How to Keep Flowers Fresh in the Office

Cut flowers don’t usually last long, even when you place them in water in a vase. Keeping office flowers fresh to have a lovely scent and environment for longer is challenging. You might wonder how you can keep your flowers fresh long term, and there are a few tips and tricks to help your plants along.

Did you know that changing the water often is only the first step to keeping your flowers fresh?

bouquet of yellow flowers and a laptop on an office desk

Use Flower Food in the Water

Flower food help flowers to get the proper nourishment they need in order to remain fresh for longer. These flower foods often contain sugar for nutrients, bleach to kill any bacteria in the water, and an acidifier to keep the water’s pH balanced.

When you change the water, make sure to add a bit of flower food to ensure that your flowers always get enough nutrients.

Trim the Stems

To ensure the flowers can soak up as much water as they need, you need to frequently trim the ends of the stems. When cutting the ends of the flower stems, make sure to use a sharp blade and not scissors. A sharp blade will give the stem a clean end, while scissors crush the end of the stem and prevent flowers from properly absorbing water.

Cutting the stems underwater is actually preferable than to doing it on open air, as it prevents you from accidently giving the flowers an air embolism. Air embolisms prevent them from soaking up water as they should.

Orange Roses in Vase

Unusual Tips and Tricks to Keep Office Flowers Fresh

In addition to using flower food and trimming the ends of the stems, there are a few unusual tricks you can make use of to ensure your flowers keep fresh for longer. Aspirin is a sure thing to keep your flowers fresh; crush an aspirin and dissolve in the water you’re moving your flowers to, and add a bit of multivitamin for nutrients.

As we mentioned, bleach is often an ingredient in flower food, so you can add ¼ of a teaspoon per water litre in the vases. Another recipe involves three drops of bleach in a teaspoon of sugar per water litre, which ensures that the water is kept bacteria-free and clear.

Sugar is a great preservative and dissolving three tablespoons of sugar with two tablespoons of white vinegar in every water litre ensures that bacteria doesn’t grow and that your flowers are properly nourished. Make sure to only fill the vase up to ten centimetres to cover the stems.

Flowers are a beautiful addition to your office and can even lift your mood, and here at Planteria we know all about flowers! If you want fresh and high-quality flowers for your office, just let us know what you need.


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