Re: Flowers in the museum

[Jenny Barnett <andelos@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Questdsa@xxxxxxx wrote:

> Greetings!
>
>        I am working on a policy concerning the use of fresh flowers and live
> plants in our museum--in particular, the potential they pose for introducing
> insect pests.  I plan to cover the topics of high risk materials as well as
> some remediation methods. Does anyone out there have a policy in place that
> they would be willing to share/discuss? Any ideas?
>
> Thank you.
>
> Dorothy Stites Alig
> Senior Conservator of Textiles
> Indianapolis Museum of Art
> DAlig@xxxxxxxxxxx

Hello Dorothy,
Living in the Netherlands which is the origin of most of the pot
plants and cut flowers in the Northern Hemisphere, I have developed an
untested theory on this issue. Cut flowers grown in a commercial glass houses
always look perfect because they are grown in a controlled environment and are
loaded with insecticides and anti-mould agents. The risk that free flying
insects by chance would alight on a bunch of flowers at a florist is low if
all the goods come from commercial glass houses (presumably). One would think
that such opportunists would probably die fairly quickly, but then I have no
idea how durable these biocides may be. In any case, I have never seen insects
on commercially grown flowers in the 12 years of living here.

Once, after becoming accustomed to the glass house product, I was delighted by
a visitor bringing a bunch of flowers from their own garden as a gift. Quite
wonderful to see the natural state for a change. Not only incidental insect
damage, but significant numbers of a large variety of insects, a whole
ecosystem ranging from hunters (spiders) to the hunted (many and various). The
table soon became littered with the dead, dying and escapees from
the biotrope. It was quite unpleasant in our small, urban (human) living
space. It made me think about the "flowers in museum/monuments" issue. Many
historic houses proudly, with good reason, draw attention to the magnificent,
authentic floral arrangements which have been picked in the gardens on the
estate. After my experience, it would seem better to use the insect free and
environment unfriendly produced product in a museum situation. Research is
necessary to test this idea. It could even be that the pesticide laden flowers
could function as an insect trap. However, on the otherhand, the attractive
effect of perfume may be masked by the pesticides.

It is interesting to know that chrysanthemums require the most insecticides to
preserve a perfect appearance. It would appear that effective levels of
pyrethrum are limited to the unattractive of the species. But then I am
neither a biologist nor a botanist.

Good luck!

Jennifer Barnett
Andelos Textielrestauratie
Oude Looiersstraat 65-67
1016 VH Amsterdam
tel/fax 020 427 18 27
andelos@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx