as short-life flowers with the lifetime of 4-8 days (Armitage, 2003). Results of Alipour et al.
(2013) showed that using putrescine increased the vase life of Narcissus cut flowers up to 8
days, while the control (distilled water) had vase life of 5 days. In another study, narcissus
cut flowers were maintained at both 4 and 16 °C. In addition, they used Thymus essence. The
results showed flowers treated with the concentration of 100 mg l-1 at temperature of 16 ° C
had the vase life of 9.25 days and controls 8.75 days, respectively. However, the flowers that
were placed at 4° C had the longevity of 58.75 days and their controls had the longevity of
32.25 days (Salehi Sardoie et al., 2014). Since narcissus has a short life at room temperature,
storing them at low temperature is probably one of the reason of the longer life of control and
treated plants.
Percentage of unopened buds
The results showed that the highest and lowest percentage of unopened buds were related
to the treatment of 6% sucrose and 4 ml L-1 sour orange extract, respectively. Among the concentrations
of sour orange, the highest percentage of unopened buds was obtained in the treatment of
7 mg L-1 (Table 3). Since the opening flower are required to use ATP and providing the required
ATP is needed to break down sugar molecules during the process of respiration, so anything that
reduces the amount of plant respiration can delay the opening of flowers and simulating the flower
ageing (Mir Saeed Ghazi et al., 2013). Preservative solutions at low concentrations of sour orange
extract along with sucrose probably cause to reduce or delay the respiration and the aging process
of petals.
High concentrations of sour orange extract and sucrose were not suitable treatments, and
prevent the floret opening. Talukdar and Barooah (2011) found that 400 mg L-1 citric acid with
4% sucrose significantly increased the opening of cut flower buds compared to control.