Fresh cut flowers are a fragile item. If they get too cold, too dry or too hot, the time they stay beautiful in a vase or arrangement gets a great deal shorter. Once they come out of the cooler, whether at the standard Tulsa florists’ wholesale supplier, or when your purchase is wrapped up to take home and be sent out on a deliver – the amount of time they remain great looking dwindles just a bit.
The most important thing to know about buying cut flowers is that the fresher they are from the grower, the longer they will last in any home or office. At Flower Express, our roses, blooms and greenery in direct from the growing farm. That’s the freshest cut flowers you can get. As Tulsa flower shops go, you won’t find another one that is a giant walk-in cooler.
Not only does this ensure you are getting the freshest cut flowers possible, it allows customers to walk in and see every flower and greenery spray we have in stock each day. It’s really a lot of fun to be able to see everything you can possible add to your bouquet and mix and match them to get whatever look catches your fancy. Once you take those gorgeous blooms home or arrange for flower delivery, Tulsa area residents can do a few things to prolong the life of any cut flowers.
First, before you put a new bouquet in a vase, be sure to trim the ends of each stem. This allows your blooms to have the ability to take up water best. Use a really sharp knife or scissors. You want a clean, easy cut to avoid bruising the stem tissue or worse, collapsing the veins that allow the uptake of water.
Next, while most Tulsa florists add a packet of flower food in every box or sleeve that goes out the door, some folks think there are even better ways to prolong the life our an arrangement or bouquet. Common tips are to drop an aspirin, a penny, bleach, sugar or Listerine mouthwash into the water. Then there is the changing of water in the vase.
The aspirin, bleach and Listerine remedies are a disaster! The penny trick only keeps petal colors rich, so it’s good to toss one in any way. Sugar does help, but not as much as that flower food your Tulsa florist provides and fresh water. In our next post, you’ll discover what actually works to prolong the beauty of cut flowers.
Tags: keep cut flowers fresh, Tulsa florist, Tulsa florists, flower delivery Tulsa, Tulsa flower shops
Prolonging the Beauty of Tulsa Florist Flowers
How you approach getting the longest stretch of attractiveness from cut flowers in a vase begins at the moment you open the delivery box or floral wrappings upon arriving home. Naturally, you will want to guard against too much exposure to extreme temperatures between walking out the door of your Tulsa florist’s shop and entering the controlled environment of your house. In summer, that means not leaving them in your car baking in the sun in a parking lot while you run more errands. For Valentine’s Day, you definitely don’t want the petals to be damaged by frigid winter temperatures either. It’s best to pick up your cut flowers as your last errand to protect them as much as possible.
Once the wrapping is off, there are certain steps you can take to be sure and get the most out of Valentine roses or any other cut flowers, in any season. The first step is to get rid of the healed over ends of the stems by trimming them at an angle, before putting them in a vase of water.
Pick the right vase.
The ability for air flow to reach the water and move amidst the leaves and petals is important. If your vases are too small to fit the whole bouquet into with some breathing room, its best to split it up into two vases if you want the cut flowers and roses to last as long as possible. Bacteria forms faster in warm, moist places where no air flow is possible. This speeds up the breakdown of flower stems. Next, be sure to add the recommended amount for flower food from the packet supplied by your Tulsa florist.
Placement of the vase is also important.
Protect your roses and flowers from direct sunlight and heat. Remember that when you buy cut flowers, the best ones will have been kept in a cooler. While this isn’t possible in your home, the least you can do is keep them as cool as possible and not put the blooms in a spot where they will get a direct wintery blast of air every time the exterior door is opened.
Change the water every day.
Bacteria start to form in the still water, causing faster breakdown of the stems of your roses, carnations and other fresh cut flowers. Rinse the stems when giving them fresh water and trim the ends of the stems once again to allow them to continue to take up food and water. Otherwise, a sort of callus forms and blocks the critical ‘feeding veins’, closing down their ability to prolong themselves.
Remove spent blooms and dried leaves.
After three days of not being in a cooler, it is natural for some leaves to have dried up and already opened blooms to have gone past their prime. Clipping off the desiccated leaves looks better, but also slows down stem decline. Taking off any spent flowers keeps the energy in the cut stems focused on blooming, rather than trying to set seed. Without roots to keep up their strength, this is super important to any type of cut flowers purchased from Tulsa florists.
As the bulk of your bouquet naturally reduces, you’ll also want to transfer the flowers into a smaller vase.
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