How to Keep Your Flowers Beautiful and Long Lasting

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Secrets to Beautiful Cut Flowers

Whether you give,  get, grow or buy your own cut flowers. You want your beautiful cut flowers to last. Following are a few secrets to beautiful cut flowers.

 Flowers Basic: General TLC for cut flowers,

1. Cut blooms from the garden early in the morning.

2. With a sharp knife, re-cut stems at a 45° angle. This allows flowers to absorb the most water.

3. Bacteria, which clogs the bloom’s water-conducting tubes, and hastens wilting. To help slow its growth,

  • Always use a clean container,
  • Remove all foliage below the water line,
  • Treat water with a teaspoon or less of ordinary household bleach, and just a pinch of pre-diluted sugar.
  • Or use a commercial flower food, which combines a mild fungicide with sugar and acid.4. Place your flowers in a cool area, away from direct heat or sun light;

    Maintenance:

    • Prune any wilted leaves, and remove spent blooms every day.
    • Check water: When it gets cloudy, replace it with fresh water
    •  Re-cut stems.

Regarding cut flowers from your garden

After snipping flowers and re-cutting the stems, try this super-conditioner before you continue with regular daily maintenance.

  1. If you can, take a pail of warm water into the garden with you.
  2. Otherwise, do as soon as you get back into the house, immediately after cutting the stems, plunge them into warm water (about 110°). Warm water moves up the stems faster than cold water.
  3. Remove excess foliage and place the stems in a clean container.
  4. Add either a commercial flower food that is a composite of sugar, acid and a mild fungicide, or a DIY mixture of a teaspoon of household bleach, and a pinch of sugar.(I am not sure if sugar substitutes will do.)
  5. Leave your flowers in their food bath for two hours;
  6. his simple addition to the water, will prolong the life of your flowers.
  7. Arrange the flowers as you wish in a clean container.

Two additional Tricks used by professional florists:

  • Double the life of flowers by placing them, overnight, in the either in the refrigerator or in a cold room.
  • Get buds to open faster by putting stems in warm water.
    Don’t for get to add the flower food or DIY version,

    Suggestions for specific flowers:

Violets

take in water through their petals, so they’ll appreciate being submerged in water overnight.

Daffodil

stems leak a sap that shortens the life of other cut flowers. However, you will eliminate the problem if you place the daffodils, all by themselves in water and keep them there for six hours, before mixing them with your other flowers.

Poppies

need to be cut just as they lift their drooping heads but before the flower opens completely. Since their cut stem emits milky sap, which clogs water-conducting cells, you need to seal it. To do so and also conserves moisture place the bottom few inches of the stem in boiling water.

Roses

need to be picked when their buds are only partially open.

Dahlias

are hardy, gorgeous and long-lasting.  After re-cutting the stems, put flowers in a container of hot water (160 degrees) and place in a cool spot, even the refrigerator for a few hours.

Daisies

are hardy, gorgeous and long-lasting. Cut them when the petals are open but center is tight. Split any older woody stems and to allow better water absorption.

Chrysanthemums Chrysanthemums, Flowers, Garden, Petals

need to strip the lower leaves off  and condition stems in warm water for a few hours. Then cut stems at an angle and arrange in cool water.

Gladiolus

Snip the dead flowers to give more strength to the budding ones.

Lilies

Place the lilies in a vase full with room temperature water. Any leaves that fall below the water line need to be removed as does the center fluffy bits that carry the pollen to prevent staining.

  To read the following related articles click on the title

How to Choose A Florist – Floral Designer and – or Decorator.
  Flowers and their meanings 
  Should you choose fresh or silk wedding flowers
 Weddings: Things To Know when considering your flowers arrangements and boquets
 Preserve Your Bridal Bouquet for a Long-Lasting Family Keepsake  
Flowers: their seasons and their reasons

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Nily Glaser is the founder of A-wedding Day  magazine, a very popular Wedding Resource, and Information Center.  She is a published author who wrote and published the A-wedding Day Wedding Planning Guide, Book. She writes important articles and has presented workshops for wedding professionals all over the USA.
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