How to keep cut flowers fresher and for longer...

I used to always have cut flowers in our house but my husbands hayfever was always set off a little so i had to stop. Also i think its so wasteful to cut flowers for aesthetic reasons when they last longer and have more benefits for ourselves and for nature if they are left on the plant and in the ground. Perhaps two or three times a year i will treat myself though for they do put a spring in my step. When i do have them, i want to keep them for as long as possible so i take good care of them, and generally get about three or four weeks out of them before they head to the compost bin.

Hubby bought me a bunch just before Christmas, on December 22nd, from Waitrose. I managed to keep them right up until today when they had finally met their end and went into the compost caddy. Thats 34 days of joy ive had from them! Here's how i kept them for so long....

It takes me about fifteen minutes to set my flowers up in the vase. Dont just unwrap the packaging and put them in a vase of water, job done. First of all use scissors to snip about an inch off every stem, with a diagnal cut. Then you need to plan how you want the flowers to look in the vase. I like them to have a curved shape, with taller stems at the back, shorter on the sides and front. So i decide which flowers i want in which place, bunch them up in the order and position i want, and stand them next to the vase to see how tall the bunch needs to be. Then i diagnally cut them (again) according to the length i need each stem to be. Now make sure there will be no leaves below the water line. Put the bunch in your vase, then add water after. Cold water, nothing else, no plant food. I add water about 5 inches up the stems. Then i try to keep them in a cool spot nowhere near a radiator.

My flowers on day 1...

Unfortunately i deleted the photo of the whole bunch in the glass mosaic vase but here you can see what flowers were in the bunch and how i arranged them with that curved shape.

A few of the green flowers had broken stems so rather than throw them away i used little glass egg cups full of water to create a miniature display.

By the 5th January (15 days in) some flowers were dead and others were browning or loosing their petals so i took the whole bunch out, removed the decayed flowers and re-bunched the rest. I did the diagonal snips again, about another inch up, removed any leaves which would now be in the water line, and put the flowers  into a smaller vase with fresh cold water again. Its now that i added half the pack of plant food which came with the flowers.

Day 15...

A red rose was given to me (from D) and added to the vase. 

Eight days later on the 13th Jan (day 23) i had to remove a few more stems and use a small pair of scissors to cut browned petals off some flowers which were otherwise still in good shape. Again i snipped another inch off the stems, removed leaves and put them in fresh cold water, in a smaller vase, with the rest of the plant food.

Day 23...

By the 22nd of Jan (32 days in) i was down to a very small bunch, stems snipped shorter, in a little glass mug. It was then that i found a bunch of tulips for £1.00 in Asda's reduced section. I cant believe they would reduce this perfectly good bunch of tulips!

Day 32...

Today was the last day i enjoyed them, now browned and too decayed to display. But im so happy to have had them for so long, ive seen them every day and been reminded of my husbands love and kindness.    

Day 34...

And now on to the tulips!

Over at Real Simple there are a few posts on how to keep your cut flowers for longer, using listerine, aspirin, a penny, bleach etc... worth a read...