Tropicals & Tender Perennials: Using Passion Vine flowers in floral arrangements?, 0 by JaxFlaGardener

JaxFlaGardener wrote:
Has anyone had success with keeping Passion Flowers fresh for more than about a day? I have an upcoming wedding (my own + Christina) on August 8. I did a drawing of P 'incense' for the wedding invitation and would like to follow through with having Passion Flower arrangements for the table decorations and bridal bouquet. We are staging this mostly informal ceremony ourselves without bringing in the professionals (and incurring the expense for anything close to lavish). I've experimented with floating the Passion Flowers in water, and that keeps them fresh until they fold up naturally at night, but I'm wondering if anyone has tried putting Passion Flowers in the florist tubes or have found other means to keep the flowers fresh after being cut? Also, any means to keep the vines from wilting almost instantly? I've found short pieces of the vine will remain fresh in water for several hours, but longer pieces wilt at the end soon after being cut..

My backyard has been just about completely overtaken by P. 'incense' so I will have plenty of opportunity the day of the event to harvest fresh flowers. I can keep them refrigerated until ready to display, but Christina will probably strangle me with the vines if the tables are draped in wilting weeds. LOL I have enough P. 'incense' that I can pull up segments with the roots if that will help keep the vines fresh.

Any help will be greatly appreciated.

Jeremy