You bought some new flowers at the grocery store or farmers market. Yay! You’re feeling so happy, right? But then two days later they’ve croaked. Sad! These three tricks including learning how to cut flowers and the best cut flower food will keep flower arrangements fresh longer.
For me, flower arranging is such a calm and peaceful thing to do. My husband laughs that when it starts to turn to fall weather that what am I going to do every weekend? I love to spend days cutting flowers, deadheading my planters and just in general playing with my flowers! I’ve taken a floral design class and learned a lot over the years so I thought I would teach you three tricks to help keep you flower arrangements fresh longer.
cut flowers properly
Always, always, always give each stem a clean cut and always on the diagonal. This will allow for optimal hydration. You really don’t want to damage your stems so sharp pruning sheers are key. This step is most important when receiving a flower delivery I (love when people send me flowers!) or if you buy them at the grocery store. These flowers have traveled a long road and are thirsty. As soon as you get them, give each stem a new, fresh cut to help give them water.
keep mold at bay
Remove any and all foliage from the stems that is in the water. Not only will the leaves suck up water, they will make mildew grow faster in the water. Get it all off the stem. If you like some foliage, keep that in area above the water line. Note, we’ve all seen gorgeous arrangements that have giant leaves in the water – they are gorgeous. This is fine, just know you will have to change the water that much more often in order to keep the water free from the mildew that leave will inevitably be growing.
the right flower food
Use food grade hydrogen peroxide in the water for cut flower food. Weird, right? But this is the secret the high end floral designers aren’t sharing. This helps oxyenagate the water and keep the mildew at bay. The florists use plant grade solution which has higher potency. I’ve used stuff from grocery store and it works fine you just need to add a lot more. I recently bought this on Amazon to experiment with and I’m a big fan. Just a few drops will keep your water free of mildew and your flowers happy and keep flower arrangements fresh longer!
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Want to learn how to keep more flower arrangements alive longer? Learn how to keep hydrangeas from wilting!
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