Receiving fresh cut flowers delivered right to your door is a wonderful surprise! However, nothing can ruin the surprise quicker than finding out that the flowers are already wilting. It can happen really easily once the flowers are cut! But don’t fret – there are some things you can do when it comes to keeping cut flowers fresh.
It’s important to know that your flowers are basically dying the moment they have been cut, so there is nothing you can do to make the fresh-cut flowers last forever. Such is life! So don’t beat yourself up if you notice your flowers dying. The trick is knowing how to care for fresh-cut flowers to get the best and longest life out of them that you can.
When it comes to premature flower death, the culprit is usually lack of water – but there are plenty of other hacks that go into keeping cut flowers fresh. Lucky for you, we’ve got the rundown below!
To revive some wilted blooms or prevent wilting altogether, try one of the following tricks!
How to Care for Fresh Cut Flowers
- Recut the stems: If the bottom of the stem gets dried out, there will be no way the flower can drink up all the water and nutrients they need, and your flowers will wilt quickly. So, the first thing you should try if your flowers start to wilt is to take a sharp knife or scissors and slice an inch off the bottoms, at a 45-degree angle. If you cut them straight, they will have a hard time drinking because the stems will be flush with the bottom of the vase.
- Use warm water: Instead of using cold water, use lukewarm water. This helps open up the stem to make sure that the water is being absorbed since warm water moves up the stem more quickly and helps clear any blockages that were preventing the water from being absorbed in the first place. Just be sure the water isn’t scalding hot; a nice lukewarm temperature is what will help keep your flowers fresh.
- Feed your flowers: Flowers need nutrients too, so be sure to give them flower food! If you’ve ever bought flowers and found a little packet of powder along with them, that’s the flower food. The package gives them the nutrients they need to stay alive and fresh.
No need to worry if your flowers didn’t come with prepackaged flower food. You just need three simple household ingredients: sugar, lemon juice, and a drop of bleach. Each of the ingredients provides a key to the flower feeding process: the sugar is the actual food for the flower, the lemon juice lowers the pH of the water which helps the stem absorb the food, and the bleach prevents bacterial growth. One teaspoon goes into a quart of water, so it’s really not a lot.
- Patience, patience, patience: let the flowers drink the water and absorb the nutrients they lacked in the first place. Beauty takes time! Before you know it, your flowers should be coming back to life and looking fresh again. You may need to repeat this process a handful of times to get them where you want them.
HELP! I’ve tried all of these things and my flowers are still wilted. Should I throw these duds away?
Not just yet! Flowers react well to positivity, just like humans, so don’t be too hard on them.
When keeping cut flowers fresh, there are a few things to consider: first off, did you order flowers that come with buds? Some Bouqs are shipped while they are still buds – yet to bloom – so they have a longer life once you get them. If your Bouq is not looking as full as you thought it might, it’s likely your flowers just haven’t bloomed yet.
If you know for sure your flowers are all blossomed, but they are just looking a little weak and wilted, you can try and give them a bath to wake them back up. Submerge your flowers in a bucket of lukewarm water for about a half hour. They are probably dehydrated, and this will help them drink water quickly and start feeling livelier. Once you take them out of the water, repeat the process above.
Now that you know how to care for fresh-cut flowers, put your expertise to use on a beautiful, hand-curated Bouq – happiness guaranteed!
Shop All
