CARING FOR CUT FLOWERS
Cut Flower Care Tips
Now is the wonderful time when pollinators are out aplenty and flowers compete for their attention. Bright colours and wonderful scents attract butterflies, bees, and even birds to the flowers in the pursuit of making new flowers for next spring.
We love the ranuncs, anemones, sweetpeas, roses, hyacinth, tulips, jasmine, Christmas lilies, and abundant other cutting flowers that this season produces, but we also look to flowering limbs and pretty green branches when choosing flora for the home.
Here are a bunch of helpful tips for caring for cut flowers that we hope you’ll find useful. Have some great tips of your own? Leave them in the comments section! I’m all ears hearing about new ways to care indoors for our favourite outdoor blooms.
Cut Flower Tips
Cut flowers as early in the morning as you can, before the sun and heat of the day.
Generally speaking, it’s a good idea to re-cut flowers that were harvested more than 30 minutes before arranging (especially those brought home from the store). Use sharp snips/ secatuers. The bottom of the stem will have sealed a little bit and water won’t otherwise penetrate.
Clean and sanitise all buckets and vases before each use. Bacteria is one of the key factors that make your cut flowers fade sooner than they otherwise would. A good rule of thumb is that these vessels should be clean enough to drink from.
After cutting, remove any leaves below the water line and place stems immediately into cool, clean water. This will minimise wilting, since there is less foliage to rehydrate. The easiest way to do this is to carry a bucket or big jar around the garden with you at harvest time to pop the stems straight into.
Flowering trees and shrubs make more wonderful additions to arrangements, but getting their woody stems to take up water can be tricky. Immediately after harvesting, remove the lower half of their leaves and use heavy snips to split woody stem ends vertically a decent few centimetres up.
For special cases such as basil, cerinthe, Iceland poppies, mint, and scented geranium, dip stem ends into boiling water, or hold them over an open flame for 7 to 10 seconds before placing in a cool vase of water.
Condition stems and branches in water for 24 hours before you arrange to properly hydrate the stems and extend the flower’s freshness. Keep the flowers in a cool dark place until you are ready to arrange.
Using these tips you’ll give yourself the best, longest-lasting arrangements possible.
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