Keeping Your Fresh Cut Flowers Alive… and Looking Fresh!

Keeping Your Fresh Cut Flowers Alive… and Looking Fresh!

Keeping Your Fresh Cut Flowers Alive… and Looking Fresh!

You’ve just received the most lovely gift of fresh cut flowers.  You’d love nothing more that for this beautiful bouquet to last and last so as to honour not only the vibrant gift itself, but also the one who gifted.

Here are a few tried and true, albeit rather unusual, tricks to keep your fresh flowers looking as vibrant and gorgeous as the day your received them:

Your flowers may not have hair, but they do like hairspray!  Just as it keeps your hairstyle camera-ready, a spritz of hair spray can help keep your fresh cut flowers looking fresher, longer.  Give them about 10 or 12 inches, and give them a quick squirt, not a full on spray down, focusing on the undersides of petals and leaves. Vinegar ain’t just for french fries!  Mix 2 tablespoons apple cider vinegar and 2 tablespoons sugar with the vase water before adding the flowers. Make sure you change the water (adding more vinegar and sugar, of course) every few days to ensure that your flowers have the best chance at staying pert and lovely longer. Soda. Pop. Soft drink.  Whatever you call it… don’t dispose of those last few drops!  In fact, go ahead and pour about 1/4 cup into the water in a vase full of cut flowers. The sugar in the soda will make your blooms last longer. Note: If you have a clear vase and would prefer not to see the weird colour of your beverage, use a clear soda, like Sprite or 7-Up.  Oh, and speaking of wetting your flowers whistle…. Flowers enjoy an evening cocktail almost as much as you do… The secret to keeping cut flowers looking good as long as possible is to minimize the growth of bacteria in the water and to provide nourishment to replace what the flowers would have received had they not been cut. Add a few drops of vodka (or your favourite clear spirit) to the vase water for antibacterial action along with 1 teaspoon sugar. Change the water every other day, refreshing the vodka and sugar each time.