How to make your bouquet last longer
So you’ve just received a beautiful bouquet of flowers and you want to enjoy it for as long as possible?
Here are our top tips for prolonging the life of those beautiful flowers:
1) Limit their time out of water after purchasing. If well hydrated, your flowers should do fine being out of water for 30 min without too many consequences. This gives you time to get those beauties home to some water. If you have a long travel distance home, consider placing them in a temporary vessel filled with water. When we sell at the farmer’s market, we always offer to hold your flowers until you’re finished shopping. That way you can leisurely shop the market and your flowers will stay happy and hydrated until you’re ready to head home.
2) Start with a clean vase. I know it’s tempting to grab an old dusty vase in a hurry. Some of us so rarely receive flowers that our vases are relegated to the dirtiest and most remote parts of our homes and are filled with scunge from the last bouquet and webs as well as that inevitable dead spider……you know I’m not wrong! If that’s what you are starting with, then give your vase a good wash. It should be clean enough to drink from! I love vases that are shaped in such a way that I can put my whole hand into the vase to clean it. If I can’t then I’ll use a brush to do the job for me. Swishing soapy water around is not enough, you need to physically do some scrubbing to remove debris. To save yourself a lot of work next time, store your clean vases upside down so you can just grab and use them right away.
3) Start with clean cool water. Remember your flowers are just as discerning as you are. They want a nice cool fresh drink of water.
4) Remove any leaves (foliage) that are below the water line in your vase. I know this feels weird, but trust me this will vastly improve your vase life. Any foliage that sits in the water will decay and become a vehicle for mould and bacteria which will turn your water from clean to disgusting in a hurry. Strip those babies off!
5) Cut the bottoms of stems. There are a few exceptions (which your flower farmer will tell you about at the time of purchase if applicable), but most flowers benefit from being cut before placing into water at home. Why should you cut the stems? This removes any dry, dead or damaged plant material at the end of the stem and ensures that fresh ends are available to uptake (drink) water from the vase. Flowers that can drink easily will stay better hydrated and this will significantly lengthen the life of your bouquet. How should you cut the stems? I like to cut stems on an angle so that when placed in the vase the stem is freely open to the water instead of flattened against the vase. Some people like to cut their stems under water, or under running water. What ever you prefer, remove 1 cm to 1 inch of the stem and place the newly cut stem into water as soon as possible.
6) Location, location, location! So where you place your flowers can affect their longevity. Avoid anywhere too warm or in direct sunlight. This will quickly dehydrate and bake those beauties! They did need light when they were growing, but now as a cut flower, direct sun can have a detrimental effect. Avoid placing your flowers close to ripening fruit (example: apples). As fruit ripens it produces ethylene. Many flowers are sensitive to ethylene and this can shorten their lifespan dramatically.
7) Keep away from pets. Ok this one is for the safety of your pets and the flowers. Most importantly, there are many flowers and foliages that can be poisonous to pets (especially lilies). Also it’s not cool to have your beautiful flowers damaged and chewed. As a matter of principle, we have purposely never grown or sold lilies (though there are some beautiful ones out there) because they are seriously toxic to cats. Any part of a lily (flower, leaf, stem) can spell certain death to a cat that ingests it.
8) Keep those flowers drinking fresh water. You guessed it: Change the water and recut the stems every 2 days.
What if you’re giving flowers to your mom? How will she know how to care for them?
Every bouquet carefully crafted by us is accompanied by a little card. If you turn the card over, you’ll see all our tips for long lasting flowers on the back. We’ve got your mom’s back!