How to keep fresh flowers fresh?

shelly

Hi. I'm hoping someone can tell me how to keep fresh cut flowers fresh for as long as supermarket bought ones. I love the little sachets of stuff that you add to the water but can't buy them on their own. What goes into them? I'd like to make my own flower food but have no idea where to start.

Thanks for any help

computerwoman

I know my mum used to put some sugar in hers but I don't know...have you tried putting this on the old style thresd I am sure someone there will know...:D

Emma37

On this link it says that the exact ingredients are kept secret. You can buy packs of flower food from any florist and it shouldn't be expensive.

http://www.flowrmd.com/qa.html

paddy's_mum

Try a tiny drop of household bleach per pint of water. It also helps enormously to keep the flowers in a cool environment. If you can choose between the lounge window sill above the radiator or a table in a cooler room such as hall or conservatory, choose the hall as you will get a couple more days out of your flowers.

When I was doing flowers in bulk for family and friends, I'd keep them in the lowest part of the fridge until arranged (to slow them down) and then into the warmest room in the house the night before, say, a wedding, to get them fully open.

We get many Dutch flower lorries in this area (Lincolnshire) supplying the cut flowers to the specialist packing houses nearby, who in turn get the flowers into the supermarkets. Without exception, all those lorries are refrigerated which should tell you the line of thinking the professionals take - cool is cool! Hope that helps and enjoy your flowers.

beaney50

Cheap lemonade

squeaky

Good results were found on this thread on Old Style:-

my bunch of roses is wilting, what should I do?

sinizterguy

The best way to keep flowers fresh would be leave them on the plant.

Now if you did cut them and wanted them displayed in your house, add a bit of sugar and a pinch of salt or buy flower food packages. The idea is that the solution the flowers are kept in needs to be isotonic (same concentration) as the stuff inside the stems/flowers. In practice its impossible to get it perfect, so its just a best guess.

nickj_2

try lemonade

angie_loves_veg

I asked this recently on OS, and the results seemed to advise adding a small amount of bleach to the water.

Further searching online, and I found the following:

in 2L water, add 10ml sugar, 5ml bleach and 5ml vinegar

Having used this concoction for the past two weeks on my own garden cut flowers, I would thoroughly recommend it ...

curlywurlygirly

I second cheap lemonade, and put a penny in the water.....

shelly

Thanks all for the advice.

I'd thought of the florist but didn't think they would sell me any. I'll pop in to one next time I'm in town.

And I'd never in a million years thought of bleach!!

Thanks again all and I'll defo be trying which suits best.