Flower care is a critical component of maintaining healthy flower arrangements that last longer. A little care can go a long way in keeping those blooms looking fresh and vibrant for weeks, letting you save a couple of hundred bucks on your flower purchases in the long run.

If you have recently received flower from Toronto Blooms. Here are a few do’s and don’ts straight from the experts to keep your florals looking their best.

 Flower Trimming & Pruning

Getting a bouquet of flowers always brings joy whether you bought them yourself or received them as a gift. The first step to treating them with care would be to trim their ends the right way. Whether you prefer to take the flowers apart or keep them tied, start with cutting the stems in a diagonal angle.

Ensure to cut stems with a sharp knife or shears at an angle about one to two inches from the bottom. This allows them to better absorb water. Do not use scissors to cut your flowers because they can crush the stems and prevent water absorption. Once you have trimmed the ends, proceed with pruning away any unnecessary leaves on the stems and remove dead or wilting leaves from the top of the stem.

Vase Cleaning & Composition

Once you’ve selected a vase to complement your flowers, make sure that it’s clean and free of any kind of residual build up from the previous bunch of flowers it housed. For this, thoroughly wash your vase with hot water and natural soaps to remove any traces of dust, bacteria or odors. If possible use chemical free cleaners as chemicals can deteriorate the condition of the flowers.

Once the vase is clean, fill it with tepid water ¼ of the way or enough to submerge all the stems. Use half the quantity of flower food supplied and mix it well into the water and let it rest for a while. Once the water settles you can add in your trimmed stems in your desired arrangement to the vase.

Ideal Flower Temperatures

Once you’re satisfied with your arrangement, it’s time to decide where you would like it to go. Fight your urge to keep at your window sill as direct sunlight cab cause your flowers to dry up and wilt away. Infact any area where your arrangement has the potential to be exposed to direct sunlight or high temperature may be best avoided.

Flowers generally thrive in cooler temperatures. So, if you generally have the Air Conditioner or fan on in your spaces, a best practise would be to keep you flowers where they are near but not directly in contact with the breeze from the appliances.

Recommended Flower Conditions

Flowers need to be nurtured and cared for if you want them to stay fresh and alive for an optimal amount of time. Which is why care needs to be taken to ensure that they stay away from anything that could be detrimental to its longevity.

Flowers should be kept away from any kind of smoke or pollution as the toxins can have an adverse affect on the flowers and cause them to prematurely wilt away. Care should also be taken to make sure they aren’t placed near fruits. The ethylene gas dissipated from fruits can damage the flowers and make them die sooner.

Fill and Refill

So, you have optimally cut your stems, filled your pots and even made sure it’s far away from any kind of direct sunlight or exposure of harmful gases. The next step to ensuring the longevity of your flowers involves making sure that the water in the vase is changed up. After a week of having placed your flowers in a vase, it’s time to change the water in it.

Carefully remove the stems from the vase and drain all the water in it. Rinse the vase thoroughly after this and refill it with water. Add the remaining flower food and repeat the steps you followed in the beginning. Once your water settles after mixing in the plant food, arrange your stems again and enjoy your flowers for longer. Some flowers live longer than 2 weeks under the right conditions, however the lifespan of most flowers is 2 weeks after which they dry up or start wilting away.

By Natasha Pradeep