It is known to tie together the stems of flowers to make what is known as a "hand tied bouquet"and to wrap the bouquet in a sheet of flexible water proof material which extends around the ends of the stems and up the stems to the heads of the flowers to form a collar to support and protect the heads. The sheet is tied loosely around the tied parts of the stems so as to form a container into which water can be poured. Such an arrangement of packaging is known as an"Aquapack".

Since there is no water tight seal around the stems the water will leak out unless the bouquet is kept upright with the ends of the stems at the bottom. It is therefore necessary to support the bouquet with its packaging material in an upright position in a bucket or a box or a frame to prevent it from falling over or being pushed over.

Such buckets, boxes or frames take up a lot of space on the floor of the delivery van.

It is also known to provide a rigid support and container for the bouquet which extends loosely around the stems up to the heads of the flowers. This support may be made from one or more flat sheets of water resistant cardboard or a similar material which is pre-cut and indented or scored so that sections defined by the indentations or score lines can be folded relative to each other along the indentations or score lines to form a generally cylindrical container. To ensure that the container is waterproof and can contain water for the flowers of the bouquet, any section of the container which is not continuous with an adjacent section can be connected by a flexible sheet of waterproof material to the adjacent section or a sheet of flexible waterproof material can be placed around the container.

Bouquet supporting containers of the above type are time consuming to assemble from the flat sheet or sheets and are relatively expensive. Also, it is necessary to provide and use different sizes of supporting container for different sizes of bouquets and different lengths of flower stem.

The object of the present invention is to provide improved packaging material for a hand tied bouquet of flowers (as described above), an improved method of packaging such a bouquet, and an improved packaged hand tied bouquet of flowers.

According to the present invention packaging material for a hand tied bouquet of flowers comprises a sheet of flexible water proof material and a rigid disc attached to the sheet. The sizes of the sheet and the disc are selected so that, if the ends of the stems of the flowers in the hand tied bouquet are placed on the disc with the stems extending generally vertically and the sheet is folded over the edge of the disc and around the stems so that it extends up to the heads of the flowers and is tied closely around the stems, the flexible sheet and the rigid disc will combine with the stems of the flowers to form a substantially rigid container which will support and protect the flowers, may contain water and will enable the bouquet to stand upright on the portion of the sheet to which the disc is attached.

According to another aspect of the invention a method of packaging a hand tied bouquet of flowers comprises tying together the stems of the flowers, attaching a rigid disc to a sheet of flexible water proof material, placing the ends of the stems of the flowers on the disc with the stems extending generally vertically, folding the sheet over the edge of the disc and around the stems so that the sheet extends up to the heads of the flowers, and tying the sheet closely around the stems, so that the flexible sheet and the rigid disc combine with the stems of the flowers to form a substantially rigid container which will support and protect the flowers, may contain water and will enable the bouquet to stand upright on the portion of the sheet to which the disc is attached.

According to a still further aspect of the invention a packaged hand tied bouquet of flowers comprises a bunch of flowers with their stems tied together, a sheet of flexible water proof material and a flat rigid disc attached to the sheet, with the ends of the stems of the flowers in the bouquet abutting against the disc and extending generally vertically, and the sheet folded over the edge of the disc, so that it extends up to the heads of the flowers, and tied closely around the stems, the flexible sheet and the rigid disc combining with the stems of the flowers to form a substantially rigid container which will support and protect the bouquet, may contain water and will enable the bouquet to stand upright on the portion of the sheet to which the disc is attached.

Preferably the sheet is of sufficient size and shape so that the upper portion of the sheet extends above the heads of the flowers to form a collar to provide support and protection for the heads. The sheet may be generally rectangular or generally circular.

The disc is preferably circular in plan but may be oval or any other shape and may be transparent and may be coloured.

The water proof material of the sheet is preferably transparent and may be coloured.

In order that the invention may be more readily understood an embodiment will now be described with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which Figure 1 is a perspective view of a hand tied bouquet of flowers, Figure 2 is a plan view of packaging material in accordance with the invention, Figure 3 is a plan view of another form of the packaging material,

Figure 4 is a side view in section and on a larger scale of the packaging material illustrated in Figure 2 or Figure 3, and Figures 5 and 6 are perspective views showing two stages in the packaging of the bouquet illustrated in Figure 1 using the packaging material as illustrated in Figure 2 or Figure 3.

Figure 1 illustrates a hand tied bouquet comprising a bunch of flowers 1 with heads 2 and stems 3 which are tied together at the region 4 with string, ribbon or other suitable material 5.

Figures 2,3 and 4 illustrate packaging material suitable for packaging the bouquet illustrated in Figure 1. The packaging material comprises a sheet 6 of flexible water proof material such as a transparent sheet of cellulose prepared by extruding cellulose xanthate solution into a bath of acid, such as Cellophane (Registered Trade Mark) or Cellocoup (Registered Trade Mark), and a rigid disc 7 attached to one portion of the sheet. The material of the sheet 6 may be transparent and may be any suitable colour. As illustrated in Figure 4 the disc 7 may be attached to the sheet 6 by a layer of adhesive 8. As illustrated in Figures 2 and 3 the disc 7 may be circular (Figure 2) or oval (Figure 3) in plan view and is preferably flat. Alternatively, the disc 7 may be any other suitable shape in plan view (not illustrated). The material of the disc 7 may be a cast polymethylmethacrylate sheet made from an acrylic resin, such as Perspex (Registered Trade Mark), and is preferably transparent and may be any suitable colour.

Figures 5 and 6 illustrate how the packaging material can be used to package and protect the hand tied bouquet 1 of Figure 1. The portion of the sheet 6 to which is attached the disc 7 is placed on a flat surface 9. The ends of the stems 3 are placed on the disc 7 with the stems extending generally vertically (Figure 5).

Preferably, the ends of the stems 3 are trimmed before being placed on the disc 7 so that the bouquet 1 is self supporting on the disc 7 in a generally vertical position.

The sheet 6 is then folded upwardly over the edge of the disc 7 and around the stems 3 so that it extends at least most of the way to the heads 2 of the flowers.

The portion of the sheet 6 extending around the stems 3 is then tied with flat string or ribbon or similar material 11 (Figure 6) so that the sheet 6 is held close to the stems 3. The flat string 11 is tied sufficiently tightly so that the sheet 6 extends closely around the stems 3 but not so tightly as to cause bruising or damaging of the stems.

Also, there is sufficient space between the stems 3 and the sheet 6 to allow the nozzle of a watering can (not illustrated and about 5 mm. in diameter) to be inserted into this space so that water can then be poured into the container 12 formed by the lower portion of the sheet 6 and the disc 7.

Preferably the size of the sheet 6 is chosen so that the upper portion 13 of the sheet projects above the heads 2 so as to form a collar which supports and protects the heads 2.

Since the sheet 6 is held close to the stems 3 by the string or ribbon 11 and the ends of the stems 3 abut against the disc 7 the combination of the stems 3, the sheet 6 and the disc 7 forms a substantially rigid container for the bouquet 1. As a result the bouquet 1 is fully supported in this container and will stand up on its own on a flat surface on the portion of the sheet 6 to which the disc 7 is attached, for example while being transported. The sheet 6 is defined as being flexible but it must be sufficiently stiff to form the substantially rigid container.

To provide additional support and protection for the heads 2 of the bouquet 1 an additional sheet (not illustrated) of the material forming the sheet 6 (or similar) may be placed around the stems 3 and the heads 2 before the ends of the stems are placed on the disc 7. In this arrangement the upper portion 13 of the sheet 6 will be positioned outside the additional sheet.

The disc 7 may be manufactured with the layer of adhesive 8 initially covered with a sheet of paper or the like. This will enable a stack of discs to be assembled.

The sheet 6 may be cut off a continuous roll of the sheet material. To form the bouquet packaging described above a sheet 6 of the required size is pulled off the

roll and placed on the flat surface 9. One of the discs 7 is taken off the stack, the paper covering the adhesive layer is removed and the surface of the disc with the adhesive is placed in the required position on the sheet 6.

On arrival at its destination the bouquet 1, packaged as described above, can be removed from the container and placed in a vase or other container or used as required. Alternatively, the bouquet can be left in the container formed by the sheet 6 and the disc 7 since the whole arrangement is watertight and will stand by itself on a level surface. The water in the container can be topped up as needed.

This is particularly useful if the bouquet is to be given to a person who does not have any vases or other containers readily available, for example in a hospital.

It will be appreciated that the size of the sheet 6 is not critical or closely related to the size of the bouquet provided that the sheet 6, after having been folded over the edge of the disc 7, extends sufficiently far towards or beyond the heads 2 to provide the required amount of protection and support for the heads. It will further be appreciated that the size and shape of the disc 7 must be selected so that the disc is large enough to prevent the bouquet from falling over sideways. The disc 7 will normally be circular if the bouquet is generally circular in plan view and normally be oval if the bouquet is generally oval in plan view.

Since the whole of the lower surface of the disc 7 which abuts against the upper surface of the sheet 6 is coated with adhesive no water will flow between these surfaces and tend to destroy the rigidity of the packaging.

In the above described arrangement in which the sheet 6 is pulled off a roll the outer edges of the sheet will form either a square or a rectangle. In an alternative arrangement, each sheet 6 may be pre-formed and may have a circular outer edge or a specially shaped outer edge. Such a sheet is known as a "rondella".

In a practical embodiment the thickness of the sheet 6 was 30 microns and the disc 7 was circular with a diameter of 14 mm and a thickness of 1.5 mm. In another embodiment the disc had a diameter of 19.5 mm and a thickness of 2.0 mm.

The sheet 6 and the disc 7 and the paper covering the adhesive layer 8 may be printed with the name of the shop or store supplying the bouquet. Alternatively, the disc 7 and the paper may be printed with the name of the manufacturer or supplier of the disc. The disc may also be printed with a special name to identify the disc.