Vase Life Test: Silene, Radish & Penstemon
- Jun 25
- 3 min read
Long, Linear & Dainty Flower Vase Life Test
Last week it was hot! Which meant a great week to test some of our frequent late spring flowers.
We saw buckets (literally) of silene and radish flowers at the market, and a whole lot of penstemon, as well. We were curious about just how strong these stems would be on a hot summer day.
Spoiler alert, we suspected that they wouldn't do well because they are so dainty and whimsical, but we found that all three were much heartier than we expected!
The Flowers we Tested:
Silene
Silene is a slender perennial plant that can be found at the market during May & June. Stem lengths are around 18inches and are sold in bunches of 15.
Each stem has several small balloon-shaped buds with petite white flowers. In Spain & Italy, where it's native, the locals eat silene the same way you would eat a green onion!
Radish Flower
The Radish blossoms make a wonderful cut flower, and we've loved having them at the market. This spring, we saw them in large quantities as more than one grower is using them as a cover crop.
Radish flowers are sold in 10-stem bunches and, like silene, are about 18inches tall.
We added these to the test a few hours after the test began, but we're happy with the results, even with just a few hours of testing!
White Penstemon (Green Foliage)
There are many colors and varieties of this beautiful perennial, but we chose the delicate white with green foliage for our test!
Penstemon is sold in 10-stem bunches and can be quite tall - up to 30inches.
THE TEST!
8:15 AM
Outside & Without Water -- Inside & Without Water
Outside, With Water, and In the Sunlight (moved to shade for the photo!) | Inside, With & Without Water
We initially began our test with less mature (more green) Silene
and more mature (more pink) Silene, separately to see if there were any differences.
9:15 AM - 1 Hour Outside
Unfortunately, flowers, like humans, survive on water!
The Penstemon & Silene crashed after about an hour, both outside & inside, without any water.
10 AM
Amazingly, the flowers in vases of water were still doing great after 1 hour and 45 minutes.
However, the more green Silene was beginning to droop a little bit at this time!
We added the radish flowers to the test in a vase of water at about 12 PM
All the Vase Life Testers are looking pretty strong at 1 pm
(Approximately 4 Hours outside for the Silene & Penstemon & 1 Hour for Radish Flower)
Temperatures that day were in the mid 90s!
3 PM
The Silene & Penstemon after 6 hours outside - looking great!
Radish Flowers outside for 3 Hours.
Some side stems look a little sad, but overall the stems feel healthy & Strong!
Flowers left inside (with A/C) and in vases of water looked great all day!
Which means you can have confidence that these flowers will do well in arrangements for projects that will be indoors during the hot summer months.
Or if you don't have a cooler or refrigeration for your flowers, they will do well out of a cooler until they're ready to head to the event.
R E S U L T S
Penstemon & Silene should not be left without any hydration method for any amount of time.
Penstemon, Silene & Radish Flowers are tougher than we thought - surviving and still looking strong after several hours (3-6 hours) during hot, sunny conditions!
Comment or share any experiences with Silene, Penstemon, or Radish Flowers, and always share your designs by tagging @coloradoflowercollective on Instagram!
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