How to take care of fresh flowers

Fresh flowers are a great, affordable way to add color and life to any room in your home. Here's how to make your blooms last as long as possible.

Difficulty: Easy

Instructions

1. After bringing flowers home, unwrap and cut under cold running water. If you cut flowers dry, especially roses, they tend to get air bubbles in the stems that hurt the water/food flow. Also cut off any leaf, etc that falls below the water line in the vase.

2. Fill a vase with water, slightly cooler than room temp, and add a small amount of sugar and lemon juice. Sugar acts as a food to flowers and lemon juice allows the food to travel up the stem faster and more efficiently.

3. Alternatively, you can also use a small amount of sugar, aspirin and a penny in your vase for the same effect.

4. Arrange the flowers in your vase and enjoy! For more care, see the tips at the bottom of this page.

Tips & Warnings

• Place flowers in indirect sunlight.
• Place flowers away from fruit. Fruit gives off a natural gas that harms flowers.
• If flowers look like they are prematurely wilting, cut the stems an inch under cold running water. They may have air bubbles in them.