Warm Mixed Delivery With Ethylene Exposure

First remove the apples and bananas from the cooler, or move the flowers to a separate 4°C unit. Ripe fruit releases ethylene and will accelerate rose bent neck, ranunculus leaf yellowing, and stock decline. Triage by symptom. Recut roses and ranunculus under water, strip lower foliage, and hydrate in clean cool water with floral preservative; do not crowd. Hydrangea with firm stems but limp heads: recut, place in deep cool water, mist heads, and keep cool. Eucalyptus with dark spots: isolate; if spots are spreading, discard. Stock with a strong sweet smell and brown edges is likely bacterial; discard affected bunches. Keep boxes off the floor, allow air circulation, and recheck all stems at 24 hours. The order matters because ethylene and bacteria spread quickly in a warm, crowded cooler.

Discard stock with a sour or sweet bacterial smell and brown petal edges; it will not recover and can contaminate water. Discard eucalyptus bunches with spreading dark spots or slimy stems. Discard roses with severe bruising or bent necks that do not firm after recutting. Salvage hydrangea if stems are turgid and heads recover within a few hours; salvage ranunculus if stems are soft but not mushy and leaves are not yellow throughout. Keep salvaged stems separate and recheck at 24 hours. Because the wedding is in 48 hours, do not try to rescue borderline stems; the risk of visible collapse during the event is higher than the cost of substitution. Photograph the discarded stock for supplier claims and record cooler temperatures.

If only 70% of the hydrangea are usable, reduce hydrangea to the ceremony focal points and replace the rest with clustered garden roses and stock, which are more reliable. Do not spread the remaining hydrangea thinly; use fewer, stronger clusters. Increase eucalyptus and dusty miller for volume, and adjust the recipe so the design reads intentional rather than short. Tell the client only if the substitution changes the look materially; otherwise document it in the job file. Reassign the best hydrangea to the most photographed area and keep them cool until the last moment. Build in a small reserve of roses for the reception tables so the loss is absorbed where it is least visible.