For the most part, I think we can all agree that cut flowers are beautiful and liven up most any space. That said, many of us are convinced that they aren't worth our time because we'll just kill them within the day. Here are 5 tips to keep them lasting longer and looking better, even when you swear your thumb isn't green.
1. Make Sure Your Scissors Are Sharp: Although it's easy to grab any scissor around the house, finding the sharpest pair will allow your stems to receive the most amount of water possible. Dull blades will crush the stem and the life of your blooms will diminish.
2. Cut Flowers In the Coolest Part of the Day: Cutting flowers when it's cool and getting them in water immediately will help lengthen the bloom time. Cutting when it's warmer will rob your stems of valuable moisture.
3. Don't Mix Fruit and Flowers: Fruit and other plants can give off gasses that will wilt your cut blooms faster. Try keeping them away from other plants in your home or a bowl of fruit on your table.
4. Change the Water Everyday: Would you want to drink the same glass of water everyday? Your flowers don't either. Change it daily to eliminate mold, debris and keep things fresh.
5. Hot and Cold Matters: Do you need your blooms to open faster? Fill your vase with hot (not boiling) water. Need to keep them looking great a little longer? Cold water, even with a few ice cubes, will do the trick!
Do you have any tips you've learned over the years? Share your best ones in the comments below!
MORE HELPFUL FLOWER ADVICE
• How to: Keep Cut Flowers Looking Fresh
• How To: Display Cut Flowers (10 Easy Ways)
• Succulent, A Green Alternative to Cut Flowers
• How To Extend the Life of Your Cut Flowers
Image: Susie Nadler
Apartment Therapy's Sofa Shopping Guide
Nikki’s Sweet and Cheery Print Studio
Good Food to Share 
The Big Book of Small, Cool Spaces 
Apartment Therapy Presents 
The Eight-Step Home Cure 
Sprout Side Table
5 Things Paris Taught Me About Travel
Recipe: Ham, Cheddar & Chive Egg Bakes
Prefer to use a sharp knife, and not scissors, to cut soft flower stems.
Certain flowers have specific requirements - woody stems need to be crushed, sappy flowers (poppies) need to have their cut ends sealed shut with a flame.
And -use- that packet of preservative that comes with a lot of bouquets - it will extend the life of your flowers.
Thanks great tips. For some reason I thought I was supposed to put flowers in lukewarm water.
Give a flowering plant instead of cut flowers. They can last years and show an expression of long lasting sentiment. Cut flowers will wither and die within a week, unlike like a relationship that you cherish.
@funstraw Potted plants and cut flowers seem to last equally long in my apartment. I've successfully maintained plants elsewhere but this place has bad plant mojo. At least with the cut flowers, there's variety.
1. Trim the flowers everyday at least 1/2 inch to "open" it up to water again. The ends will seal shut and not receive enough moisture.
2. Change the water everyday
These always make my flowers last at least a week and a half!
-HannahM
hannahmccoyinteriors.com
Cut stem tips at a 60 degree angle... with a sharp KNIFE.
Good to know
WallFlowerPower - Please do NOT use boiling water. Warm or hot tap water is just fine, but most vases (or plants) don't like to be boiled.
Actually, I'd rather receive a bouquet of cut flowers than a potted plant. The cut flowers feel like an extravagance, whereas the potted plant feels like something I'm forced to look after...
@WallFlowerPower, as the post says, "fill your vase with hot (not boiling) water" to force open blooms sooner. Also, perhaps if you could smell the vinegar you used a bit too much? I often put just a dash (meaning, about a teaspoon) of vinegar into a vase of flowers and it seems to make them last a bit longer. Fresh lemon juice I've heard does the same thing.
A florist friend told me to crush up an aspirin and add it to the water in lieu of the flower-food packet...not sure what that science is, but it seems to work! Oh, and I LOVE the ice cube trick. I use it for showers and weddings I coordinate - keeps the bouquets fresher longer.
Put just a little dribble of bleach in the water. It sounds weird, but it works. I think it kills off bacteria. The water/bleach mixture should be changed at least every other day and the flowers freshly cut each time. I currently have flowers from...last week I think? Anyway, my boyfriend is always surprised with how long my flowers last.
I've tried other mixtures of lime juice, sugar, vinegar, etc, but the bleach alone has given me the best results.
Linsey is right.
The bleach works! I put it in a little glass dropper bottle so I can easily measure how much is actually going in. Also trimming them with a SHARP knife under running water and putting them into the water w/ a hint of bleach mix will make them last so much longer.
i remember reading in real simple that if you need to change the water but don't want to disturb the arrangement, you can use a turkey baster to get the water out (and fresh water back in).
NOTE: i haven't tried it, though, so i'm not sure how well this works. i almost never have cut flowers and when i do my "arrangements" aren't fancy enough to be baster-worthy, but maybe this will help someone!