Being that some of you will be getting holiday bouquets as gifts or placing some out for holiday decor, I thought we’d have a little refresher about how to keep flowers looking their best.
Winter Wonderland from Organic Bouquet
- Flower food from an actual flower shop works the best for keeping blooms fresh for longer amounts of time. Tricks like a penny, changing the water, sugar, bleach, and so on are tricks many talk about and when I worked at a nursery we tried all of them but actual flower food works the best.
- Start clean – dirty or moldy containers or vases will kill flowers off quickly. Wash containers well, and if you add any extras, like holiday decor on a stick, wash those too. Make sure to rinse the soap off well because the pH of soap will also change the water quality.
- Cut off any leaves that may fall below the water line in the vase. Leaves sitting in water get icky, smell funky, look bad, and promotes bacteria growth.
- If you’re making bouquets with holiday bulbs use cold water not room temp because they’ll hold up longer.
- When I worked at the rose nursery we’d submerge wilting roses in cool water for a few hours.
- If giving flowers as a gift, keep them cool until you give them. I.e. place them in the garage or another cool spot. If you want open, fresh smelling blooms bring them inside for a few hours before giving them out. If you’ve got no time to spare, unopened flowers can be forced open if you place them in very warm (not hot) tap water. BUT make sure that after the blooms open you place the flowers into normal room temp water.
- And it goes without saying that if you’re using flowers for decor, say on the table for your holiday party or dinner, you need to wait until as late as possible to get the flowers.
Post from: Blisstree