Keeping cut flowers fresh

Cut flowers enjoy a good rest and soak in a cool dark place to help keep them fresh.

If you buy flowers, re-cut the stem when you get home and stand the stems for several hours or overnight in a bucket of luke-warm water.

 If your cut flowers have come from a florist, you will find a small sachet of commercial flower food in wiht the flowers.  This contains “flower food” that  helps flowers to stay fresh longer.  Simply add the contents of the sachet to the water in the vase before you arrange the flowers.

To can make your own “flower food” add one teaspoon each of sugar, chlorine bleach and white vinegar to a 30 cm vase.   The sugar feeds the flowers, the chlorine slows down the bacterial growth, the acid improves the PH of the water.

Flower food and fresh water can increase the life of cut flowers by up to 25 percent.

Floppy flowers benefit from a hot water treatment. If you have bought some flowers and taken longer to get home than you expected, put about five centimetres of boiling water in a bowl or mug and hold stems in it for about 30 seconds (no longer or they will cook). Keep the flower heads out of the steam.  Then arrange them in a vase with flower food – see above.

Some flowers like special treatment to keep them fresh longer.

Dahlias  Plunge the lower 2 cm of stem in boiling water to seal the stem.   Pick flowers when sun is not on them.

Roses  Cut roses in the evening and put them into a bucket of warm water with flower food. You will need 1 tbsp each of sugar chlorine bleach and vinegar per bucket.  After treating the roses to a long soak, pour some of the water from the bucket into the vase, re-cut 1-2 cm of each stem as you arrange the flowers.  Get the stem into the vase as soon as you have re-cut the stem. If air gets into the stem it forms bubbles that block access to the water so the rose cannot drink.

Iceland poppies   Burn the ends of the stems with a match! – it works!

Daffodils, tulips etc  Change the water often because they exude slime which taints the water.

Woody stemmed plants such chrysanthemums, lilacs, viburnums and spring blossom such as prunus and wintersweet also benefit from a hot water treatment.  This gently softens the stems to open up the fibres, which improves their water uptake.

Autumn foliage  Cut and put it straight into a jar containing up to 100 cm glycerine.  Leave for 5-6 days to absorb as much as it can.  Will keep fresh for months.