Fresh Flower Care – Top Tips.

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At Planteria, we pride ourselves on the quality of the flowers we supply to our customers. Our weekly fresh flower service brings you a perfect arrangement in a beautiful vase, so no mess or fuss involved.

If you have fresh flowers at home, you’ll want to ensure they last as long as possible, so we thought we’d share a few simple tricks of the trade you can use to make sure you get the best out of them.

Flowers can be incredibly delicate and it is often difficult to prolong their life. The main reason a cut flower dies is due damage and bacteria in the microscopic tubes found in the stems, ‘Xylem’. The Xylem tubes draw water up through the stem to supply the flower. These tubes can be damaged and blocked easily restricting the flow of water and nutrients the flower receives.

 

The following steps can help prolong their vase life.

  1. Remove all lower leaves. When preparing your flowers, ensure all leaves below water level are removed. If the leaves sit in the water they begin to rot and decay. This is will then cause an increased amount of bacteria in the vase.
  2. Angulate the cut using sharp scissors. An angled cut will increase the surface area of the stem, allowing a higher quantity of water to be transported due to exposing more Xylem tubes.
  3. Use lukewarm water in the vase. Slightly warmer water has a reduced amount of naturally occurring air pockets allowing the water to flow through the stem at a faster rate. This provides the moisture the flower requires for turgidity.
  4. Provide the flower with a source of energy. Well we can’t live without food or water, so how can a flower? A little bit of sugar dissolved into the water can in fact provide the flower with extra energy that it no longer receives through photosynthesis.
  5. A little bleach too. It’s true, a little bleach can in fact help. This reduces the bacteria in the vase water however, ensure no more than a teaspoon and stir thoroughly before adding the flowers to the vase.
  6. Recut an inch off the stems every 2-3 days. The will simple get rid of the blocked and damaged Xylem tubes ends.

Enjoy your flowers!

 

More flower facts…..

You may have heard the term ‘flower power’ but there’s truth in that phrase! Ever wonder why flowers are given as gifts or to cheer someone up?

According to behavioural research conducted at Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey USA, nature provides us with a simple way to improve emotional health – flowers. The presence of flowers triggers happy emotions, heightens feelings of life satisfaction and affects social behaviour in a positive manner far beyond what is normally believed.

“What’s most exciting about this study is that it challenges established scientific beliefs about how people can manage their day-to-day moods in a healthy and natural way” said Jeannette Haviland-Jones, Ph.D., Professor of Psychology at Rutgers and lead researcher on the study.


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