Thursday 1 March 2012

Thursday Flowers......Preparing Your Roses For Display



Thursday Flowers

Welcome to Thursday Flowers !
Today I will share some tips on how to prepare your roses for your vase.


When buying roses the most important piece of advice is to take them home straight away and pop them into water.  The travel time from store to home makes a big impact on the length of vase life for your flowers.
If roses are out of water for more than 20 minutes then re cut your stems before placing in vase.
Always add flower preservative to the vase as it will keep your blooms happily flowering for a lot longer. 

If your roses arrive home after a hot car trip, or if they appear to be looking limp after a couple of days in the vase you can soak your roses in cold water in the sink or bath for a couple of hours. This will hydrate them and perk them back up again !  






You will need to strip all leaves from the bottom 2/3 of the flower head. If you have one and the rose is particularly thorny then you can de thorn your rose with a rose stripper.


Using a clean pair of shears clip roses 3cm from the bottom before placing in water.


Any bruising/brown marks on the outer petals can be safely removed by simply pinching the offending petal off.  Bruising can be simply caused from handling of the flowers but it can also mean the rose has been exposed to gases which have permanently damaged the flower.

NEVER buy your flowers from fruit and vegetable stores or supermarkets that keep their flowers right next to their fruit/vege section. Harmful gases are released from the fruits and veges and the vase life of the flowers is severely compromised.


Roses just adore being fed and will happily smile away and look beautiful when given flower food.

Some florists send you off with flower food but you can easily make your own with these 3 ingredients.

1/4 teaspoon of lemon juice
a capful of bleach
1 tablespoon sugar

Mix these ingredients together in a medium vase with cold water from the tap and your roses will just love you for it.

Completely change your water and clean your vase every 3 days to promote longer lasting blooms.
These simple tricks will lengthen the life of your gorgeous flowers.  Lets face it, roses are expensive, beautiful and often a gift from someone special so why not give them the best start possible so we can enjoy them for longer.




Aren't they just breathtaking !



Tomorrow on FRENCH BLUE AND PEACHY PINK I will share the arrangement that I made with these beautiful roses. 

Love to you all
Melanie
x


3 comments:

  1. Thank you for sharing these wonderful tips! Had never heard of soaking them in cold water like that before...will definitely try that one next time I have pretty roses :)

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  2. like the leaf at the end.. is that lettuce?

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  3. Hi Bianca ! Take a look at today's post coming up shortly, it reveals all of the flowers used and the end result. Thanks for stopping by x

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