all buttercream, it shouldn't hurt to put the finished cake in the fridge right? Will this help with the colored roses/leaves bleeding on to the white buttercream?

I am a newbie, so not sure about this but I thought the humidity of the fridge could bleed your colors more than if you were to leave it out. What kind of filling does the cake have?

unless your filling is perishable, there's no need to refrigerate the cake at all. According to numerous threads on here, refrigerating a cake actually speeds up the "going stale" process, so putting a cake in the refrigerator "to keep it fresh" actually makes it go stale faster.

It's not to keep it fresh that I'm asking, it was to keep the buttercream stiffer in order to 'try' to prevent bleeding from the colored items. Thanks for the advice about the moisture. I think you may be right about it making it worse. Guess I'll have to take my chances and leave it out. THANKS!

Oh, I see! Are you using a crusting buttercream? If so, air drying it outside of the 'frig will permit it to hold up better than refrigerating it. Bleeding is caused by moisture moving into a new area, but if the icing is crusted (dried), the moisture is somewhat removed from the surface area, and no bleeding will occur (or at least it's significantly diminished!)

Yep, it's crusting. But the last time it bled, it was the same cream. The shortening seems to separate. Weird. Thanks.