Cut, clean, feed. Three steps, the right order, and five quiet minutes that add days to any bouquet.
Flower care is the one habit that makes every bouquet last longer. Here is the short version.
Cut
Trim two centimetres from every stem at a sharp angle, with clean snips rather than kitchen scissors. An angled cut drinks more and cannot sit flat against the bottom of the vase.
Clean
Strip every leaf that would sit below the waterline and wash the vase with hot soapy water first. Bacteria, not age, is what ends most bouquets.
Fresh cut, clean vase, new water. Everything else is detail.
Feed
Dissolve the sachet of flower food in cool water. Change the water and re-cut the stems every two days, and top up daily for thirsty flowers such as sunflowers.
Place them well
Keep flowers away from direct sun, radiators and the fruit bowl: ripening fruit gives off a gas that makes petals drop.
Some flowers are different
Tulips like shallow, cold water and keep growing in the vase. Gerberas want only a few centimetres. Dried flowers want no water at all.
