Friday 8 November 2013

Fresh cut flowers - care and tips for your bouquet




My cold, wet Friday afternoon was brightened today, not just because the weekend was nearing, but because a beautiful bunch of flowers from the Boy arrived! A melody of carnations, mixing pinks, creams and ones with a pink filly edging (which a quick google assures me is a “picotee”!!!).

Once the initial “ooh I feel so adult having flowers delivered to me” feeling wore off, I suddenly realised I had no idea what to do with them!

Flower bouquets always look so pretty when they are wrapped up in their packaging until you undo them to pop them in a vase. They go from being a sophisticated ensemble from a skilled horticulturist to basically a vase with loose flowers plonked in it with a bit of fancy green stuff around it, something that a kid could have put together.




But inside the box was a helpful guide on how to care for flowers. So here are some simple tips that you might find useful in arranging your flowers in the vase and looking after your beautiful bunch…

These tips are handy for your carnations, freesias, gerberas, alstromerias and chrysanthemums 



1.  Fill a vase half full with luke warm water – this will encourage flowers to bud

2.  Add flower food if you have it

3.  With scissors, cut 1-2 inches off the bottom of the stem in a diagonal – you may have to trim a little more depending on your vase depth.


cut off at a diagonal


4.  Remove the leaves from the stem that fall below the water line – this will help discourage bacteria from building up

5.  One stem at a time, pop the flowers in the vase – I found it was best to have the ones in the middle were slightly longer in the stem than the ones around the sides of the vase, which helps create a ‘dome’ shape

6.  To maximise the life of your flowers, keep them away from draughts, radiators and fruit ad keep the water topped up regularly

7.  If flowers on multi-stems begin to wilt, carefully pinch them off to encourage the other buds to flower






Hope that was helpful! Perhaps my next blog entry should be how to drop hints to your Boy that you’d really love some flowers!


X x X 

1 comment:

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