The postharvest behavior of rose (Rosa hybrida) was studied on cultivars Raphaella and Bettina of long and short vase life periods respectively. With this purpose, flower stems, with and without pretreated silver nitrate (1 g·L-1 for 30 min), were immersed for 3 h in the following preservative solutions: 1. 2% sucrose, 2.2% sucrose + 0.002 M silver thiosulphate (STS), 3. 2% sucrose + 200 mg·L-1 8- hydroxyquinoline citrate (8-HQC) and 4. 2% sucrose + 0.002 M STS + 200 mg·L-1 8- HQC. An equal number of flower stems treated with water were included as control. Evaluations were done 3, 6, and 9 days after treatments. According to the results obtained, the soluble sugars and reducing sugars contents found on petals were higher than on the leaves. However, the soluble sugar content of the leaves decreased significantly (p £ 0.05) 9 days after treatment in roses ‘Raphaella’ that were pretreated with silver nitrate. In petals, the reducing sugar content increased 6 days after treatment in response to pretreatment with silver nitrate and the sucrose concentration of the preservative solution. Starch content only increased in petals of flowers, pretreated with silver nitrate, after 6 days of being treated with preservative solutions containing 8-HQC. The silver nitrate pretreatment and the composition of the preservative solutions had no effect on ethylene production, but the evolution of the CO2 increased on flowers being treated with silver nitrate.