Caring for your cut flowers

Keeping fresh locally grown flowers in your home is a way to really appreciate our short and intense seasons. Our Alberta spring and summer go by so fast, it makes sense to bring as much of that beauty as you can up close. How can you make those stems look their best? Here are some tips:

1) Always give your stems a quick rinse before placing them in your vase. Dirt gets trapped in the leaves and stems and can pollute your vase water. Tulips in particular can have almost half of their stem underground. We harvest all our tulips with the bulb on for lots of reasons but this means they have a lot of dirt clinging to them. Rinsing them under running water is the solution.

2) Make sure you have a squeaky clean vase. Cut flowers drink through their stems and if the water or vase is dirty, the straw that is their stem gets clogged and they will wilt.

3) Change their water at least every second day, preferably every day. Clean water helps them drink and prevents bacteria build up

4) You can use commercial flower food for cut flowers if you like or try the homemade version of 1 drop of bleach, 1 tsp lemon juice and 1 tsp sugar. Dissolve in your vase water before arranging your flowers.

5) Place your bouquet in a cool location away from ripening fruit and out of direct sunlight. Both the sun and the ethylene given off by fruit reduces vase life. A warm house also reduces vase life. This is why cut flowers last so long in a cooler, often weeks without aging.

6) Some flowers like tulips continue to grow after harvest. You may notice your tulips looking like they are trying to escape the vase! Give them a quick snip on an angle with clean clippers or a sharp knife to keep the shape of your arrangement.

7) If a flower wilts after you bring it home, recut it’s stem, put it in cool water up to it’s neck and let it sit for a few hours. It may have been out of water or had it’s stem clogged with dirt or bacteria.

8) Your bouquet should last a week, at which time it can be composted and your next bunch will be ready to brighten your day!