of the most effective ways to prolong the colour and freshness of a cut flower is to keep it well-refrigerated, and flower selling businesses use a wide variety of refrigeration technologies to protect their blooms.
One of the most we-regarded and widely used types of refrigerator used to store cut flowers is the cool room, and it's easy to see why; these capacious and sophisticated walk-in refrigerators have a number of advantages that can keep our cut flowers fresh (and valuable) for many days to come:
Consistent temperatures
Cool rooms are kept cold by extensive arrays of refrigerant pipes, which are built into the walls, floors and ceilings of the room. Since these cooling pipes are distributed evenly, cool rooms tend to have a consistent temperature and do not suffer from cold spots that can damage fragile blooms. By contrast, most conventional commercial refrigerators draw their cooling power from a single refrigeration unit located at the back or base of the fridge, which tends to make the area in direct proximity to the unit colder than the rest of the space inside the fridge.
Adjustable temperatures
The temperature inside a cool room can be adjusted very finely (some high-end models can be adjusted to fractions of a degree), allowing you to obtain the optimum temperature for whatever type of flowers you are storing. This is particularly useful for florists and other customer-serving floral businesses, which tend to stock a wide variety of flowers with different optimum refrigeration temperatures.
Excellent ventilation
Keeping your cut flowers well ventilated is just as important as keeping them cool; without proper ventilation, condensation will accumulate on their petal and stems, leading to rapid wilting and rot which can then spread to other flowers and ruin your entire stock. Cool rooms have spacious interiors and powerful ventilation fans that allow air to circulate freely within the room, preventing your flowers from 'sweating' in this fashion.
Sanitary
Most cool rooms, particularly those specifically designed for cut flower storage are also fitted with potent antimicrobial measures such as carbon filters and UV lights. These devices effectively kill bacteria, fungal spores and other microscopic organisms which can cause your flowers to become diseased and rotten.
Excellent for display purposes
If you run a florist or another business that serves individual customers directly, choosing a cool room can also allow you to display your stock to your customers while keeping them refrigerated; their large size and spacious interiors means a customer can simply walk into the cool room with you and instantly be able to inspect your entire stock. Displaying your flowers while keeping them cool ensures that they are in the very best condition possible at the point of sale.