an angled cut - A rookie's GUIDE TO flower care

      Flowers are without a doubt nature's living gems and we should all be surrounded by them all the time. Definitely outdoors (you know, for the bees), but indoors as well.

Flowers embody the freshness,  color and sunshine to brighten up any home, and have served as a perfect gift for everyone for hundreds of years.  

That said, everytime someone hands me a bouquet i'm at a loss...
​How do i do these beauties justice and keep them fresh and bright for as long as possible?
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Judging by the amount of bouquets that i see being just 'tossed' into vases, i'm pretty sure i'm not the only one dealing with the issue. 
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That's why i dug into it and made you and me this Rookie's guide to Flowercare.
​#fistbumb

Let's get to it!

​Before we start,
<< here's a pinnable image for you to store and make it easy to visit back whenever you need to. (also: yeeaah, Repins!!)

Now.. on to the real deal:

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1. You're handed a bouquet...

As we just agreed on, getting a bunch of flowers is lovely anytime, anywhere. 

Yet you don't always have the possibility to immediately find a suitable vase and give the flowers the care they crave and deserve.
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How terrible is it to leave the flowers wrapped for a while?
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Well, i just visited my own florist, and her advice is not to bother about unwrapping and cutting immediately.
​She did however stress the importance of keeping the flowers in water, so find a bucket or container to put the bouquet in water as soon as you can!

With the flowers quenching their thirst, you can leave the proper flower care for a moment when you have the time, up until even te next morning.

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2. About the vase

Finding the right vase has everything to do with shape, size, material and design. 

The vase should be tall enough, for starters, with that Goldylocks neck that keeps the stems nicely together in their arrangement while giving each flower enough space to breathe. 

When push comes to shove, it's almost always that one vase from the most remote corner of the kitchen cabinet above the refrigerator.

But whether you use a €2,- thrifted treasure or a contemporary design icon, your flowers are not happy unless the vase is squeaky clean.

Apparently it's not enough to just get rid of the layer of dust: flowers are susceptible to infection from bacteria and the vase should be properly sterilized.
To keep your flowers fresh for longer, thoroughly clean the vase with soap and water, and add a little bit of bleach, to be on the safe side.

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3. The water

First off: Freshly cut flowers in general like their water lukewarm, it makes it easier for them to absorb the moisture.

​That said: bulb flowers, like tulips and daffodils, prefer fresh cold water. 
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Secondly: Since flowers only take in water through the ends of their stem, it makes sense not to fill up the vase too much to reduce the possibility of bacterial growth from submerged rotting leaves.

There's a debate going on about using filtered water, but that might depend on the quality of your tap water to start with.
Here in the Netherlands, the water supply system is pretty good, so i can't be bothered.

Pro tip:
Tiny air bubbles can clogg flowers' stems and create air-embolism, so when filling the vase, wait for the bubbles in the water to dissipate before the next step.

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4. The flower food debate

This is where the internet is going crazy.

There are so many different tales about what you should and shouldn't add to the water to keep your flowers fresh and healthy.

​But i've done my research and what it boils down to is this:
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​Yes, you should definitely use a flower preservative, as it not only provides food for your flowers, but also keeps the water free from bacteria and fungi.

Of course you can use the commercial preservatives that usually come with the flowers you buy.
Or... you can make your own.

​There are loads of home-made alternatives on the interwebs that may or may not work for you.
Getting into that is worthy of a whole new blogpost, and another day.   

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5. pruning

Now we're finally seeing to the flowers.
​First, we need to prevent the water in the vase from being contaminated by rotting leaves.
​To avoid bacterial growth in the water, cut off any leaves below the waterline or even touching the water.

​Some flowers have guard petals. The two or three outermost petals that for example roses have and which keep the flower from opening completely.
Carefully prune them to make the flower open up even wider.

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6. The angled cut

If you have ever bought a bouquet of flowers, the florist probably told you to "Cut the stems at a 45 degree angle as soon as you get home!".

That's because when flowers are taken out of the water, the cut ends of the stems seal themselves, keeping the water in like a defence-mechanism.

While that's great for transportation, the seal will prevent the flowers taking in fresh water, and needs to be cut off to avoid wilting. 

The rule of thumb is to cut 2,5 cm (1") off the stem. Make sure the remaining stem is looking fresh and moist. If you're not sure, cut off a bit more to be on the safe side.

When cutting, choose garden shears or a sharp knife with a straight edge.
Avoid using your trusty blunt kitchen scissors, you might accidentally squash the stem. ​

There are a two reasons to cut at a 45 degree angle: You'll decrease the chance of crushing the stems plus you'll increase the surface area for water-absorbtion.​

Once cut, don't dilly-dally: get those flowers in the water immediately or the stems will have re-sealed and you can start all over again.

Some flowers, like roses, are susceptible to airbubbles getting trapped in the stem (an air-embolism), to prevent this, cut roses under water.
(i'm sure you'll make it work)

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7. arrangement

Properly arranging flowers is a bonafide art-form that takes years of training and practice.

Luckily. i'm a fan of a haphazard wildflower bouquet, so no perfectionism holding me back to just (tenderly) throw the flowers in a vase, and rearrange a bit to make it look natural.

If you prefer a tightly styled bouquet like your florist makes, the best tip i can give you is to take your vase to the shop and have them set it up for you. A good florist will happily oblige.​

Want to keep that florist style but have to fend for yourself? Whatever you do, don't leave on the wrapping and elastic band.
If you want to do justice to the arrangement, you have to start out with getting a vase with the right neck and overall shape. 

Once you've found your Goldilocks vessel, and cleaned it, carefully unwrap the bouquet, prune and cut the flowers and place them one by one.
​It might take a bit of practice and a lot of rearranging, but you'll get the hang of it. Eventually.

Want an easy hack? Get our Flower Constellations: durable brass disks with a cut-out pattern based on the star signs, to randomly space your flowers.

Before i forget: If you're arranging your own wildflower bouquet, keep in mind daffodils and hyacinths don't play nice with others: the slimy substance they secrete from their stems will make the other flowers wilt. 

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8. Where to keep it

In a still life painting flowers are often next to a bowl of fruit or placed in bright sunlight. 
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Eventhough that might be pretty composition-wise, if you want to keep your flowers fresh for longer, bright sunlight and ripening fruits should be avoided.

In fact, you want to keep your flowers away from any source of heat. The warmth will speed up the flowers' ageing process (which we don't want).

That said: flowers are also annoyed by drafts, as it accelerates water loss and reduces lifespan.

​Then the thing with fruit: ripening fruits release ethylene gas, which makes the flowers ripen and wilt quicker.

Bottom line: pretty much all florists advice to keep your arrangement in a level cool environment with no fruit around. 

Still life by Eelke Jelle Eelkesma | 1815-1830 | via Rijksstudio

A pro tip is to store flowers in a fridge overnight. However this does come with a warning: if the fridge is or ever was used for fruit-storage, the (left-over) ethylene gasses will still make your flowers wilt. 

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9. Maintenance

In the past i have been adviced to change the water daily, every other day, or to just leave it be.

Judging by all the pro-tips i came across while researching for this post, changing the water every once-in-a-while seems wise, best before it starts to look murky.
Also, when you do, clean the vase, trim the stems and add a little flower food.

If you don't have a lot of time on your hands, at least keep checking the water level daily and top up when neccessary. (Flowers can drain a vase more rapidly than you might think.)

Less invasive, yet as important, is to keep an eye on your bouquet and remove all wilting flowers,  brown leaves and drooping petals.

​​Once a flower starts wilting, it gives off ethylene gass, which we know by now is not great for the life-span of the rest of the bouquet.

Also, when you get rid off the wilting bits, don't leave them near your arrangement. Because, you know, ethylene gas. Throw them out in a proper container and/or in another room.

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The end...

So, there it is, the complete rookie guide to flower care. 
Feel free to add your own flowery wisdom if you like and let's all enjoy our flowers for as long as possible.

Below you'll find an extensive list of sources with links to all original articles.
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​If you're not exhausted from reading this post, go check them out, they're all highly informative.

sources: Reader's digest, this Wikihow article, this other Wikihow article, this cool mythbusting article by FTD by Design, this thorough article by mental floss, of course these tips from proflowers, rodales organic life, These clever tips from the Telegraph, pro tips from Simplemost, brightside, Woman's Day, Flying Flowers and the Washington Post

PS.

It's not just flowers, we weren't that great with plants either, that's why we created this post about plantcare for the botanically challenged a while ago. 
Worth checking out if you can use a little help in that department.

Also, we designed a device to water your plants: Waterworks. Made it a lot easier for us to keep our greenery green and happy.

more about waterworks