I had heard somewhere that ‘Flowers are moment’s representation of the things that are in themselves eternal’ and this is very much true, Flowers have a special bonding with our inner selves. They have this ability to brighten up everything that comes into their vicinity. When looked upon Cut Flower touch our hearts invisibly. Care, compassion, concern & love all these and many more human emotions are very well expressed by flowers.

So when something that is as sensitive & warm as you, wouldn’t you like to take care of this unique gift Of course anyone would want that, either received as a gift or specially bought, flowers have a revered place in our lives & our living rooms too. Here we have a few tips that can help us preserve our fragrant friends for a long time.

Cut Flower care:

We won’t get into the kinds of Cut Flower that are there, because everyone has a different choice & to our delight there are too many of them to be categorized here. These tips apply to all of them on a general basis. But while buying the flowers make sure that the petals are in good condition i.e they are firm & hold themselves otherwise no amount of care will be able to keep the flowerscut in good health.

First of all whenever you receive cutflowers & want to preserve them the first thing that you should do is to soak

them in water for an hour or so before arranging them in a vase. If the flowers are the very delicate ones then you should soak the stem part & spray some water on the petals that ways the flower will get freshen up without being damaged.

After this you’ll need to cut the stems, remember that the smaller the flower the larger should be the stem so that the smaller flowers are on the top & larger ones are at the bottom. This makes the flower arrangement look in proportion, so large flowers have the shortest stem & vice versa. Moreover always cut the stem at sharp angles & not straight across this helps the stem to absorb water properly and use a sharp scissor to make a clean cut so that it does not harm the flowers and place the stems in water as soon as you cut them. Even when you buy flowers from a florist make sure you wrap up the stems to keep them damp till you reach home to put them in the water.

The next thing that we do is to place the flowers in a vase. Choosing a proper vase is also an important aspect but that we’ll look into later on. Here what is more important is the amount of water that we fill in the vase. It’s a misconception that the vase is to be filled with water to the top. The stems of flowers like roses & carnations need around two inches of water. Gladioli, Daffodils & Tulips need a little less than that. Flowers like peonies & Chrysanthemums need more water to be absorbed so making cuts around the stems helps in keeping them fresh for long. So on an average three to four inches of water is good if you have an assortment of flowers.

One blunder that most people do is not to change the water everyday; to keep the flowers naturally fresh & vibrant one should change the water at least once in a day & while you change the water keep the flowers in water for sometime. People wait for two three days for the water to become dirty & pale before changing it, and this is the one reason that the flowers dry up very early.

Also there is flower food available in the market that helps in keeping the flowers fresh, you can ask your florist for this & the dosage should be added to the vase as advised. One more thing to keep in mind is that the vase should be kept clean any kind of dirt & germ can affect the flowers health.

Just follow these simple instructions & you’ll have your Cut Flower smiling back at you for days to come.

 

To choose a Vase:

Now comes the vase, if you regularly keep flowers you should buy a vase that is simple yet elegant. A decked up vase will hamper the beauty of the flowers. The color of the vase also plays an important part, say you have red roses then a bright yellow vase will perfectly compliment them. Whereas for white or any pale colored flowers a deep blue colored vase will be best. The options for a vase are as varied as the variety of flowers. Before you go out to buy a vase, take a bunch of flowers that you would most likely keep & place them in different vases at the shop itself that ways you end up buying the right vase for your favorite flowers.

But you can’t have perfectly matching vases every time nor anyone would buy so many of them what you can do about it is that, you can look out for used up jars, bottles & other such vessels to keep flowers. You’ll agree there are plenty of them in your kitchen & the backyard. If the vessels are not in a proper condition you can paint them or decorate them with colorful threads. There are many ways to create a vase you just need to imagine what can be done with the stuff that you have.

One more thing before you are done with your arrangement, any leaves that are below

the water level in the vase should be stripped of. Only a few leaves should be kept so as to fill in the space between the flowers. This makes the arrangement look natural & without much mess.

A beautiful assortment of flowers & a perfectly complimenting vase give you visual treat that fills you heart every time you take a glance. So next time you have a posy with you, you know what’s the best thing to do.