Hot Tip - Make Fresh Cut Flowers Last Longer

With this super easy trick your fresh cut flowers will last as much at 2 or even 3 weeks.  Over the years I've tried many things that are said to give fresh cut flowers longer life; things like pennies in the water, flower food, crushed aspirin, sugar, changing the water ever other day, and more... No matter what, the flowers always start looking bad in four or five days, and I throw them out at around the one week mark.  As expensive as fresh flowers can cost, I've always wished they could last much longer!

Now they can!  This trick, which is used by many designers, works better than any of the others I had tried before.  Here it is:  put just a few drops of bleach into the water/vase.  This prevents bacteria from growing in the water and killing the flowers.

I'm sure you have experienced the nasty smell of water in a vase after you've had flowers in it for a few days.  The flowers start looking bad and you can see slimy stuff growing on the glass an/or in the water.  That is all bacteria growing and it contributes to wilting the flowers quickly.  Even if you change the water every day, the bacteria is still growing on the floral stems so they end up dead way too fast!    

Just a few drops of bleach prevents the bacteria from developing.  Just be sure you only put three or four drops in each vase.  If you were to use too much bleach, then your flowers would go into shock and likely die.  It only takes a small amount to keep the water clean.

Also, you should always give your flowers a fresh cut at the bottom of the stems before putting them into your vase.  If you cut the stem at a slight angle the flower is able to suck up (absorb) even more water.

Your flowers will need additional water added as they drink it up.  I like to put in fresh water in the vase every couple of days.  Each time I change the water I again add a few drops of bleach.  With this method fresh cut flowers can last as much as two or three weeks.

Note: If you buy flowers that are not freshly cut (usually cheaper flowers from a grocery store or from a guy on a street corner) they may already have a slimy residue on their stems from having sat in water for several days already, this method will not work as well in that case since bacteria would have already gone up into their stems.  This method does work amazingly well when you cut flowers from your own garden or buy from a floral shop that gets them delivered fresh daily.  

My hubby got me these flowers yesterday.  He is such a sweetheart!  I ended up going with two mason jars to display them.  I figure you can never go wrong with mason jars!

Do you have any other tips you'd like to share?  I'd love to hear from you!

Blessings,
Diana