Yes, we all love The Bachelor. But if Mr Right isn’t knocking at the door then we suggest spoiling yourself with flowers.
The team from the new flower delivery service Bloombox Co have given us their top six flower tips.
Drink up!
Rule number one. Never ever leave foliage below the water line. If leaves are left sitting in water they begin to decay, which encourages bacterial growth and causes blockages that affect the flower’s ability to drink. As soon as you get your blooms, pull or trim off any leaves that would sit in the water and trim the stems of your flowers just before potting them in water.
Freshen up!
Make sure you change the vase water regularly and trim the stems a couple of centimetres down each time. Flowers prefer fresh water just as much we do. Flower food is a great addition if you have it – it packs a nutrient punch (think of it as flower Berocca) and also keep bacteria at bay. For super delicate souls (think tulips, dahlias, peonies), it’s worth cutting the stems with sharp scissors under water to preserve the stem’s ability to suck up water. It’s the smallest of efforts, which can make a huge difference to the life of your blooms. The quickest and easiest way to change your vase water is to pop your vase under the tap and flush out old water with the new. You don’t even need to take your blooms out of the vase!
Embrace natural beauty
We absolutely love the natural arrangement trend! Perfectly symmetrical styles are so early 2000s. Rather than following hard and fast rules and rigid techniques, we think its best to layer clusters of blooms together, threading them in as you go and popping them into an offbeat vessel. Get creative here – baskets, old can, bottles, brass goblet look amazing. A droopy bit of foliage here, and a runaway stem there just adds piles of gardeny character.
Stick it to ’em
A favourite ‘cheat’s’ trick is to create a sticky tape grid over whatever vessel you’re using. It’s a great way to get your blooms to sit just so and provides a little extra support for more adventurous lines and shapes – plus you don’t need any fancy floral equipment for it.
Flower Kryptonite
Flowers are SUPER sensitive to a gas called ethylene – a totally smell-less invisible gas given off by ripening fruit and vegetables. Think of it a flower kryptonite of sorts. In nature, maturing fruit gives off ethylene to let neighbouring flowers on the plant know to start turning into fruit. This sounds super cute, but for your blooms this means early wilting, yellowing and petal drop – which is sad all around.
Simple remedy? Keep your blooms well away from the fruit bowl and this should keep them perkier for longer.
Primp and preen
Dying blooms and wilting leaves also give off ethylene, which can upset nearby blooms that could otherwise keep the party going for much longer. Flowers bloom and fade at different rates so the odd bit of primping really does go a long way. Take a couple of moments to remove any sad stems, or just pull out any flower heads and leaves that look like they’re on their last legs. Preening not only gives your flowers a new lease on life, you can also stretch out the creativity factor by discarding wilted blooms and trimming down longer lasting ones for new projects or arrangements like mini bud vases or a petal mandala.
The Carousel thanks the team from Bloombox Co for these very handy flower tips!
