How To Really Take Care of Fresh Flowers

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Over the years I have been asked countless times from clients on how to get fresh flowers to stay looking their best. Usually because they have recently received flowers or bought flowers and found themselves pitching the whole arrangement within 3-4 days.  Most people have this assumption that the arrangement is self-sufficient and requires no maintenance, or subscribe to some lazy tricks that will do the job for them.  You know the ones I am talking about: putting a copper penny in the vase, mixing in vodka, sprite or bleach to the water, slitting the neck of a tulip, adding the commercial powder....none of this really works folks.

Assuming that the florist is buying the freshest product from the wholesaler in the first place and has taken the necessary steps to care for the flowers during processing and designing, the client should just be responsible for changing the water daily and giving the flowers/foliage a fresh cut. 

Changing the water daily means changing the water daily, not adding water to the vase.  Which a lot of people assume is the same thing. That only makes a vase with a little bit of dirty water turn into a vase with a lot of dirty water. Changing the water out completely is crucial because if the original vase water sits day after day the bacteria is just building upon itself. The flowers are drinking that dirty water constantly and thats why they rapidly deteriorate.  After all, it is just stagnant water. Depending on how large your arrangement is, changing the water out might be a two person job.  That is how it is typically done in a flower shop. One designer gently grabs the arrangement at the top of the vase with both hands and lifts it out, while the other designer dumps the water and refills the vase with cool water. This helps to preserve the design. Otherwise, if you are by yourself, you can grab the flowers with one hand and dump the water with your other. This takes a little skill though. If you have another vase that is similar, add fresh water to that one and just transfer the arrangement to it.  The water level should be at least to the middle of the vase, if not higher. I always top my vase off with water once the arrangement is in the new vase. I have encountered many times in my career clients that are baffled as to why their lily got droopy all of a sudden. It was because the arrangement itself had sucked down so much water, the water level had gone past where the stem could reach. Also, make sure to take off any scrappy foliage on the stems that will be sitting in your new clean water.  Leaving it on will only make your clean water turn to dirty water faster. The crucial fresh cut step would obviously be taking place in between pulling the arrangement out of the old water and placing it in the new water.  

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If you frequently receive flowers or place flowers in your home, investing in a florist knife or a decent pair of clippers is a must. Do not use regular scissors! They damage all the preciously delicate cells in the stem. Plus you never get a crisp cut. People end up massacring the flesh of the stems because they are just sawing away with a pair of dull ribbon scissors. And for the love of God, just because you have long sturdy fingernails to pinch the ends off, don't do that either.  I would recommend using a knife over clippers, but a lot of people are intimidated with using a knife, so clippers are the next best thing. (I will cover using a florist knife vs. clippers in later blog post) When you are cutting the stems you don't have to take off much-about a 1/4 to 1/2 inch should do the trick. Since you are doing this everyday to the arrangement, you don't want your tall entryway bouquet to turn into a table centerpiece in two days. The objective is that you are reopening the pores of the stems so they can slurp up all that fresh water you are about to plunk them into. Within a day the stem pores begin to shrink and scab over within the cut area, making it harder for the flower to pull the water into itself. Cutting the stems daily keeps a constant flow of fresh water to the flower.

Let's remember, that at the end of the day, flowers are a perishable item. They are not meant to last forever, no matter how good you take care of them. A typical flower shop arrangement should look as good as the day you got it for 3 to 4 days-if you doing the things I mentioned previously. After that time, some (not all) of the flowers will be peaking and won't be around much longer. There is nothing you can do about this. A mini calla lily will always outlast bella donna delphinium. So just discard the flowers as they expire and enjoy the others. However, if you do receive flowers or buy flowers and they are just completely sad within a day, call the flower shop immediately. They should replace it, without question.  It also gives the flower shop time to see it (you can bring it in or they might have the delivery driver pick the original one up when they are dropping off your replacement) and call their source for the flowers to get credit. Do not wait a week or later to call and let them know. It is unfair to the flower shop at that point.   They can't be sure if the product was in fact bad or if you weren't taking care of it properly from the get-go, because as I mentioned above, some flowers will surely be on their way out within a week.  It puts the flower shop in an awkward position as well because in the end, they want you to be happy. They will be at a complete loss if they send you a new arrangement and can't get any credit back from the wholesaler.  Some people out there have unrealistic expectations for flowers. It would be like buying a gallon of milk and complaining to the grocer that it tastes sour after the expiration date...well duh.

Beyond the two major responsibilities of giving your flowers a fresh cut and changing the water daily, there are two other pieces of advice I would give. The first one is, keep the flowers away from heat.  Don't put them in a sunny window or leave in a hot office. There are some people out there that think that "cut" flowers need ample sunlight to live. No. They needed it when they were still attached to the original plant. Now that they are cut, exposing them to direct sun or heat will only make them droopy. Lastly, pinch petals or pollen off as the flower ages in the vase. It is more aesthetically pleasing and once a tired bloom is plucked the flower will refocus on blossoming the remaining buds.

                                                                                      -Lauren

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