Cut Flower Care
Taking care of fresh cut flowers is easy and just involves these four steps:
- Snip end of stems
- Fresh Cold Water
- Place in Vase
- Repeat every few days
1. Snip end of stems
Unlike most cut flowers, tulips keep growing in the vase, sometimes up to 6 inches or more!
For the longest enjoyment, buy cut tulips when the buds are still closed but the color of the flower is evident.
For longer lasting flower arrangements, remove foliage below the water line. This foliage will decompose quickly and spoil the water if left on.
Keep cut flowers out of direct sunlight, protect from heat and drafts and add cold water as needed.
Start with a clean vase as bacteria in a dirty vase can shorten the life of your flowers.
2. Fresh Cold Water
Avoid adding gin, vodka or pennies to the tulip water, brushing the blooms with egg whites or piercing the stems just under the bloom. None of these “home remedies” has ever proved to have any real benefits. Cold fresh water works best.
3. Place in Vase
Fresh cut tulips are geotropic and phototropic, meaning that their growth is affected by gravity and light, respectively.
Blooms will always curve upwards and bend towards sources of light. If you find your cut flowers bending make sure that they are not searching for the only light in the room.
Before combining cut tulips and daffodils in one vase make sure to place daffodils in their own water first for 4-8 hours; if you don’t, the sap like liquid that daffodils emit will plug the tulip stem and ruin your tulip flowers.
4. Repeat every few days
To keep cut tulips fresh and vigorous, be sure to keep the water in the vase “topped off” with fresh cold water every day or two.
Flowers kept in a cool location in a room will also last much longer.
Change the water completely every couple of days to prolong your flower’s life. This will also prevent harmful levels of bacteria from developing in the water.
OUR CUT FLOWERS
The cut flowers you buy at our farm have been “Hydro-cooled”, that is, placed in water after picking to help ensure a long life and placed in a cooler at 32 degrees to slow down the respiration and breakdown of the flower.
Flowers are also picked prior to opening and placed in protective sleeves to help prevent bruising and other damage to the flower.
These flowers will open in a few days and last much longer than flowers that are picked open.
Our flowers travel well and will survive many hours without water. When you arrive home, just re-cut the ends of the stems, keep in plastic sleeve, and place in clean cold water. Even very limp flowers will revive.
