We all know a few well-placed flowers can provide an instant fix to a dull space. A fresh bouquet lights up a room and fills the air with a sweet aroma. But, the joy is always temporary, and eventually the flowers wither and die. Here are some easy tips for keeping those beautiful buds alive.
The most simple, yet least followed, tip to keep your flowers alive: Change the water!
• Add a small mixture of aspirin and sugar to the water, along with some type of antibacterial agent like vodka, vinegar or even a little bleach. Just a ¼ of a teaspoon is all you need.
• Drop a copper penny in the vase.
• Cut the stems at a 45° angle with sharp scissors every day.
• Hold the stems underwater while you cut them.
• Remove any leaves that are submerged under the water.
• Cull any dying flowers as soon as possible.
• Keep the flowers away from any drafts (even fans!) and out of direct sunlight.
• Keep flowers away from fruit and other plants. Other flora can give off the gas, ethylene, which can cause flowers to wilt prematurely.
• Keep flowers away from appliances, like televisions and computers, which give off heat and can cause flowers to dehydrate.
• Clean your vase before you put flowers in it. Make sure you rinse out all of the soap!
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Comments (12)
You forgot keeping them away from direct sunlight. Tulips and lots of other bulbs love being put outside in the cold air overnight, it really peps them up.
Also making sure your vases are thoroughly cleaned with bleach & water before putting your new flowers in to stop the spread of disease from old arrangements.
i love this photo.
Forget the flowers...I love the wallpaper, the chairs. How lovely!
In a former life as a caterer here in the south, I discovered that camellias actually make great centerpieces on the table (not in a vase) if you stick the stem of each flower in a grape. Yes, a grape, globe grapes work best because they are the largest. I had most of them last from a friday party all the way to a sunday afternoon party. did have to discard a few.
Carry them upside down when transporting them from shop or garden to home -- this prevents air bubbles from getting into the stems (air bubbles prevent the uptake of water).
thank you !
Consumer Reports, I think, or some other magazine tested all the things supposed to make flowers last longer and found that nothing like bleach or aspirin worked as well as the packets of flower food you can buy at florists. I think these have four or five ingredients, so they work better than homemade remedies.
Can we get a stockist for the wallpaper?
Thanks Trish1980! You solved a small mystery for me. In Paris I always see people carrying their flowers upside down and I couldn't figure it out.
Oooh those chairs....oh yeah and umm that upside down flower thing is cool too...but oooh those chairs...they need to be in my life!
@leadingedge: You're welcome. It was always a mystery to mem, too! I used to think, "Well, aren't they going to risk losing petals and leaves that way??" But then I ended up working for someone who was a florist by hobby, and she enlightened me. Whenever I walk out of a flower shop now, I get funny looks from people.
One note, though -- I will carry them right-side-up until I get out of the store, because carrying them upside down can mean that water will drip all over the florist's floor, and they're not necessarily happy about that.
super helpful post, thanks Susan! I love fresh flowers but end up spending way too much on them b/c I have to replace them so often. Hoping that treating them right helps!