How to keep your cottage flowers grown by Helen looking gorgeous longer.
Preparation of your flowers for the vase
Prepare your vase by washing it with detergent and hot water to kill hidden bacteria and to remove dust properly. Choose a vase that allows for the stems to be just 1/3 to 1/2 of the length of the flowers height. If you have just brought your flowers home, its time to give them a trim of 1-2 centimetres or more if your stems are very long. Trim the stems of each flower at an angle of 45 degrees to enable a greater surface area for the flower to absorb water.
Strip away any foliage that sits below the water line to stop rot.
Flower Food & Antibacterial Mixes
Mix in a packet of floral preservative to feed blooms and fight bacteria or simply make your own! These DIY flower preservation solutions are easy to make. You can create an excellent DIY flower food options from what you have in your bathroom, kitchen and laundry cupboards.
Most DIY-recipes tend to focus on either minimising bacterial growth or replacing nutrition, rather than working as a comprehensive flower-food. Ideally choose ones involving both a nutrient and an agent to inhibit bacterial growth.
Aspirin
Ingredients:
1 aspirin tablet.
Method: Crush the aspirin tablet between two teaspoons. Add to your vase water.
Why it works: Aspirin lowers the water’s pH level, which means the water can travel more easily through the flower stem, carrying nutrients.
Sugar and white vinegar
Ingredients:
3 tablespoons sugar
2 tablespoons white vinegar
1 litre warm water
Method: Dissolve the sugar and vinegar into the warm water and mix.
Why it works: The sugar provides nutrients to the cut flowers, while the vinegar inhibits growth of bacteria. This DIY recipe is said to work particularly well for roses, though it can be used for all our Seasonal Bunches too.
Lemon, sugar and bleach
Ingredients:
2 tablespoons lemon juice
1 tablespoon sugar
½ teaspoon bleach
1 litre water
Method: Combine ingredients.
Why it works: The lemon helps the stems to open up and better receive water and nutrients. The sugar provides nutrients to the cut flowers, while the bleach inhibits bacterial growth.
Apple cider vinegar
image of apples and apple cider vinegar in a glass bottle on a wooden table with trees in the background.
Ingredients:
2 tablespoons apple cider vinegar
2 tablespoons sugar
Method: Combine the vinegar and sugar and add to your vase-water.
Why it works: The sugar works to provide nutrients to your fresh-cut flowers, while the apple cider vinegar has antibacterial properties.
Clear soft drink
close up of two glasses of clear soft drink on a black background for what do you add to the water for cut flowers
Ingredients:
¼ cup of a clear soft drink like Sprite or lemonade
Method: Pour directly into your vase water.
Why it works: The sugar in the soft drink provides nutrients to your fresh-cut flowers. The citric acid also helps open the flowers’ stems to better carry water and nutrients.
Position your flowers for a longer life
Choose a good spot for your flowers. Keep the arrangement out of direct sunlight, away heavy drafts, and away from ripening fruit as the ethylene coming from the ripening fruit also ripens and ages the flowers.
Cut flower maintenance
Refresh the water every two to three days and trim a small piece off the bottom of each stem every time you change the water.
Some flowers give off more ethylene than others so watch for murky water or bad smells coming from the vase water. Stock flowers in particular are prone to high ethylene production.
Drying your cut flowers
If you intend to dry your flowers take them out of the vase before they show signs of aging. Trim and dry the stems keeping them long enough for use. Tie the bunch with string or wool and then hang upside down in a cool dark place. Sunlight exposure will bleach out the natural colours of the flowers. Once dried properly you can use them as you please for a dried arrangement or for craft. See our dried flower craft page.