Prolonging the Freshness of Flowers

As soon as you have received a bunch of flower from a friend or relative, or you have bought them from the flower shop or just picked yourself from the garden, you just want to keep it with you as long as possible and preserve its freshness for a longer time. Also you would want your flowers for wedding to be fresh for longer times. It needs extra care to maintain freshness of bulk flowers as well. You often keep it in a vase full with water, but that is not enough flowers need some more extra effort to keep them fresh. It is a centuries old practice to prolong the freshness of cut flowers that started from Japan to preserve decoration flowers.

Actually the steps for preserving cut flowers should be taken right from the time when they are picked from the garden. Here are few tips to keep cut flowers fresh:

Flowers should be cut at right time, i.e. when they are just breaking into bloom and very early in the morning when the dew drops can be seen over it.
Flowers should be cut clearly using a knife or special cutting equipment, and not from normal scissor.
While cutting a flower it should be kept in mind that a bend doesn’t appear in its stem, that block the flow of water.
They should be kept in water right away.
Lukewarm water is best to keep freshly cut flowers.
After dipping into water the stem should be cut when under water, so that the air filled under the pores can be removed to facilitate the flow of water.
The cut should be made in a slant so that more area is exposed to water.
Avoid keeping under direct sunlight and direct winds or breezes.
Add life extending preservatives to the water. They are normally easily available with florists.
Change the water every 2 days.
Mist the flowers with fresh water each morning.
For bulk flowers, rearrange the flowers every day, so that they are able to breath from all sides.
Keep bulk flowers in bunches of fewer flowers. Avoid over-crowding.
Before decorating flowers for wedding or other events, condition the flowers well by allowing them to drink good amount of fresh water overnight before using.