Is There a Difference Between Wet Flower Foam & Dry Flower Foam?

Flower, or floral, foam allows an inexperienced person to create a flower arrangement like a professional. Flower foam is used with fresh-cut flowers, artificial flowers and dried flowers to hold the stems in place. Foam is available in many shapes and sizes to accommodate the project, from vase arrangements to wreaths. Selecting the correct type and style of flower foam for your creation may make the difference between ease and success or frustration and failure.

Floral foam was developed in the early 1950s by a company named Oasis, which is the leading supplier of the product today. The foam, whether wet or dry, holds flower stems in the precise positioning the designer envisioned without the instability a flower frog often causes. Wet floral foam must be pre-soaked in water so it completely absorbs the water before any flower stems are inserted, while dry foam is used with no water.

Wet flower foam is not as compact or dense as dry foam, because the wet foam must have open space for water. Dry flower foam is very dense and heavier than wet foam; there no need for dry foam to have room for water, and dry foam needs more weight to stay in place when the arrangement is completed. The absorbed water in wet foam adds a significant amount of weight to keep the foam in place.

Flower foam, wet or dry, is sold in different grades, which distinguishes the density. The most common grade used is termed "standard" or "ideal." A lighter-grade flower foam is used for fine-stemmed flowers that might break if inserted into standard-grade foam. For thicker, heavier-stemmed flowers, deluxe or premium grade must be utilised to support the flowers. These grades are more commonly available and used for wet floral foam, though dry foam also has similar foam grades for a variety of stem arrangements.

If you mistakenly used dry flower foam for a fresh-cut flower arrangement, you would discover your mistake quickly. Because of the formulation and density of dry floral foam, it will not absorb or take up fluid readily, if at all, when placed in water. Wet flower foam, on the other hand, quickly absorbs water like a sponge. Wet and dry floral foam are not interchangeable for flower arrangements.