Tips to Make Those Blooms Last! May 4, 2011

Karin Crawford with Floral Tips

The flowers were delivered, and wow, they were gorgeous! It’s been a couple of days and you want to enjoy them as long as possible. Instead of saying, I wish they lasted longer, you can actually do something about it!

Many spring arrangements arrive in containers filled with floral foam and it is essential that this foam is not allowed to dry out. Add water daily to ensure your stems are always happily drinking.

For floral arrangements in vases with water and no foam, make sure the water stays clear – remember Karin’s favorite saying:  ‘If you don’t want to drink the water, neither do the flowers!’ Use the packet of floral food provided with your bouquet, follow the instructions, and change the water as needed. If you are out of floral foam, changing the water daily or every other day so it is clear will do the trick! If the water has already become cloudy, wach the vase out with anti-bactierial soap, and even lather up the soap on your hand and rub down the stems and wrinse off to remove the bactieria.

It’s the bacteria that will kill the flowers before time or anything else – except maybe sitting in the sun or heat too long! (Don’t leave your cut flower arrangement in direct sunlight!)

Stargazer Topiary in Floral Foam

Did your bouquet include hydrandrea?  Put the head of the flower in a bowl of water for an hour, then give the stem a sharp angular cut, and reinsert it into your arrangement to keep it hydrated, especially in our dry climate. Or you can mist it with a spray bottle. When ordering hydrangeas in your arrangements, make sure to order from a source that hydrates them properly, which is either a two- or three-step hydration process over a course of a few hours.

Soak Hydrangea Head in Water

Don’t do that with roses though! With roses, trim the outer petals as they die away, and cut the stem every couple of days.

Make sure you don’t allow the water to turn cloudy and use the floral food each time you change the water. This can add days, and sometimes weeks, to the length of your gorgeous blooms.

Also when ordering flowers, ask for a floral spray that helps hold in the moisture – we use Finishing Touch, by Floralife.

Here are more tips

Watch Master Florist Karin Crawford give great flower tips on Your Life A to Z and on God’sGardenTreasures.com!

Keep up with the tips we offer, and other segments on Your Life A to Z by liking our Facebook Fan Page! Click the ‘Flower Tip’ link at right for more tips, too, in other blog posts!