Keep those flowers fresh!

#1 - Pretend their ice cream. You wouldn’t leave a gallon of ice cream in a hot car while you have dinner. The sooner you can get your fresh flowers into your air conditioned home and into cold, clean water, the longer they will last.

#2 - Trim the ends. Cutting the ends reopens the pathways for water that are in the flower stem. The more water your flowers can drink, the longer they will last. Cutting at an anlge also increases the surface area at the bottom of the stem, which will increase the amount of water they are able to drink up.

#3 - Drink from your vase. Do not put your fresh clean flowers in a dusty vase off the shelf. A dirty vase will harbor bacteria, and bacteria will “clog the pipes” of your fresh flowers, stopping them from drinking water.

#4 - Use flower food. The flower food in your packet is a specially formualted mix of sugar (food) and bleach (cleaning agent) that will make your flowers last much longer than plain water.

#5 - Keep them out of direct sun. Flowers in the ground want sun, but once they are cut, they will last much longer if kept in shade.

#6 - Refill and freshen the water. Do this as often as you can. Daily is best, and will make them last the longest. When you change the water, run water over the bottom of the stems to rinse off any bacteria that has accumulated. If the ends look “mucky”, then give them a trim.

If you follow these steps, your flowers will last atleast 7 days. Some flowers you can make last for weeks if you give them all the TLC listed above.