To explore the effect of 1-methylcyclopropene (1−MCP) on the storage quality of edible roses, flowers of the edible rose variety ‘Dianhong’ were used as materials to study the effect of post-harvest 1−MCP fumigation (concentration of 30 μL/L). The measures included respiration intensity, water loss rate, antioxidant-related substance content (soluble sugar, crude fibre, AsA, anthocyanin, total phenols and MDA), enzyme activity (SOD, CAT, APX, PAL and PPO) and petal appearance quality in different storage periods, which could provide a theoretical reference for research and development on storage and preservation technology for edible rose petals. The results showed that, compared with the control, 1−MCP treatment reduced the initial respiration intensity of petals by more than 80%, slowed the water loss rate, increased the crude fibre content and effectively maintained the contents of soluble sugars, AsA, anthocyanins and total phenols. For the petals in the treatment group at the end of storage, the rate of water loss was 3.73%, the content of soluble sugar was only 17% (62.27 μg/g)—lower than that of fresh petals—and the content of AsA (0.33 mg/g) was the same as that of pre-storage (0.34 mg/g). The contents of total phenols and anthocyanins were 30.60% and 11.63% higher than those of the control group, respectively. In addition, 1−MCP treatment increased the activity of SOD, CAT, APX and PAL and inhibited the activity of PPO. The MDA content at the end of storage was 14.36% lower than that of the control, which reduced the rate of membrane lipid peroxidation. Correlation analysis showed that sensory quality of petals in the 1−MCP treatment group was positively correlated with respiratory intensity and soluble sugar content and negatively correlated with water loss rate, MDA and crude fibre content (p < 0.05) among the four antioxidant enzymes. APX and PAL were positively correlated with anthocyanin content and total phenols content, respectively. These results confirmed that 1−MCP could effectively maintain the storage quality of edible rose petals by increasing the antioxidant capacity of petals and prolong the storage period of fresh petals to 49 days.

In order to evaluate the feasibility of using sugarcane bagasse (SCB) as a substitute for peat in lily cultivation, this study examines the effects of replacing different amounts of peat (0%, 25%, 50%, 75%, and 100%) with SCB on the physical and chemical properties of the substrate. The impact on the growth of cut flower and bulbs of the oriental lily variety ‘Siberia’ was investigated. The results show that the pH value, organic matter content, and reducing sugar content of the substrate were significantly increased (p < 0.05) when peat was replaced with SCB. Moreover, the bulk density, permeability porosity, water-holding porosity, and EC value, as well as the contents of hydrolyzed nitrogen, available phosphorus, available potassium, exchangeable calcium, and exchangeable magnesium were significantly decreased (p < 0.05). The bulk density (0.15–0.17 g·cm³), total porosity (64.2–69.6%), and water-holding porosity (41.0–48.4%) of the mixed media were in a suitable range. The addition of SCB led to shorter plant height, a thinner stalk, and a smaller leaf and flower diameter. The contents of total chlorophyll, chlorophyll a and b in leaves, as well as the activities of sucrose synthetase (SS) and sucrose phosphate synthetase (SPS) decreased with the increase in SCB in the substrates at different growth stages of lily cut flowers. The correlation analysis showed that, except for bulb height, other quality traits of cut flowers and bulbs were significantly negatively correlated with the pH, organic matter, and reducing sugar content of substrates. Plant height, stem diameter, leaf number, leaf length and width, flower diameter of cut flowers, as well as the fresh weight, starch content, the activities of SS and SPS of bulbs were significantly positively correlated with the bulk density, total porosity, water-holding porosity, and hydrolyzed N content of substrates (p < 0.05). The load factors of the principal components indicated that the diameter of stem and flower, leaf number, the content of chlorophyll a and b, and total chlorophyll of cut flowers and SPS activity in bulbs could be used as the core indicators for evaluating the suitability of lily cultivation substrate. In conclusion, when the proportion of peat replaced with SCB was lower than 50%, the quality of cut flowers and bulbs was the same as that found with whole peat. Thus, SCB has broad application prospects in the soilless cultivation of lily plants.

Fusarium wilt (caused by Fusarium oxysporum f. sp. Lilii) is one of the most damaging diseases in lily (Lilium sargentiae Wilson). Although some F. oxysporum-resistant lily varieties have been identified and are being utilized in resistant breeding, the regulation network of the resistance-associated mechanisms is yet to be studied due to the lack of reliable reference genes for qRT-PCR (quantitative reverse transcription PCR) normalization. The reliability of results by qRT-PCR relies mainly on the stability of the reference genes. This study investigated the reliability of nine candidate reference genes (CYP, EF1-α, GAPDH, TUB, UBQ, AQP, HIS, PGK, and RPL13) for qRT-PCR analysis of F. oxysporum-resistant genes. Expression stability analysis via common programs GeNorm, BestKeeper, and NormFinder, at different time points post-inoculation of F. oxysporum, revealed that all nine genes met the basic requirements of reference genes. Amongst them, HIS and GAPDH displayed the highest and the lowest expression stability, respectively. The reliability of HIS was further validated by analyzing the expression levels of four resistance-related candidate genes. The expression patterns of the four target genes were consistent with their responses to pathogenetic fungi in other plants. Our results show that HIS is the most suitable reference gene for accurately normalizing F. oxysporum-resistant genes’ expressions in L. sargentiae.