One of life's little pleasures is to bring the garden indoors with fresh cut flowers. It's so lovely to watch the transformation of buds going into bloom and enjoying the rich mix of colors as long as nature will allow!
So how can we try to extend their time?
1. Start with fresh cut flowers!
Shop local! Flowers from your local flower farm are as fresh as they will ever be. You'll avoid pre-mature harvested blooms and skip flowers that have been transported dry or out of water from afar. The lifespan of cut flowers is unfortunately often succumbed to all of these factors.
2. Keep your room temperature cool and try to enjoy your blooms with bright indirect light.
Did you know that flowers respire less (lose their hydration) and also use less energy at cooler temperatures? Eg. Flowers will last longer in a room of 68F versus 75F+.
Farmette's Secret: For smaller sized floral arrangements, lightly tent a plastic bag and place your flowers into the fridge at night. 36F is great!
(Note: The exception to this rule are summer blooms such as zinnias that will not tolerate cold temperatures and actually do not perform with such cold storage.)
3. Remove any excess greenery on stems or anything floating in your water.
Excess greenery encourages bacteria growth and rot. If you are shoring up a bouquet for a smaller vessel, be sure to remove any lower leaves.
4. Change your water every 1 to 3 days and add fresh water daily.
Properly treated fresh cut flowers should continue to drink without the need for a fresh trim. Be sure to add a bit of fresh water daily and change your water every 1-3 days depending on the mix of flowers that you have.
Some flowers such as sunflowers and zinnias often leach bacteria back into the water, and hence will "dirty" the water prematurely in comparison to other blooms.
Farmette's Secret: We never send our blooms out dry, and rarely do we send them in a floral diaper. Our flower bundles arrive to our customers in our signature buckets of water to maintain hydration. We treat our water with a special additive that helps keep the water clean and provides a slow drip of nutrition for our blooms.
As a rule of thumb, we encourage customers to change the water by day 3 and add the included floral food packet.
5. Get to you know your blooms!
Like each of my children, flowers all behave differently! Get to know the different flowers in your bouquet or arrangement and understand that some blooms will just simply last longer than others.
Here are some examples:
Narcissus and Ranunculus have amazing, exception vase life. From harvest to bloom, you can expect vase life of 10-14 days! Roselilies are in this category as well!
Beloved Peonies can have vase life anywhere from 3-7 days, depending on the variety and how the peony was harvested.
Bearded Irises are short lived, but if you have varieties with a secondary bloom, just simply snip away the primary when it is spent and enjoy the rest! Roses can be hit and miss. Standard garden varieties will last 5-7 days. Most specialty roses last 3-5 days.
Dahlias are often variety driven when it comes to vase life. Ball dahlias tend to hang around longer than their thinner petalled dinnerplate and decorative counterparts.
Summer blooms such as Cosmos, Zinnias and Celosias have exception vaselife, often going strong for 10-14+ days.
To finish the season heirloom Chrysanthemums boast beautiful colors and forms for what often seems like weeks! I've had miniature mums last for 3+ weeks on my counter!!!
What flowers do you enjoy the most??