HOW TO CARE FOR YOUR FLOWERS

To help your flowers drink water and stay beautiful for longer, carry out these handy tips;

Ensure that your flowers’ vases are as clean as possible. Flowers prefer clean water and will last longer to show their appreciation. So the more frequently the water is changed and the vase is cleaned, the longer your flowers will last.

Top the vase up regularly with clean cool water. if you have flower food add this to the vase in line with the instructions.

Before placing your flowers in water cut about 2cm off the stems at a sharp angle – this will help the flowers drink as much water as possible.

If the stems are woody, like roses and hydrangea, make a small vertical cut up the stem, so it’s effectively split into two. Again this help your flowers to drink more water. In addition, remove unwanted or damaged leaves from the flowers. Plants expel water from their leaves, so more leaves mean that the flowers will lose water and dehydrate more quickly.

Remove any leaves from the lower part of the stem, so no leaves are underwater – this will help the water stay cleaner for longer.

Ideally place the flowers away from drafts and out of direct sunlight. Choose somewhere cool and away from fruit, but do place them somewhere you can see and enjoy them.

Soft stem flowers will benefit from shallow water in the vase, as their stems will rot more easily. Keep the water level lower and top up more frequently. Woody stemmed flowers will drink more water, so the water can be deeper for these.

As flowers die remove them from the arrangement to help the other flowers last as long as possible.

Individual flower care

Roses – if a rose wilts before it should, remove the rose out of the arrangement, cut the stem as before and plunge into boiling water – being careful to keep the flower head out of the steam. This will remove any air bubbles in the stem and help the rose drink water again.