Getting Flowers Wet

[Clawhammer]

Does getting flowers wet during watering or from the rain affect how long they last? Do you avoid wetting the flowers when watering?

[rbarata]

For indoor culture I avoid it preventively so that flowers last longer (I water a lot at night).
Outdoors, I really don't care about it...most of them already have damages caused by wind, insects, etc.

[Roberta]

Mostly, I find that it doesn't make a lot of difference. I use overhead watering. Some of the flowers of the Aussie Dens sometimes seem to last longer if they don't get wet... but this year they got rained on a lot (much more than normal) and still lasted much longer than usual. So even those, I don't know. Some, like L. anceps, actually need to get wet to open properly, otherwise they can get stuck with sap. The one caution... if it is cold, if the flowers get wet you are likely to have them damaged with botritis spots. So if I have flowers and overnight rain is forecast, I will try to bring them inside. But above 60 deg F and wet doesn't seem to be a problem. (I water in the morning until summer, so temperatures have a chance to rise)