important cut flowers in tropical and sub tropical areas of the world and has the seventh rate of production between all cut flowers of Iran. In order to investigate different effects of storage temperatures (8 weeks at 4 °C, 4 weeks at 4 °C + 4 weeks at 20 °C, 8 weeks at 12 °C, 4 weeks at 12 °C+ 4 weeks at 20 °C and 8 week at 20 °C) and different concentrations of gibberellic acid (0, 150 and 300 ppm) on quantitative characteristics of tuberose ‘Double’, a factorial experiment was carried out in a Randomized Complete Block Design with three replications. The effects of treatments were investigated on fresh and dry weight, height and number of flower stems, length of spike, speed of germination and flowering, weight and diameter of florets, number and weight of bulbs, and flower longevity. Qualitative and quantitative investigation of growth and flowering indices showed that the highest number of stems was recorded at 20 oC storage temperature, which was 20% higher than that at 4 oC storage temperature. Stem weight showed a significant correlation with most growth parameters. The most important effect of studied treatments was observed on growth speed. Speed of bulbs germination was affected only by storage temperatures (P<0.001), while higher GA3 concentration decreased both germination speed (P<0.05) and flowering speed (P<0.001). Finally, we suggested that the best treatment was storing bulbs for 4 weeks at 12°C + 4 weeks at 20 °C before cultivation and GA3 treatment did not have any significant effects on growth factors of tuberose. Manuscript profile

Frost is the coating or deposit of ice that may form in cold conditions, usually overnight. If the temperature drops far enough for the plant cells to freeze, non hardy plants will die. Therefore, a research was laid out to study the influence of an anti-frost solution on growth, flowers quality and biochemical parameters of ornamental plants. The anti-frost solution was applied as foliar sprays in different concentration of T0: 0 (mg L-1) (only water) as control, T1: 250 (mg L-1), T2: 500 (mg L-1), T3: 1000 (mg L-1), T4: 1500 (mg L-1), T5: 2000 (mg L-1) ‘ferti-fros’, on bougainvillea (Bougainvillea glabra(, canna (Canna indica) and petunia (Petunia axillaris). Results showed that flowering percentage and flowering duration in the treated plants was more than control. Highest flowering percentage and flowering duration was in T5 (81.22%) and (13.86 days), respectively. By increasing concentration of anti-frost solution, damaging percentage was decreased. Lowest damaging percentage was in T5 (69.77%). Total chlorophyll enhanced with increasing concentration of anti-frost solution. Highest amount of total chlorophyll belonged to T5 (50.80 mg g-1). By comparing effect of different treatments on amount of prolineit was shown that control had highest amount of proline (0.56 μM g-1). With increasing concentration of anti-frost, amount of proline was decreased T5 (0.08 μmol g-1).Electrical conductivity was affected by different treatments in all flowers. Highest amount of electrical conductivity recorded for control (9.0 mS g-1 cm-1) and lowest amount was in T5 (2.26 mS g-1 cm-1). Difference of all the treatments was significant at 0.1% level of significance. Manuscript profile

The research aimed to produce new genotypes by hybridization. It was conducted in the Ornamental Plants Research Center of Mahallat from 2016 to 2018. Four varieties of gladiolus including ‘Amsterdam’, ‘White Prosperity’, ‘Advance Red’ and ‘Rose Supreme’ were chosen for hybridization. The progenies were evaluated in a randomized complete block design with three replications. The highest heritability in traits was estimated to be 98.46% for cormlet number and diameter and the lowest was 12.90% for crown diameter. These results indicate that most traits have a very low phenotypic and genetic diversity coefficient, indicating that they had lower environmental effects since the progenies were cultivated under similar and controlled conditions. The results of the factor analysis, based on the eight assessed traits, showed that the four factors accounted for 60.90% of the total variance. The first factor captured 22.80% of the variance and among its traits, crown diameter and leaf number had the highest positive coefficients. The progenies OPRC07 and OPRC09 derived from ‘Advance Red’ × ‘White Prosperity’ and ‘Amsterdam’ × ‘Advance Red’ had a significant difference with others and had the highest cormlet weight compared to the progenies tested. The progeny OPRC09 was superior to other cormlets in leaf length, leaf width, stem diameter, leaf number, days to germination, and cormlet weight and diameter. Also, the progeny OPRC04 was superior in cormlet production by producing 2.49 cormlets per seed. Manuscript profile

Tuberose is an valuable ornamental plant with a high economic value, which is among the five leading cut flowers of the world. The major obstacle hindering the development of cut flower exports, especially tuberoses, is their short postharvest vase life caused by the disruption of the plant’s water relations due to growth and an increase in vase solution microbial load. The quality and longevity of flowers are highly dependent on their stem stability and antioxidant systems. This research investigated the effect of Nano-silver (NS) applied to the cut flowers of tuberoses cv. ‘Dezfuli’ in 24 h pulse treatments in a randomized complete design. The cut flowers were treated with NS at four rates (0 as control, 10, 20, and 30 mg/L) along with 3% sucrose. Then, the treated flowers were fully immersed in deionized water. The results showed that the application of NS treatment positively increased the activity of antioxidant enzymes and improved postharvest conditions in Polianthes tuberosa L. (cut tuberose flower). Moreover, NS reduced the accumulation of malondialdehyde (MDA) in flower stems and also had a positive effect on the rate of chlorophyll increase compared to the control. NS extended the postharvest vase life of the treated flowers versus the control and increased solution uptake and fresh weight of the cut flowers. In this experiment, the 10 mg/L rate of NS exhibited the best results. Manuscript profile

Gladiolus is one of the most important cut flowers in the world, especially in Iran. A field experiment was conducted to evaluate the effect of spraying different calcium doses and sources on quality and quantity of Gladiolus grandiflorus cv. Rose Supreme. The experiment was conducted in a factorial randomized complete block design with three replications. The calcium concentrations were 0, 0.3, 0.6, 0.9, 1.2 and 1.5 g L-1 and its sources were CaCl2 and CaNo3 with three replications, during two years in 2017-2019. The data revealed that foliar application of calcium doses had significant effects on most quality and quantity growth parameters. Increase calcium doses stimulated flower stalk height, flowering stem diameter, spike length, inflorescence fresh and dry weight, inflorescence bending, vase life, and leaf calcium concentration. Calcium at a dose of 1.2 g L-1 increased flower stem bending and diameter resulted in expanded vase life by 26.5 and 36.7 %, respectively compared to control. Therefore, pre-harvest foliar application of calcium nitrate at 1.2 g L-1 level increased leaf calcium concentration and stems bending that led to the delay of senescence and therefore increased flower longevity. In this experiment, we had not any limitations and everything was well done. Use of calcium fertilizers improved the quantitative and qualitative characteristics of gladiolus flowers. Manuscript profile

Stem and peduncle bending by the weight of the flower is one of the main postharvest problems in gerbera (Gerbera jamesonii Bolus.) and sometimes caused stem crushing or water loss. In this research, silicon and salicylic acid were applied to enhance the mechanical strength of inflorescence stem, and the results revealed that stem curving was decreased by silicon and salicylic acid treatments. Shear strength and lignin content were increased by SA treatments at both upper and lower parts of the stem. It seems that lignin content was associated with shear strength at upper part of stem. Additionally, silicon content of flower stem was significantly increased under silicon application and mechanical strength of the lower part of stem has correlation with silicon content in stem tissue. These results suggested that silicon and salicylic acid application could enhance the mechanical strength of inflorescence stem and improve the cut flower quality in gerbera. Manuscript profile