Learn how to care for cut flowers to keep them vibrant and beautiful!
At The Flower Farm, ‘fresh’ means exactly what it should. The vast majority of our flowers are planted, grown and cut from our very own (very local!) fields. This means you can enjoy them at their vibrant, beautiful best.
Keeping your flowers looking their best for as long as possible is easy once you know how to care for cut flowers. Let’s talk you through our fresh cut flowers and how to care for them.
Our Fresh Cut Flowers
Our floral collection includes a beautiful range of cut flowers. Most of our flowers are hand sown and hand-picked from our own fields. Only flowers that don’t grow in the Brisbane climate are sourced directly from growers elsewhere. Picking flowers grown in their optimal climate allows us to provide our customers with a variety of beautiful flowers at their freshest and best.
Once you receive our beautiful flowers, however, it’s up to you to step in to care for them. Our tips on how to care for cut flowers will help you extend the life of your beautiful bouquets so you can enjoy them for longer than ever in your home.
How to Care for Cut Flowers: 6 Steps
Step 1: Start With a Clean Vase
It’s important that your vase (or whatever you’re choosing to put your flowers in!) is clean. Soap residue or other products can affect the lasting ability of your fresh cut flowers.
The good news is cleaning vases is an easy process! Simply fill your vase or container with water and add two tablespoons each of baking soda and vinegar. The mixture will begin to fizz. Leave it to sit for a couple of hours (this will loosen any stains). After that, use a soft cloth or bottle brush to carefully clean out any mineral deposits and leave your vase shiny clean and ready for fresh cut flowers.
Step 2: Water and Feed
Your fresh cut flowers will arrive with a flower-food sachet. This contains a mix of ingredients to give the flowers nutrients, maintain the water pH level and reduce the number of bacteria and fungi in the water. To use, just add the flower-food sachet to the vase’s water by following the instructions.
If you have fresh-cut flowers, but no flower food on hand (perhaps you’ve even gathered them from your own garden!) you can make your own flower food. A simple recipe is:
1 litre water + 2 tablespoons lemon juice + 1 tablespoon sugar + 1/2 teaspoon bleach
Just mix these together and you’re all set to go!
Note that for some firm-stemmed flowers, such as gerberas in our Bright Seasonal Bunch, too much water in the vase can lead to soggy stems which can rot. In that case, keep the vase water level to around 5cms. And if they do start to droop in the days ahead, re-cut their stems under water and they’ll perk back up in no time.
Step 3: Cut Stems
Carefully unwrap your flower bouquet and use clean secateurs or a clean, sharp knife to cut flower stems on a 45-degree angle. ‘Clean’ and ‘sharp’ are key words here, as they make sure you’re not adding any bacteria to the stems or crushing their vascular systems.
Why cut on an angle? Well, cutting flower stems on an angle increases the surface area. And this means the flowers are able to absorb more water more quickly.
To extend the life of your fresh cut flowers even further, re-cut the stems every couple of days.
Step 4: Arrange Flowers
Our fresh-cut flowers are expertly hand-crafted into beautiful arrangements. Once you have unwrapped them, cut the stems and carefully lowered them into a vase, they should naturally fall into place. However, they also may need a little of your own expert ‘zhushing’ so you’re happy with how they sit.
You’ll also want to remove any leaves that fall below the water line. These can deteriorate and rot, which can lead to bacteria growth in the water. It is OK to leave the leaves along the stem lengths, as they are part of the flowers’ hydration system.
Step 5: Keep Cool and Breeze Free
To keep your fresh cut flowers looking their fresh, beautiful best, place the vase in a cool place and out of direct sunlight and breezeways. This protects them from the sun’s drying effect and minimises the negative impact of any air movement.
Step 6: Maintenance
You’ve completed all the steps for how to care for cut flowers. Now it’s time to maintain.
- First, keep an eye on your flowers’ water. Replenish it as needed, by gently pouring in a little water from the back of the arrangement. This isn’t a special florist trick – it just means you’ll disturb your carefully arranged flowers as little as possible!
- Second, continue to remove any fallen leaves or other materials from the water to keep it clean and yuck free.
- Third, recut the stems whenever the flowers begin to droop or appear to struggle.
- And fourth, if the water becomes ‘cloudy’, re-fill the vase with fresh water and flower food.
Following our tips will keep your fresh cut flowers looking healthy and glorious in your home. And did you know having fresh cut flowers in your home can give you a whole heap of benefits from more happiness to a longer life! You can read about it on our blog, The Benefits of Fresh Cut Flowers.