Looking after cut flowers in your home
Cut flowers are a welcome addition to anyone’s home, no matter whether you buy them yourself, or you receive them as a gift. There a so many different flowers that can be included in a bouquet, from roses for romance to daisies for fun and cheerfulness and orchids for a sense of style. All of these flowers are beautiful, but sadly none of them last forever.
One of the most important aspects of ensuring the flowers in a bouquet last as long as possible is to make sure they are purchased from a reputable florist, so that you know they are fresh; you can learn more here. Another important aspect to ensuring longevity in cut flowers is to ensure you care for them correctly.
Caring for cut flowers
If you have cut flowers in your home you need to make sure they are well cared for in order to ensure they remain looking beautiful for as long as possible. These are the steps you should take when caring for a bouquet of flowers:
- Make sure the vase is clean as bacteria can cause flowers to die quicker.
- Fill the vase with warm water, not cold.
- Cut the stems of the flowers by around 1.5 inches, at an angle.
- Remove all leaves from the bottoms of the stems.
- Pour any flower food provided into the water.
- Use sugar or vinegar instead of flower food; around 2 tablespoons of either provides the same nutrients.
- Place the flowers in the vase of water.
After you have done all of this you cannot just leave your flowers and forget about them; if you do this then they will die fairly quickly. You have to keep caring for your bouquet.
- Check water levels in the vase each day and top up as necessary.
- Replace the water in the vase at least every other day, washing the vase when you do.
- Replace the flower food when you change the water in the vase.
- Recut the stems of the flowers when you change the water.
All of this does not take very long to do and it’s worth it if you want to keep your flowers looking good for the longest possible time.
Are fake flowers easier?
Fake flowers can be easier to take care of, in that all they really need is cleaning. This does not mean that you should opt for fake flowers instead of fresh flowers. The care required to make fresh flowers last longer is not exceptional; it only amounts to a few minutes every couple of days. It’s worth a bit of effort to have natural flowers in your home. Yes, fake flowers do last longer, but most of them just do not look like the real thing. You can buy silk flowers that have more of a natural look but they tend to be expensive.
All in all, there is nothing quite like having fresh flowers in your home. Hopefully we have given you enough information to enable you to take care of your flowers and keep them looking amazing for longer.
I’m a 20-something stay-at-home mother and wife. I have an amazing husband, a beautiful daughter, two loving dogs, and a lazy cat. I wouldn’t change my life for anything! I love to read, listen to music, cook and blog!
Fantastic tips, Courtney! I remember reading or hearing somewhere that everyone makes the mistake of using cold water and to think about it like rain…would the flower rather have a warm April rain or a cold January rain…duh. That always stuck with me. Thank you for sharing all of these tips.
That is such a great way to remember it! I’m going to tally remember that from now on. Thanks for that tip and for visiting Optimistic Mommy!