Compilation of questions and answers on ‘Dried Ornamentals’ for students.
Q.1. Why dried ornamentals?
Ans. The charm of dried ornamentals can be maintained from few months to years with lesser cost if protected from the damage of high humidity, as in dried ornamentals the microbial activities in the aging process come to stand still.
Q.2. What are five important characteristics of dried ornamentals?
Ans. i. Novelty
ii. Longevity
iii. Aesthetics
iv. Flexibility, and
v. Year-round availability.
Q.3. Why dried ornamentals have not become so popular?
Ans. i. Being largely focused on the qualities of attractive flowers, living plants and plant parts, floriculturists generally pay little attention to dried and preserved flowers and other attractive plant parts.
ii. Therefore, these products remained overlooked and underrated.
iii. In contrast to the other areas of floriculture including post-harvest management, relatively very little publicly research and development projects have been undertaken on the dried flower industry across the globe.
iv. Privately funded research and development work has sustained, but their findings are usually kept secret and limited information is available to the public.
v. Thus, this component of floriculture industry has remained ill-defined in terms of processes, products and organizations.
vi. As we see in other cut flower crops, there are set standards available for judging the quality, which are lacking in dried flowers and foliage.
Q.4. How dried ornamentals can be popularized?
Ans. There is an urgent need to start war—footing mass awareness of the dried ornamental plants with a view to attract greater public support for research and development and enhanced professionalism in the trade of these products.
Q.5. Who are leading dried flowers exporting countries (2012)?
Ans. i. Netherlands (284.4 m US $)
ii. Israel (78.7)
iii. Nigeria (31.9)
iv. India (26.7), and
v. Malaysia (18.5).
Q.6. Who are leading dried foliage and plants exporting countries (2012)?
Ans. i. USA (70.53 m US $)
ii. Netherlands (40.4)
iii. India (34.1)
iv. Costa Rica (33.7)
v. Italy (21.8).
Q.7. Who are leading dried flowers importing countries (2012)?
Ans. i. UK (66.0 m US $)
ii. France (44.1)
iii. Japan (24.2)
iv. Belgium (21.9)
v. Netherlands (10.3).
Q.8. Who are leading dried foliage importing countries (2012)?
Ans. i. USA (61.7 m US $)
ii. Netherlands (56.6)
iii. Germany (35.6)
iv. France (18.2)
v. UK (13.9).
Q.9. What are top ten genera of dried ornamentals in the global flower market?
Ans. i. Helichrysum
ii. Helipterum
iii. Limonium
iv. Nigella
v. GypsophUa
vi. Delphinium
vii. Amaranthus
viii. Papaver
ix. Carthamus, and
x. Rosa.
Q.10. How much is the contribution of dried ornamentals of the total flower export from India during 1991 to 2010?
Ans. About 60 per cent.
Q.11. Where dried ornamentals from India are being exported?
Ans. Export from India is over 10 thousand ton of dried ornamentals to:
i. USA
ii. UK
iii. Japan
iv. Israel
v. Hong Kong
vi. Singapore, and
viii. Other European countries.
Q.12. What are the main items of dried ornamentals being exported?
Ans. i. Over 10 million pieces of lotus pods
ii. Camellia
iii. Dahlia
iv. Bell cups
v. Marigold
vi. Jute flowers
vii. Wood rose
viii. Wild lilies
ix. Paper flower, and
x. Naturally dried plant parts from Himalayan region.
Q.13. Who are exporting these dried ornamentals?
Ans. Around Fifty private companies.
Q.14. How this material is transported?
Ans. Through sea-route.
Q.15. Where these companies are situated?
Ans. i. Tuticorin (Tamil Nadu)
ii. Kolkata
iii. Mumbai.
Q.16. Which company in India is leading exporter of dried ornamentals?
Ans. Ramesh Flower Limited of Tuticorin (T.N.) having 50% share of total export.
Q.17. What is the range of ornamental plant parts to be dried?
Ans. i. Stems
ii. Roots
iii. Shoots
iv. Buds
v. Flowers
vi. Inflorescence
vii. Fruits
viii. Fruiting shoots
ix. Cones
x. Seeds
xi. Foliage
xii. Bracts
xiii. Thorns
xiv. Bark
xv. Lichens
xvi. Fleshy fungi
xvii. Mosses, and
xviii. Selaginellas, etc.
Q.18. What are the main considerations for better results in dried ornamentals?
Ans. i. Collect material after the dew and surface moisture has evaporated.
ii. Material should be collected after irrigating fields a day or two.
iii. Fresh material to be collected.
iv. Collection should be made in dry season and on a sunny day.
v. All stages of flower development in an inflorescence should be collected, which have sufficiently harden, as immature shrivel very fast.
vi. Embed material immediately after plucking.
vii. One type of flowers and foliage to be embedded at a time.
viii. Cut all undesirable portions before embedding.
ix. Spread uniformly all plant parts/ petals in herbarium press.
x. The plant parts should be harvested when it will yield the highest possible quality product.
Q.19. What are different uses of dried ornamentals?
Ans. These dried items may be used with fresh flowers or alone as:
i. Floral arrangements
ii. Bouquets,
iii. Gift boxes/packs
iv. Festive decorations
v. Collages
vi. Flower pitchers
vii. Floral balls
viii. Pomanders
ix. Wall sceneries
x. Greeting cards
xi. Wedding cards, and
xii. Sweet smelling Pot-porris.
Q.20. What is a pot-porris?
Ans. Pot-porris a special dried floral arrangement is the mixture of sweet smelling leaves, spices, seeds, roots and distilled essential oil which is filled in pillows or sachets.
Q.21. Which dried ornamentals are used for making Pot-porris?
Ans. i. The important plants used for making pot-porris are roses, lilacs, lavender, pinks, hyacinths, lilies, violets, wall flowers, marigold and many others which are associated with perfume viz., geranium, daisy bush, bergamot, sage, savory, thyme, angelica and sweet cicely.
ii. In addition, ferns, pine- cones, lily pods and driftwood and other items from nature’s treasure of exotic bloom are collected from forests and gardens.
iii. Wood shavings of cedar and pine.
iv. Stones of peach, plum, apricot, etc.
v. Seeds of Horse chestnut, oak, Indian liquorice, fennel, dill, cumin, caraway, etc.
vi. Roots of lotus, horse radish, Iris, barberry, etc.
vii. Pods of lotus and windmill.
viii. Cones of pines, cedar, fir, spruce, blue pine, araucaria, etc.
ix. Moss and lichens.
x. The material used should be resistant to mould, non-toxic, free from noxious odours and sufficiently robust to withstand mechanical bending.
xi. Pot-porris is normally designed in a glass bowl or a ceramic jar or stored in a colourful salin or muslin sachet, while other arrangements are designed in a beautifully culoured or shaped pots.
xii. Material should have low bulk density.
Q.22. What is the dehydration or drying process?
Ans. i. Dehydration or drying process means to dry something under artificially produced heat through controlled temperature, humidity and air- flow.
ii. In dehydration- process moisture is removed from flowers and foliage.
iii. In nature the plant material tend to discolour during drying largely due to oxidative reactions associated with loss of compartmentation within the plant cells during desiccation of the plant tissues.
iii. Such plant materials turn brown and are particularly used as filler in various floral arrangements. Artificially there are many varied approaches/ methods to dehydrate or dry flowers and ornamental plant parts which have been described by numerous workers.
iv. However, the principle involved is common to all, according to which the plant material is exposed to a vapour- pressure deficit ( v.p.d. = v.p. source – v.p. sink), which induces water vapour to move by transpiration/ evaporation from the plant material (source) into the surrounding environment (sink).
v. The flux of water vapour (J) is proportional to the vapour pressure deficit- viz., J=k x(v.p.d.); where k is a constant dependent upon the water vapour transfer properties of the particular product (Joyce, 1998).
Q.23. What are different methods of drying?
Ans. (A) Natural drying
(B) Open Drying in:
(i) Air/ Room
(ii) Hot Air Oven
(iii) Micro Wave Oven
(iv) Solar drier
(v) Vacuum chamber
(vi) Freeze dryer.
(C) Embedded Drying in Room Temperature (Time period in days):
(i) Embedded in Boric acid
(ii) Embedded in Silica gel
(iii) Embedded in River sand
(iv) Embedded in Saw dust
(v) Embedded in Alum powder
(vi) Embedded in Corn granules.
(D) Embedded Drying in Hot Air Oven (Time period in hours):
(i) Embedded in Boric acid
(ii) Embedded in Silica gel
(iii) Embedded in River sand
(iv) Embedded in Saw dust
(v) Embedded in Alum powder
(vi) Embedded in Corn granules.
(E) Embedded Drying in Micro Wave Oven (Time period in minutes):
(i) Embedded in Boric acid
(ii) Embedded in Silica gel
(iii) Embedded in River sand
(iv) Embedded in Saw dust
(v) Embedded in Alum powder
(vi) Embedded in Corn granules.
(F) Embedded Drying in Solar Drier (Time period in light hours and days):
(i) Embedded in Boric acid
(ii) Embedded in Silica gel
(iii) Embedded in River sand
(iv) Embedded in Saw dust
(v) Embedded in Alum powder
(vi) Embedded in Corn granules.
(G) Press Drying:
(i) In room
(ii) In Hot Air Oven (45°C)
(iii) Polyset
(iv) Bleaching and Sulfuring
(v) Colouring or Dyeing
(vi) Preserving.
Q.24. What are important natural dried ornamentals?
Ans. The plants viz., Aegle marmelos, Bambusa spp., Bauhinia retusa, Cassia fistula, Caesalpinia sepiaria, Clematis grata, Dioscorea deltoides, Mallotus philippensis, Rosa moschata, Oroxylum indicum, Pinus roxburghii, Picea smithiana, Sapindus mukorossii, etc. have beautiful fruiting shoots, whereas plants like Abrus precatorius, Aesculus indica and Sapium sebiferum have beautiful seeds.
Q.25. What are important plants suitable for air drying?
Ans. Flowers with crisp texture viz., Acroclinum, Anaphalis, Heiichrysum, Delphinium, Lemon mint, Oregano, Limonium, Rumex, Holmskioldia, etc. are suitable for air drying or vertical hanging drying in microwave/ hot air oven/ solar dryer.
Q.26. What are important desiccants used for drying of ornamentals?
Ans. i. Silica gel (white and self indicating blue),
ii. Borax
iii. River sand
iv. Aluminium sulfate
v. Corn granules
vi. Boric acid
vii. Alum powder
viii. Saw dust.
Q.27. What are important qualities of any desiccant for drying?
Ans. i. Any material which removes the moisture quickly from the ornamental plant parts embedded without reacting with water vapours released during drying or bleaching of petals etc.
ii. The drying material/ desiccant should normally have the ideal size of 0.02-0.2mm or 20-200 mesh.
iii. It should be heavy so as to keep the plant parts perfectly in its original shape.
iv. It should not stick to the plant parts.
v. It should also not be very costly as the market value of most of the dried ornamental floral arrangements and craft is low.
Q.28. What is the advantage of embedded drying?
Ans. In embedding the drying medium/ desiccant supports the flower/ foliage from all around and maintains perfectly the original shape.
Q.29. What types of containers are most suitable for embedded drying?
Ans. The containers should uniformly get heated so that material evenly dry out .from all sides. Aluminium or tin containers are normally used which may be cylinder or tray type. In microwave nonmetallic containers like glass, china clay, heat tolerant plastics are used.
Q.30. What is the most ideal temperature range for drying of ornamentals?
Ans. 45 to 70° C
Q.31. How embedded material is taken out?
Ans. i. The embedded plant material after drying/dehydration is taken out by gently tilting the container in order to remove the desiccant over and around the plant material.
ii. The dried material is either picked up with the help of fingers or tweezers.
iii. It is cleaned by inverting and tapping with fingers slowly and gently.
iv. Any remaining desiccant is finely removed with the help of a fine camel hair painting brush.
Q.32. What types of containers are used for drying in microwave oven?
Ans. Non-metallic containers.
Q.33. How drying is done in microwave oven?
Ans. i. The plant material in microwave oven is dried with the help of electronically produced microwaves.
ii. Non-metallic containers in which various plant parts are embedded in desiccants are kept in microwave oven for 2-5 minutes.
iii. Then, these are kept in the room for 2-5 hours known as setting time before taking out from the desiccant.
iv. In microwave oven mostly plant material is dried at a range of 300-700 Hz., which may be given at once or in splits.
v. The results in split drying are comparatively better.
Q.34. How flowers and foliage is dried in water?
Ans. i. The flowers and foliage are kept in water and allowed to dry. Water drying, which usually seems to like a contradiction in terms gives fairly good results with flowers e.g. Hydrangea, Corn flower, baby’s breath and fever few.
ii. In water drying first the lower leaves and flowers from the stem are stripped and are kept in standing cold water with about 5cm depth.
iii. The material is kept undisturbed in a dry, well-aerated room until both the holder and flowers are dried.
iv. This takes 6-7 days depending upon the water content in plant material and water taken in container/holder.
Q.35. How flowers and foliage is dried in vacuum chamber?
Ans. i. The embedded plant material may be dried/ dehydrated under vacuum.
ii. The vacuum is created under thick-walled chamber fitted with a heating device, a vacuum pump and condenser.
iii. Low temperature is very effective and the quality of the product is excellent.
Q.36. How flowers and foliage is dried in freeze dryer?
Ans. i. The flowers are arranged in the specimen chamber. Then, these are frozen unto -35° C.
ii. Any frozen ice crystals on the flowers are sublimed or vaporized with the application of heat.
iii. After transforming into condensation, the vapour is captured into a separate chamber as ice.
iv. By eliminating the water, the flowers dry up with a life freshness and retains better integrity and more durability.
v. Thus, rapid dehydration particularly at low or ambient temperature tend to result in better-coloured products.
Q.37. What is polyset drying?
Ans. i. Polyset is a polymer preservation method, which is applied to the flowers/foliage about 45 minutes before drying.
ii. It is a chemical pre-treatment application, which is used before air drying to improve the quality of the dried flowers.
iii. This method lessens the drying time and improves the intensity of flower colour.
iv. It also minimizes shattering and wrinkling of the petals, which may occur during drying.
v. Polyset treatment may be applied to the freeze-dried flowers to hold them together or to help the flowers in retaining their colour for longer duration.