Question
What is the best way to cut roses for bringing indoors and putting in a vase? There seem to be numerous ways of doing this. You seem to have a more scientific approach to this problem. What do you recommend?

Answer
I agree, there are as many techniques for cutting a Rose as there are for making tea.

I stand by this method.

Early in the morning, or late in the day, take a bucket of hot water into the garden.  Bring with you a razor or a pair of scissors.  As you cut each Rose, place it in the bucket, removing lower leaves and thorns as you go; when done, go quickly back into the kitchen.

Now, if you have one, the best thing to use at this point is the little under-water rose cutter sold by Jackson and Perkins to cut stems underwater.  Now that's a terrific Mother's Day Gift.

But scissors or a razor blade will do.

Once in the kitchen, add to your bucket of Roses a splash of chlorine bleach and a few teaspoons of table sugar.  Mix well.  The bleach will act as a preservative, killing germs; the sugar feeds carbohydrates to the flower and extends the life of the blossom.

Take each stem in the garden bucket and while holding it under water in the bucket, cut off an inch.  This keeps air out of the stem and improves water/bleach/sugar intake.

Re-cut the Roses every day and change the water, adding chlorine and sugar each time.  Remove spent Roses from the vase immediately; these flowers are highly sensitive to ethylene gas emissions.

This underwater technique works also with viburnum, daphne, magnolias, cherry blossoms, rhododendrons and any other woody-stemmed flower you cut off a shrub.

If you're still not convinced, read the detailed scientific explanation of the "xylem embolism" phenomenon at the International Society for Horticultural Science website www.actahort.org/books/261/261_2.htm).