Nothing cheers up your day more than being surprised with a lovely bunch of blossoms!

An Abridged Guide to Keeping Flowers Fresh for a Long Time

 Nothing cheers up your day more than being surprised with a lovely bunch of blossoms! Whether presented on some special occasions like anniversaries and birthdays, or given on any memorable moment in between, a fresh bouquet of flowers from a reputed Canada flower delivery service, surely makes for a thoughtful gift.

As a present, flowers can easily bring smiles on the face of the receiver while exuding positive vibes. But, just like every good thing, they don’t last forever. Their mesmerizing fragrance and vibrant colors ultimately fade. A few even lose their appeal in a matter of days.

Thankfully, if you are a flower lover, who frequently orders from flower delivery services in Canada, you can take simple measures to add some extra days to the life of your favorite flower bouquet. Here are some proven tips to keep flowers fresh for a long time:

• Re-cutting the Stems: Remove the protective plastic film or wrapping around the flowers as soon as you can. Then, trim off 1-2 inches of stem at an angle of 45 degrees, using a pair of scissors. This allows the flowers to absorb more water. Make sure not to pierce or smash the stems as this can damage water vessels, leading to improper water absorption. When re-cutting the stems, try removing the leaves that are below the waterline. Besides keeping your blossoms fresh, this will make your bouquet appear cleaner. Remember that submerged leaves can rot fast and promote bacterial growth. After the initial cut, trim the stems, prune wilted foliage and remove faded blooms once every few days.

• Choosing the Right Type of Vase: While there are many types and styles of flower vases available on the market, you should pick one, depending on the size you need to store your flowers. The opening and height of the vessel are important factors to consider. The length of your stems should be less than double the height of your vase. The opening shouldn’t be too narrow or too wide for your bouquet. This is because, too wide opening will not offer proper support to your flowers and too narrow opening will hamper your arrangement or damage the stems.

• Replacing the Water Every Second Day: Keeping your flowers from your go-to online florist properly hydrated at all times is important. The more flowers in your vase, the more water they need. Also make sure to clean the vase from the inside and replace the water in it every few days to prevent bacterial growth. The best way to clean the vase is to fill it with a mix of warm water and some detergent and let it sit for several minutes, before rinsing it completely.

• Making Use of Flower Food: The small packet, containing the so-called “flower food,” with the bouquet helps extend the life of flowers. It typically has acid, bleach, and sugar. Acid neutralizes the water’s pH level, bleach helps remove bacteria and fungi, and sugar provides the necessary nutrients. For the best outcomes, use it as per the instructions provided on your “flower food” packet.

• Finding the Ideal Spot: You may surely want to show off your beautiful flowers, but not at the cost of their health. Avoid putting them in direct sunlight or close to a heat source. Electronic gadgets, heat pumps, and radiators generate heat that can cause your flowers to degrade faster. Also, avoid putting your flower vase near fruit bowls. Reason being, some fruits release small amounts of ethylene gas which can lead to premature aging of your blossoms.

Bonus Tips for Keeping Blossoms Fresh

Here are some additional tips to extend the life of the flowers from your preferred Canada flower delivery service:

• Keeping them in the Fridge: Experiments have shown that keeping flowers cool for up to 8 hours inside the refrigerator is a great way to extend their life. Most flowers prefer low temperatures, so it’s sensible to keep your flowers inside the fridge overnight before you go to bed.

• Sugar for Your Blooms: Just like us, flowers too have a sweet tooth. Adding some tablespoons of sugar to the water in the vase can keep your blossoms vibrant as sugar offers some of the essential nutrients to them.

• Serving them Vodka: Vodka is known to preserve fresh-cut flowers. It has the ability to cease ethylene production, which slows down the process of wilting. Just add a few drops of vodka to the water in the vase to keep your flowers fresh.

• Using a Mix of Apple Cider Vinegar + Sugar: Another potion that is known to keep cut blossoms fresh is a mix of apple cider vinegar and sugar. While the vinegar discourages bacterial growth, sugar keeps blossoms fed. Simply combine two tablespoons of each ingredient and add it to the water in your vase.

Things to Avoid:

There are many so-called hacks that are allegedly known to keep flowers fresh for a long time. Unfortunately, most of them don’t work. Here are a few to avoid completely:

• Using Coins: Some believe that dropping a coin or two into the vase can extend the life of the blooms from your preferred online flower delivery service in Canada. The claimed logic behind this is that the copper content of the coins prevent bacteria growth. However, the copper in the coins never gets dissolved into the water or transferred to the flowers. Moreover, today’s coins mostly contain zinc, instead of copper.

• Applying Hairspray: Older people are often heard saying that sprinkling hairspray on flowers can extend their life. While it may work great in keeping your hair in place, it doesn’t work the same way for flowers.

• Over-Bleaching: Although adding bleach into the vase keeps the water from getting overly cloudy and also prevents bacterial growth, more than one-fourth tablespoon of it can cause more harm than good – as it may turn the stems pale white.

Try out the techniques and tips above to keep your favorite flower bouquet fresh and extend their vase life substantially. Interestingly, buying your favorite flowers today is just a few clicks away – no matter what your location is – all thanks to the many trusted online florists that offer same-day flower delivery in Canada as well as international flower delivery from Canada to the US and other parts of the world.