Greenhouse Environment
Greenhouses trap light energy from the sun and convert it into this type of energy to keep plants warm, creating a "natural effect" named after the structure itself.
What is Thermal Energy (accept Heat or the Greenhouse Effect)?
These green, flat plant organs are the primary site of photosynthesis, capturing sunlight to make food for the plant.
What are Leaves?
This fundamental design element can be warm (like red and yellow autumn centerpieces) or cool (like blue and purple spring baskets) and is usually the first thing a customer notices.
What is Color?
This single-flower or small-cluster arrangement is worn pinned to a lapel, typically by men at proms or weddings.
What is a Boutonniere?
In retail floristry, this common term refers to the greenery and leaves (like Eucalyptus or Leatherleaf) added to an arrangement alongside the actual flowers.
What is Foliage (or Greens)?
Instead of heavy, breakable glass, many modern commercial greenhouses in Missouri are covered in this flexible, double-layered plastic material.
What is Polyethylene (accept Poly plastic)?
This tiny, white, powdery-looking insect is a major greenhouse pest that sucks sap from the undersides of leaves and flies up in a cloud when the plant is shaken.
What is a Whitefly?
To keep fresh flowers hydrated and locked firmly in place inside a vase or basket, designers use this dense, green, water-absorbing material.
What is Floral Foam (often called Oasis)?
Historically, this single holiday in February is the absolute busiest, highest-grossing day of the year for a retail flower shop.
What is Valentine's Day?
If a greenhouse manager wants a crop of Poinsettias to be beautifully red and ready for customers by December 1st, they must practice this careful calendar strategy.
What is Crop Scheduling (or Bench Timing)?
To prevent stagnant air and reduce the risk of plant diseases, greenhouses use these small, continuously running fans to keep air moving internally.
What are HAF Fans (Horizontal Air Flow fans)?
This plant tissue acts like an internal pipeline, specifically responsible for transporting water and dissolved nutrients upward from the roots to the leaves.
What is Xylem?
If a floral arrangement looks visually heavy on the left side but completely empty on the right side, it is severely lacking in this principle of design.
What is Balance?
Florists categorize design materials into four types: Line, Mass, Form, and this fourth type used to fill empty spaces and hide the mechanics, such as Baby's Breath.
What is Filler Flower?
When a florist calculates the final price of an arrangement, they must add the cost of the flowers, the container, and this critical labor factor reflecting their time and expertise.
What is Labor Cost (or Service Charge)?
This specific greenhouse cooling system uses large, fiber pads soaked in water on one end of the structure and giant exhaust fans on the other to lower temperatures through moisture evaporation.
What is a Pad and Fan System (or Evaporative Cooling)?
If a student overwaters their geranium crop, the roots will suffocate from a lack of oxygen, leading to this devastating and smelly fungal condition.
What is Root Rot?
This is the primary geometric shape used when creating a traditional, formal centerpiece meant to be viewed evenly from all sides on a round dining table.
What is a Symmetrical Triangle (accept Circular or Round)?
These specialized flowers—like Birds of Paradise or Anthuriums—are used to create a strong visual focal point because of their unusual, striking, and exotic shapes.
What are Form Flowers?
This 2-word business term describes the percentage of retail flower shop sales that are lost due to flowers wilting, breaking, or dying before they can be sold.
What is Shrinkage (or Spoilage / Waste)?
This is the specific term for the artificial "soil" used in greenhouse pots, which is usually a sterile mix of peat moss, perlite, and vermiculite rather than actual dirt from the ground.
What is Growing Medium (or Substrate / Soilless Mix)?
In a greenhouse, "hardening off" is the vital process of doing this to young plants before they are sold or planted outside in the elements.
What is acclimating them to outdoor conditions (accept equivalents like "getting them used to cold/wind")?
To determine the proper height of a floral arrangement, the general rule of thumb states that the flowers should be at least this many times the height or width of the container.
What is 1.5 to 2 times?
This is the process of treating freshly cut flowers right when they arrive from the wholesaler to ensure maximum vase life, involving recutting stems and placing them in warm water with preservatives.
What is Conditioning?
Plants like Poinsettias and Chrysanthemums require long periods of uninterrupted darkness to trigger their blooming cycle, making them fall into this specific photoperiod category.
What are Short-day plants?