How To Make Fresh Flower Bouquets Last Longer
Whether you receive flowers from someone else or decide to gift yourself some for new home decorations, knowing some ways to make your flowers last longer is always beneficial. With their beauty comes delicateness, leaving them vulnerable to early and sudden decay. However, this deterioration doesn’t have to happen so quickly. There are methods to circumvent the immediate threats to your flowers, making them last longer than they otherwise would. These include simple, immediate steps as well as regular care. Be aware of how to make fresh flower bouquets last longer and let them adorn your home, bringing their unique beauty and aromas.
Cut the Stems
Flowers absorb water through their stems, sucking it up like a straw to hydrate themselves. When you receive a bouquet of flowers, it’s essential that you remember to trim the bottom of the stems, cutting off about two inches. This step is important because the opening of the stem may have sealed itself, making it difficult for water to enter. Cutting off those two inches creates a fresh opening, letting water flow unencumbered and resulting in a very hydrated flower.
This isn’t a one-time solution; the opening of the stem will seal up again, preventing water from entering efficiently. Therefore, this is a step you should repeat every two days to ensure your flowers get the water they need to survive.
It’s also important to remember to make the cut at an angle, not directly horizontally. Cutting at an angle allows for more efficient water absorption and eliminates the risk of the opening becoming blocked if the stem sits flat on the vase’s bottom.
Give the Flowers a Pruning
After cutting the stems but before placing them in the vase, take the time to remove any extra foliage, especially the leaves that will sit below the waterline. The first major benefit of removing these unnecessary leaves is that it will prevent bacterial growth inside the vase, making for cleaner and significantly safer water. If you allow bacteria to grow in the vase, it could poison your bouquet.
The other advantage to trimming off leaves is that it enables your flowers to utilize the water to greater effect. If you allow the leaves to stay on the stems, the flowers will use water and energy to keep those leaves alive, taking away strength from the petals and buds. Removal of these leaves lets your flowers send all their energy and water to the flowers themselves, leading to healthy, glowing petals.
The same concept applies to petals and buds that wilt. Allowing them to stay only diverts energy from the healthy, live flower petals. Leaving wilted flowers also increases the chances of mold developing on the flowers, potentially leading to its spread and wilting the rest of the bouquet at an accelerated rate.
Know When and How To Water
Water is the life source of any plant, and flowers need a regular supply of clean water to hydrate themselves. However, you must be careful with the water you give your flowers: not any water will do, as flowers are a bit picky with the water they need.
Before anything, make sure you have a clean vase to start with; any grime or contaminants can pollute the water, harming your flowers. After you secure your fresh vase, add the water, but make sure it’s room temperature—not too hot and not too cold. You can also add a packet of flower food to enhance the properties of the water, enriching it with the nutrients the flowers need. This isn’t necessary, but it’s an extra step to make your bouquet that much healthier.
Finally, you need to refresh the water about every two days. You could do this when you trim the stems. Using the same water for too long can contaminate it, leading to bacterial growth. Also, make a habit out of cleaning out and drying the vase before adding new water. You never know what kinds of germs will stick around and infect the new water.
Keep the Flowers in a Controlled Environment
This can be one of the more difficult steps to accomplish due to the fragile nature of cut flowers. But you need to keep a few considerations in mind when displaying your bouquet around the home, including the amount of sunlight in the room, the temperature, and the draftiness.
First, make sure to avoid direct sunlight when possible. This may seem odd due to the fact that plants utilize photosynthesis, but cut flowers need to avoid the sun. Sunlight can accelerate flowers’ aging process as well as dehydrate them, making them decay more quickly than if you had kept them out of the way of the sun.
Along with this, try to keep the temperature of the room on the cooler side. Warmer temperatures can dry out flowers, dehydrating them to the point of decay. When controlling the temperature of your room, you also need to consider if the air vent blows directly on your flowers. Whether it’s warm or cold, air blowing directly onto your flowers can dry them out, so make sure to keep them out of the way of the airflow.
One of the more bizarre considerations is keeping your flowers away from fruits. The reason behind this is that ripening fruits release a small amount of ethylene gas, which can shorten the life span of flowers. Your inclination may be to display your flowers next to fruits and vegetables, but resist the urge and keep them separate.
Flowers are beautiful but delicate things, decaying when their owners don’t take the necessary steps to keep them going. Make sure you know what to do to keep your bouquet for as long as possible. Increasing the longevity of your flowers means decorating your home with them, admiring their beauty, and livening your home with their presence for longer.
Cultivate and Bloom is an online flower company that specializes in high-quality flower bouquets, providing customers with beautiful flowers and custom hand-tied designs.
