Floristry and ornamental horticulture

Daffodils are the one flower a florist will not put straight into a mixed bucket. A freshly cut narcissus stem leaks a slimy sap that shortens the life of other flowers in the same water, so the daffodils stand on their own for a few hours first. The trade has a verb for this, and it is quite literal: die Narzissen schleimen aus, they slime themselves out. The same root leads a second life in everyday German, and there it is an insult. Schleimen on its own means to toady, to lay the flattery on thick for some advantage; the person who does it is ein Schleimer, and sich bei jemandem einschleimen is to worm your way into someone’s favour. Er schleimt beim Chef says nothing about sap. In the workroom it is the particle aus- that keeps the sense botanical: it sends the slime out of the stem and points at nobody.