It’s a common scenario, you buy or receive a gorgeous bouquet, and then about three days later, your bouquet goes from wonderful to wilting. 

Here are our tips and tricks to help you enjoy our Bloomist bouquets or any fresh bouquet you have longer. You might have read some of these tips before, and some will be new to you, so keep your eyes peeled! 

Prepare Your Vase

• Pick the right vase: 

You should select your vase according to your bouquet size. You want to pick a vase appropriate for your flowers, so it’s not too tight and squishing all the stems together or too wide and wouldn’t support your flowers. Consider using two or more vases to distribute the flowers if your bouquet is large.

• Fill the vase with water: 

According to Kristin Schleiter, associate vice president for outdoor gardens and senior curator at the New York Botanical Garden, “Placing stems in hot water will cook them. Room-temperature water is best, with one exception: Blooms from bulbs that flower during cooler months, like anemones, daffodils, and tulips, will do better if the water is below room temperature. “Using cool water will help them last longer,” Schleiter notes. If you have unopened flowers and want to speed blooming along, perhaps because you plan to use them as a table centerpiece in the next day or two, use warm water to help them open up more quickly. (The trade-off, of course, is that they’ll also die sooner).”

• Add in the superfood powder packet: 

Flowers usually come with a powder packet that contains sugar, citric acid, and antibacterial powder. 

If you didn’t know, flowers have a sugary tooth, or should I say stems! The sugar provides nutrition for the flowers. The citric acid lowers the PH level of the water and makes it more acidic, which enhances the water absorption in the capillaries. The antibacterial agent kills the bacteria. When you combine all these ingredients, you give your flowers a chance to stay fresh for longer.

Now, if your flowers didn’t come with a packet or if you already used your packet, you can make your own; there are a few recipes, so feel free to make your own; some use “Two tablespoons of sugar, Two tablespoons of apple cider vinegar and ½ a teaspoon bleach for a quart vase. Or you can add ¼ cup of soda such as Sprite in the water because it has both the acidic and sugary elements.”

Cut Your Flowers

Unless your flowers are already cut and prepared by a florist, you need to cut them yourself; grab scissors or pruning shears and cut about 3cm at a 45-degree angle to ensure that the stem has room to absorb the water through its capillaries. 

One tip: Cut your flowers under the water and then place them immediately in the vase.  

According to WomansDay: 

“Tulips grow a few inches after they are cut and continue to grow toward the closest light source.

Hyacinths should not be cut down off the bulb. They actually last longer if left on the bulb.

Daffodils should not be put in a vase with other flowers. They secrete a substance that kills other flowers when in the same vase.”

3.  Remove Petals and leaves:

Any petals or leaves submerged in water need to be removed as they’ll rot and increase the level of bacteria in the vase, thus shortening the lifespan of your flowers. Roses are known to have guard petals; remove those to allow the flower to bloom. 

4.  Put the flowers in a cool place:

By cool, I mean in temperature! Heat and direct sunlight make your flowers wilt faster! 

Also, avoid placing your flowers near fruit bowls, as ripe fruits emit ethylene gas, making your flowers wilt. 

Ideally, you want to place your flowers in a cool room with indirect light. 

5.  Rinse and Repeat:

Every other day or every two to three days, you need to clean the vase with soap and warm water, fill it with lukewarm or cool water, add in the powder mix, trim the stems of the flowers, remove any wilting flowers or leaves, and put the flowers back in the ready vase. Doing this will ensure that your flowers are refreshed and have a clean and nourishing environment to flourish in. 

6. Put your flowers in the refrigerator:

Haven’t you ever entered a flower shop and wondered why they store the flowers in the refrigerator?

Cool to cold temperatures help keep the flowers fresh for longer, so before you go to bed, pop your flowers in the refrigerator for the night and take them out when you wake up.

There are a ton of things you can do to keep your flowers fresh, some work, and some not so much. What matters is that you enjoy the flowers. If you want to spruce up your house or your loved one home in Egypt with some gorgeous blooms, we invite you to check out our Bloomist Bouquets.