Care · issue: this season
Make your bouquet last a week
Two fingers off the stems, fresh water every two days and away from the fruit bowl. Seven small habits that make a difference, and how long each flower lasts.
A bouquet doesn’t spoil overnight: it goes little by little, because of the water. Almost everything that decides whether it lasts a week, or doesn’t make it past day three, happens in the first ten minutes at home, with a pair of scissors and a clean vase.
One
Cut two fingers off, at an angle
As soon as you get home, cut about two fingers off each stem with a sharp knife or good scissors, at an angle. That way the stem drinks through a bigger surface and doesn’t sit flat on the bottom of the vase.
Two
Leaves out of the water
Strip every leaf that would sit below the waterline. Left in, they rot, cloud the water and the bouquet lasts half as long.
Three
Clean vase, fresh water
Wash the vase with a little soap before you use it and change the water every two days. Each time you change it, trim the stems a little more.
A bouquet doesn’t die from too little water, but from dirty water.
Four
The whole sachet
If the bouquet comes with a sachet of flower food, tip the whole thing into the water on the first day. It has sugar to feed the flowers and something to hold back bacteria in the water.
Five
Away from the sun, the radiator and the fruit bowl
Heat speeds everything up: put the bouquet somewhere cool, out of direct sun and draughts. And away from ripe fruit, which gives off ethylene, a gas that makes flowers go over sooner.
Six
Tulips keep growing
In the vase, a tulip grows a few more centimetres and bends towards the light. If you want them straight, turn the vase every day or put them in a tall one that holds them up.
Seven
Out with the faded
When a flower goes over, take it out: the rest last longer and the bouquet stays lovely. If a rose droops at the neck, trim the stem and leave it in lukewarm water for a while.
Days in the vase
How long it lasts flower by flower
Approximate days with the water changed; in a warm house, fewer.