How to make your bouquet last.

Keep clean.

As soon as you get home with your flowers, recut the stems at an angle, with sharp scissors/knife, and place them in a clean vase with water. Bacteria is the main reason for short vase life. Keep foliage above the water line and keep the water clean to ensure less bacteria grows in the water.

Adding the flower food packet that comes with your bouquet is beneficial as well. This is especially true if you’re forgetful and won’t be changing your flowers’ water regularly. These food packets contain a bactericide that keeps the water fresh for a day or two longer. They also “feed” the bouquet.

You can make your own flower food by adding about 1 teaspoon of sugar, 2 teaspoons of lemon juice and a 1 teaspoon of bleach to your vase before adding about a quart of warm tap water. Please note that there are a few flowers that actually do NOT like flower food in the vase. Some of these are: zinnias, sunflowers and glads.

Keep hydrated.

Flowers drink a lot of water. Keep the vase full to ensure the flowers do not dry out and wilt. Recut the stems and change the water in the vase every few days, even if the water hasn’t been used up.

Choose the best location.

Although it’s tempting to sit your vase of flowers in a sunny windowsill, since that is where a plant would be happiest, don’t do it! Cut flowers are actually the opposite of potted plants. They are at their peak of perfection. Sun and heat will encourage them to “mature” and will shorten their vase life. Instead, keep your flowers cool and out of direct sunlight.

Ethylene is not a friend of flowers either. So keep your arrangements away from ripening fruit and vegetables, especially apples, bananas and tomatoes. Ethylene is a naturally-occurring plant hormone that is released as fruits ripen, but for flowers, it causes them to spoil prematurely.