It’s officially spring again and with it comes the abundance of fresh flowers to choose from for your own home. I am a plant lady by heart but a nice bouquet of tulips or wildflowers makes me very happy and my home that much cozier.
That’s why I want to share my tried and true insider tips on how to make your flowers last longer and by that I mean longer than 7 days!
Get to know your stems
Not only are all fresh flowers different in shape and color, their stems are very different too and need to be cut in different ways once you’re home and ready to put them in your favorite vase. A soft stem from a tulip for example, just needs half a centimeter or so trimmed in a clean horizontal cut. Those flowers are guzzlers, but more on that below.
If you are dealing with a thin robust stem, from added greenery or baby’s breath, you want to cut a good centimeter and use a hammer or heavy object to smash them a bit. That way the stem opens up in several places, ready to let water in.
Roses, peonies and other thickly stemmed flowers you want to cut a bit more diagonally to open up the actual surface a bit to make sure they get enough water.
If you’re dealing with a mixed bouquet of wildflowers for instance, it really goes a long way to take the time to take it apart, cut it correctly, and rearrange it anew. You paid good money, you deserve to get the most out of them!
Spike the water, no really!
Less is more – especially when it comes to water. Soft-stemmed fresh flowers like tulips need just a little bit of water, not too cold, that you want to change frequently (every 1-2 days). If you fill up the vase, tulips guzzle it up and have a literal hangover and die sooner.
More thickly stemmed flowers and greenery only sip on the provided water, so you don’t have to mind as much but since they have a harder shell, they might bring some nasty bacteria with them. In this case spike the water with a little – an I mean just a little – clean vodka or dish soap. Add directly into the vase after you filled it with water and it kills any germs and makes sure your beauties last longer and the stems don’t start to smell.
Keep in mind: you want the water to be fresh but not too cold!
Mix and match your fresh flowers as you please
Never put the bouquet from paper to vase. Even if it was freshly put together by your favorite flower vendor, you still want to cut off the ends and fluff them up and rearrange them in your vase. If you go for a big bundle of tulips right now – make sure to spread them to different vases and remove some of the leaves. I also like to mix colors or buy different kinds to mix and match at home to my liking. Just go with your gut, I doubt you can do wrong that way.
That way you get a little bit of spring all over your home, not just in one vase on your dinner table or kitchen island. And if you’re anything like me, it does wonders for your mental health as well!
Great tips for flower care! I never realized how much the stem type can affect how long the flowers last. I’ve been guilty of just putting flowers straight from the bouquet into a vase without adjusting them first.