On the blog today, 5 tips to keeping your flowers fresh! Luck you, you have had a beautiful seasonal gift bouquet delivered from our Bristol florist The Rose Shed! This blog is designed to fill you with key information on how to keep your blooms looking beautiful for longer. As florists we want you to get the most from your bouquet, and personally I love to use a variation of seasonal flowers in my bouquets. So a mix of the more longer lasting staples such as alstroemerias, roses and snap dragons, alongside the more delicate blooms such as dahlias and stocks.
Remove The Packaging:
Number 1 tip on my top 5 tips to keeping your flowers fresh is remove the packaging. Our gift bouquets are delivered in an aqua pack, this is a cellophane wrap around the bottom of the stems, ensuring they can drink whilst in transit. This is not a vase! And flowers can only be kept in the aqua pack for the day, before they need to go into a fresh vase of water. The hand tied bouquet is wrapped in brown paper( which can be recycled) to secure the blooms. So again, remove this packaging, snip the string that ties the flowers together so they can fill out the vase and have space to breathe.
Use A Clean Vase:
Make sure your vase is clean before putting your flowers in. Bleach the vase with some hot water and give it a good wash. Any bacteria in the vase that is not removed will fill the water and slowly deteriorate the quality of the fresh flowers. Different vases work for different bouquets! So a bouquet filled with taller stems such as delphiniums and Larkspur will suit a thinner taller vase. Whereas a spring flower bouquet, where the stems tend to be shorter, use a more squat vase to hold the blooms.
Re-cut the stems:
When flowers come in from my supplier, they need conditioning. This means we remove the leaves from the bottom of the stems, diagonally cut the stem and immediately place in fresh water. I highly recommend this happens when you take your bouquet out of the packaging and place into your vase of water. By snipping the ends at an angle this provides more surface area for the stem to uptake water which is crucial. This also stops the stems sitting flat at the bottom of the vase, again allowing the flower to drink easily!
Keep Away From Light, Warmth and Fruit:
Your gift bouquet needs to be kept away from any direct sunlight, warmth or draughts. So do not place your flowers right infant of a sunny window, or by the fire or radiator. Excess heat will mean the flowers will release more water than they transpire. Again extreme cold or draughts will affect the longevity of your blooms. Ripeing fruit can release ethylene gas which will poison the flowers, so again be mindful of what you place next to your flowers.
Change The Water:
The water in your vase needs to be changed every 2-3 days, if a really hot day then even every day! Throw away the old water, rinse the vase, refill and cut your stems again, this is the very best flower care advice I can give you. Bacteria will form at the base of the flower stems and in the water, so by freshening up the water this is the best way to increase the longevity of your vase life.
We deliver flowers in Bristol from our florist The Rose Shed based at Paintworks on Bath Road. To view our beautiful flower shop and place your bouquet order online, click here!