So you received a lovely bouquet of flowers for Valentine's Day from your sweetie or maybe you picked up a bouquet of flowers at the grocery store? How do you care for these flowers at home? I am often asked about this and thought it would be good to give a few pointers!
If you've picked up a fresh bouquet for yourself at the grocery store, first thing to do when you get home is open up and remove the plastic sleeve. Lay all the flowers out on a counter or table and remove any withered blooms, also, take care to remove all foliage that is on the bottom 1/3 of the stems. Foliage (leaves) should never be in water! It quickly deteriorates and makes the water cloudy which introduces bacteria to your stems!
Once, the stems are cleaned and any spent blooms removed, take a pair of kitchen scissors or floral snips and snip off at least a 1/2 inch from the bottom of every stem. Immediately place the newly snipped stems in fresh, clean and cool water. If you received a packet of floral preservative with your flowers, be sure to use it! These packets provide food and special floral bleach to keep the water clean. So they are good to use!
If you received flowers from us, know that your flowers are prepped and ready for water! No need to snip ends or remove any leaves, we've done that already. Your flowers will be tied together with a band, you can simply snip it off - hold the bouquet just above the band, snip and remove the band, drop the bouquet into your vase of water. You can also leave the band on and just drop the bouquet into the prepared vase. It is a soft band that will not hurt the stems! All our flower bouquets are in the #handtied method or the #spiral method as it is sometimes called. This method keeps the stems all in the same direction and ensures that stems do not cause pressure to one another (or friction). It is a popular style in the U.K. that I learned and love and allows each flower to individually "shine".
Always keep your bouquet away from direct sunlight (no windowsills please!) and away from drafts. Kitchen tables and bedside tables are great places! Every day, check the water, and top it off as it seems to evaporate. After a few days, you can completely replace all the water in the vase with clean fresh water. Don't worry if you don't have any more packets of floral preservative... the packet has done its work to feed the flowers and keep the stems clean! If you really want to go the extra step, you can snip a little more off the bottom of all your stems at this point - this provides a fresh clean "cut" for your flowers to uptake the water. Remember, clean water equals happy flowers!
If you received an already created arrangement from us or another florist... you can be assured that the water in that container already has floral food in it! Hopefully, you are not working with an arrangement that has floral foam in it! This foam is an ecological no-no that does not biodegrade. If you are working with that, I would recommend adding fresh water when it seems dry. Hopefully, your flowers were ordered from a #nofloralfoam florist (like Little Workshop Floral!). After a few days, gently tip the container over your sink and refill with fresh, cool water. That is it! The armature of wire that we include in our arrangements keep all your flowers in place and sturdy! Again, keep the arrangement out of direct sunlight and drafts and enjoy!
Remember that flowers should last a week! I find that removing spent blooms as the arrangement ages also helps to prolong the life of the flowers.
Keep Little Workshop Floral in mind for special celebrations (birthday's, graduation's, anniversaries!) We also specialize in wedding flowers including #elopements and #microweddings.
Thanks for reading, please feel free to reach out with any questions!
xo
Laura