If someone special bought you those flowers, every day you keep them is one more day you'll remember just how much you're loved. And if you bought them for yourself, well, you know exactly what you spent on those bad boys and you'd better get every penny's worth. Fresh flowers are one of life's greatest simple pleasures, and we can all use more of those. Extend their lifespan by several days with these simple tricks.
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1. Sprinkle in Crushed Aspirin
Good for your heart health and your flowers' health, too. Behold the multidimensional power of aspirin! Add a crushed pill to a vase of water and let it dissolve before adding the flowers. This method doesn't always generate the most dramatic results, but it certainly gets points for ease of execution.
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2. Spritz With Hairspray
Hairspray can aid in the process of preserving dried blooms, but did you know that the same stuff can also help you keep fresh flowers looking sharp? Hold a bouquet of flowers upside down and spritz the blooms with the hairspray. Keep the flowers upside down until the spray dries completely, then stick them in a vase of water.
3. Combine Vinegar and Sugar
When you think about vinegar and sugar together, you might think of ketchup or pickles. You probably don't think of delicate flowers. But because sugar feeds flowers, and vinegar keeps bacteria from growing as a result of that process, they can be powerful allies in the fight to keep your blooms looking their best. Pour a few tablespoons of each into a vase of fresh water and stir well before adding the flowers.
4. Give Them Your Two Cents
Of all the easy ways to extend the life of your flowers, nothing's easier than this. Drop a few old pennies into the vase. Yup, that's it, that's the whole trick! The copper keeps fungus from flourishing, slowing the wilting process and letting you get your money's worth for that bouquet.
5. Prune Them Regularly
Once you get the arrangement to look just right, it might be a little painful to pull the bouquet back out of the water. Do it anyway, because occasionally trimming the cut ends of the flowers can help prolong their life. Check the ends daily and snip any that are turning brown. Make sure to cut away any leaves that sit below the water line, too.
6. Change Water Daily
While you have the flowers out of the vase to trim their ends, it's easy enough to dump out the water and start fresh. This minimizes the chance for bacteria to grow in the water. If your bouquet comes with a flower food packet, sprinkle in just a small bit the first day. Save the rest and add another sprinkle to each fresh vaseful of water.
7. Place Them in Indirect Sunlight
Go ahead and put them in front of a window while snapping photos of your gorgeous bouquet. When the shoot is over, move flowers out of direct sunlight. The sun's heat will dehydrate the flowers and age them prematurely. Find a place to display them that's away from windows and any heating and cooling vents.
8. Stash Them in the Fridge Overnight
If you've ever been in a florist's shop, you've probably seen cut flowers being stored in refrigerated cases. Many common flowers thrive in cool temperatures. Before bed each night, clear out some space in your fridge and place the flowers inside overnight. Doing this each night could extend the arrangement's lifespan by days.
9. Add a Little Bleach
You use bleach to kill bacteria, so why not let it do the same thing for your bouquet? Adding a small amount of bleach to the water should help keep it from getting cloudy. The most important thing? Be extremely restrained about how much bleach you add. Just a few drops is plenty for a standard vase.
Your dentist may not love what sugary soda does to your teeth, but you might love the way it nurtures your roses. The next time your soda goes flat before you can finish it, pour the rest into your vase. Clear lemon-lime soda is ideal for this, as it shouldn't affect the appearance of your flowers the way cola might. It won't be detectable in a clear vase, either.
