These simple steps keep flowers looking their most fresh
Flowers make strong statements in many ways, from the distinct shape of their petals to their lingering fragrance to their bold and bright colors. It’s almost counterintuitive, then, how fleeting some of these delicate blooms can be. Still, caring for them properly can go a long way toward making them long (or longer) lasting.
Here, some steps we follow and encourage all of our budding flower stylists to as well:
- As soon as flowers arrive—whether from Bouquet Box, the grocery store, farmer’s market or other spot—trim stems about an inch and hydrate them for at least two to four hours. Trimming the stems makes a fresh and clean spot for stems to take water in; trimming at a 45 degree angle allows a wider surface area than a straight across cut would provide.
- When ready to place/arrange flowers in a vase, fill the vase with fresh cool water and add the packet of flower food that always comes with flowers.
- Strip stems of any leaves that will sit in a vase below the water line to reduce bacteria buildup that leaves can bring.
- Change the water in the flower container every two days to make sure it’s fresh.
- Keep arrangements out of the direct sun.
- Keep arrangements in a cool room.
- Since some flowers have different lifespans than others, key to making an arrangement look fresh is to go through the arrangement and remove any blooms that have peaked. Then rearrange the remaining stems, either in the same vase, a smaller one or even a few smaller ones to repurpose in different areas.