How to Keep Flowers Fresh

Given the price of cut flowers you'll want to make the colorful spring and summer blooms that look so great in the flower shop, or in your garden, last as long as possible when you put them in a vase in your home. Here are some simple tricks from the cut-flower trade to help you keep most flower varieties looking their best.

Difficulty: Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• Flowers
• Sharp knife
• Garden clippers
• Vase

1. Always cut flower stems with a sharp knife, never a scissors. A scissors will never give a clean cut but instead will bruise the stems and prevent proper water uptake.

2. If the bloom has a tough, woody stem, use a garden clippers, or saw through it with an old bread knife. Once that's done, split the stem upwards an inch from the cut to increase its water intake ability.

3. Flower stems that are out of water, even for a short period, seal up. This inhibits their ability to absorb water. When you get your store bought flowers home, don't just drop them in a vase. Cut an inch or two off the stems before you do.

4. When cutting stems, always slice them at an angle of 45 degrees. This increases the area of stem that's exposed to water. It also prevents the cut stem from standing flat against the floor of the vase, which would impede its intake of water.

5. Lop off all the bottom foliage from the stem that would be under water in the vase. Doing this prevents bacterial growth which, as well as making the water stink, shortens the life of the flowers.

6. Prune off dead and tightly closed buds from the stem as they will steal nutrients from the flower heads you want to keep healthy.

7. Flowers can absorb warm water more easily than cold so, when creating a display, always use lukewarm water -- between 100°F to 110°F - in the flower vase, except when displaying bulb flowers, like tulips and hyacinths, which prefer cold water.

8. Use a preservative to increase the vase life of cut flowers. You can buy one at a florist or garden center, but you can just as easily mix one at home by adding 1 teaspoon of sugar, 1 teaspoon of bleach and 2 teaspoons of lemon or lime juice to a quart of lukewarm water. The sugar provides nutrition, the bleach keeps the water free of bacteria, and the lemon juice acidifies the water, decreasing its pH.

9. Don't overcrowd the flowers in the vase or container you use for your cut flower display.

10. Change the water, and renew your preservative mixture, every two days to encourage maximum life from your flowers.

11. When flowers go limp, it's a sign they're not drinking well. Discard them if they're wilted, or attempt to rescue them by re-cutting the stems.

Tips & Warnings

• If you're lucky enough to have a flower garden don't be afraid to use it. Cutting blooms for cut flower displays will only encourage the plants to pump out more blooms throughout the summer months.
• The best time to cut fresh flowers from your garden is in the early morning. That's the time they're well hydrated after a cool night and a drenching from the morning dew. Cutting flowers in the heat of the midday sun is a sure way to shorten their vase life.
• Carry a bucket of water when cutting flowers. The moment you pick the blooms get the stems in the water.

Resources

• Buy flowers online
• Gardening supplies online

[Butterfli]

on 12/4/2009 Very good article on how to keep flowers fresh! I love to have fresh flowers in a vase on in my kitchen windo seal. Thanks! 5*

[brewstrong]

on 11/1/2008 Great information! Cut flowers can last so much longer when following these simple steps. Here's some info on tons of different cut flower varieties...
http://www.bloomsbythebox.com/wholesale-flowers.cfm

[vikki9]

on 6/12/2008 This is a great article - thank you. Fresh flowers support good Feng Shui - toss them once they start to wilt.

[lisadee]

on 12/11/2007 thank you. i'm horrible with flowers. i'll try this and see if it helps.

[christylove]

on 10/6/2007 BY CHRISTY Z. 10-06-07
Found more great info. than I was looking for! I can do this! Thank you so much and God Bless you all!