Maximizing Floral Vase Life
Nothing lasts forever, and flowers are no exception. We enjoy cut flowers for the way they bring joy and attention to the present to the moment, as a means of creative expression, and as a celebration of the season. Vase life is the amount of time a cut flower is able to retain its beauty and freshness before it is no longer useful and visibly past its prime. It’s important to make it known that each flower variety will have its own standard vase life post-harvest, and many varieties will naturally begin to deteriorate anywhere between 3-21 days depending on the variety. Getting the best vase life possible out of your cut flowers is a simple way to sweeten the investment, and enjoy your flowers while they last. Below are 5 tips for maximizing floral vase life.
Begin with clean vases and vessels: Starting with a clean vase is important! This helps to minimize bacterial growth in the water that the flower stems will continue to take in which keeps blooms hydrated. Dirty vases lead to dirty water, making it difficult for stems to continue keeping blooms hydrated.
Place arrangement out of direct sunlight and heat: When possible, choose a cool placement location out of direct sunlight to extend the vase life of your blooms. Sunlight and heat can often cause color fading, wilting, dehydration, and faster deterioration.
Remove dead or wilting stems: As stems begin to deteriorate, check bouquets and arrangements daily for any dead or wilting stems and dispose of them. Removing dead or wilting stems will prevent them from rotting in your vase keeping bacterial growth to a minimum.
Refresh the water: If the water in your vase appears to be cloudy, or foul smelling it is best to replace the water in your vase every few days to keep bacterial growth, from the decay of the stems, to a minimum. To take this a step further, you could carefully remove your bouquet or arrangement from the vase and set it down gently. Dispose of the dirty water, wash the vase with warm soapy water, rinse the vase out to ensure all soap has been cleaned away, then refill the vase with room temperature fresh water before adding your flowers back into the vase.
Cut stems to allow for better water uptake: If you notice that the ends of your stems appear to be browning, or rotting remove the flowers from the vase, and give the bottom of each stem a trim of 1/2-1 inch before placing back into a vase that’s been cleaned and refilled with fresh water.