What's the single thing your customers care about most? As research has shown, it's all about how long the arrangement lasts. Thus, any new development that increases the amount of time arrangements look vibrant and healthy is significant for retailers.

Now Smithers-Oasis has come out with an improved version of its famous floral foam that it says can provide as much as 20% longer vase life. The breakthrough results from the collaboration of Smithers-Oasis, the company that invented water-absorbing floral foam in 1953, and Floralife, the company that invented fresh flower food in the 1930s. Since Smithers-Oasis acquired Floralife two years ago, the companies' extensive research efforts were combined.

You might imagine that the new, enhanced foam is simply Smithers-Oasis foam with Floralife flower food added to it. Not so.

Yes, the new foam has more ingredients than the old. "But, to accomplish what we've been trying to do here, you don't just come up with an additive," explains Bob Williams of Smithers-Oasis. "There are two factors that have to work together: the products in thefoam that are beneficial to the flower, and the delivery system, the foam itself. What we've done is to redevelop the formulation and improve the manufacturing process to create an integrated new product."

It should be understood, however, that while the new foam does not include flower food, its formulation will "make any flower food work better than before," according to Jim Daly of Floralife. The benefits include, in particular, hardier and more vibrant foliage -- which is important to the heads of cut flowers as well, since foliage functions like a pump system that keeps water and nutrients flowing from the foam to the flower through the xylem cells in the stem. "Over the years we have continually reformulated our foam with two things in mind," says Bob: "the integrity of the foam, and the life of the presented flower. However, prior to this collaboration, we've never been able to make a step as clear as this one. We know how important vase life is to the consumer, and how important foam is to the professional florist. We see it as part of our job to keep working with our product so florists can keep that leverage point with consumers: longerlasting flowers, professionally designed."

(Source: Flowers& magazine - May 2009 issue. Posted with permission from Smithers-Oasis.)