Four Tips for Keeping Flowers Fresh

Keeping flowers fresh is great because not only does it allow you to enjoy your beautiful flowers longer but also ensure you get your money’s worth from them. The main things you need to keep in mind when attempting to keep flowers fresh is that they need food and you need to keep bacteria from them as much as possible.

Stop Bacteria

• Pennies – Pennies may seem to be worth very little these days but they are still very useful because of the fact that they are made from copper. Add a penny to the bottom of your vase of flowers and the copper in it acts by preventing fungus from growing on your flowers. This allows the water to stay fresher and the flowers to last longer
• Bleach – A chemical as strong as bleach may sound like the last thing you would want to put in water with your flowers but the bleach keeps the water in the vase from growing bacteria and keeps the flowers alive longer. Add just a few drops of bleach to the water in your vase and you will notice the water stays clearer longer.
• Aspirin – Aspirin as well as the others mentioned can keep bacteria from overgrowing your flowers. Aspirin is an acid so crush one up and add it to your water to make those flowers enjoyable for a while longer.
• Soda – Add clear soda such as 7-Up or Sprite to your vase of flowers by mixing it with equal parts of water. The soda is a little acidic which will prevent the growth of bacteria, once again but it also has sugar in it which helps feed the flowers.

Feed the Flowers

• Sugar – Adding a teaspoon of sugar to your vase gives the flowers something to feed off of. Soda works as well by providing sugar, as mentioned above. Sugar can promote the growth of bacteria, however, so use it in combination with one of the recommendations above to stop bacteria.
• Flower Food – The little packets of flower food that usually come with new flowers contain some source of sugar in it as well as something to help fight bacteria. Adding these to your flowers will provide a source of food for them.

Re-Cut the Stems

Remember to re-cut your stems on all your flowers every few days. This removes the dead ends, leaving fresh new stems to absorb more water up to the flowers. Cut about an inch off, or a little less, each time. While re-cutting the stems, also check the flowers themselves for any dead leaves or blooms. Remove the dead blooms, this will make the remainder of the flowers survive longer.

Change Your Water

Keep an eye on the water level in your vase and add water as needed. Every few days you may want to change the water completely. Use room temperature water when refilling the vase and add back in any flower food or bacteria fighting agents that you were using previously. Remember to keep your flowers away from direct sunlight or any heating or cooling vents in the house as well.