The cut flower market was valued at approximately 34 million US dollars in 2019. Cut flowers can become expensive especially if you like to keep them around all year long. There is nothing worse than waking up in the morning to see the flowers that you just bought, already wilted. How nice would it be if you could keep your flowers fresh for a week or even 10 days!? Cool, right? Let me tell you about my tried and tested tips on how to keep flowers fresh for a long time.
But there is no magic trick at play here. Like any other thing, you have to put in some work. You have to take care of them and ensure that their environment is optimal in order to keep the flowers fresh for longer.
But why do you even need plants and flowers in your home?
Before you say that you don’t even have flowers in your home, why would you even need this information. I have an answer for that too.
Stay with me. I will convince you in under 2 minutes, why you should have fresh flowers in your home, potted or cut, your choice!
Slide the arrow on the image below and select which of the two looks more cohesive and homely?
If for some reason you said the first picture looks aesthetically pleasing, let me give you one more example.
Imagine this.
You walk into a large living room. It’s all white. It has a 3 + 2-seater sofa, high rise windows with a gorgeous view of lush green trees and a vase of flowers on the coffee table.
How does it look? Beautiful? Pleasing to the eyes?
Now imagine the same room without the plants and flowers. How does it feel? Monotonous? Like something is missing. Yes. But why is that?
We humans love aesthetically pleasing spaces. Flowers and plants satiate this need of ours. They also benefit our emotions and creativity.
Studies have shown that the green color of foliage increases the sense of relaxation, calmness and comfort. It has been proven that having indoor plants in office and home spaces positively impacts your mental and physiological health.
So much so that a nature facing window in a hospital can speed up the recovery of patients who underwent surgeries.
Our lives are so hectic that at any given point, most people are under some sort of stress, or suffering from anxiety or just plain burnt out!
Tell me if this has ever, been you?
- You can’t properly focus on the task at hand.
- Your productivity has dropped.
- You can’t hold your attention for longer than a few minutes.
- And the constant stream of notifications on your phone isn’t helping matters.
Research has shown that plants not only improve our productivity and attention but also reduces anxiety and stress. How cool is that?
I must say that the mechanisms of how plants and flowers impact our mental well-being is not completely understood. However, the results clearly show that it remains true.
You also might have noticed that your mood lifts when you go outdoors and be in the nature or go for a walk. It is believed that similar physiological mechanisms are supposedly at play when you bring the outdoors inside.
Plants and flowers liven up the space, stirring a sense of happiness and comfort in us.
Why do humans find flowers beautiful?
I was actually wondering what is it that makes flowers so captivating? I researched and found a theory. There must be more, but I’ll outline one of them.
It’s called the Habitat selection theory by Orians and Heerwagen. It outlines that this behavior might be the result of an evolutionary bias.
Humans while in search of habitable landscapes interpreted cues from animate and inanimate objects in the environment. The presence of flowers seemed to have indicated a rich habitable landscape as it was often accompanied by edible bulbs or fruits.
Besides this, the flowers had to be distinguishable from a distance which could be why we find vivid and contrasting colors more appealing.
I cherish having fresh cut flowers in my home all year long. I usually stick to seasonal flowers generally procured from my garden.
It’s been 5 years since I decided to act on my love of flowers and started regularly investing in them. Over this time, I have learned about how to style them and how to take care of them.
Coming back to our original problem.
Proven tips on How to keep flowers fresh for longer
1. Work on a clean dry surface and remove any leaves from the main stem. This is because they don’t serve any purpose in your arrangement. They will rot in time, if they keep touching the water or are below the water line in your vase.
2. Measure the length of the vase. Use the cut flower stems to do this. When you identify the appropriate height, cut the stems. If you are new to this, I recommend chopping off bit by bit and stop when your stems come up to the appropriate height.
3. Third and the most important step is to cut the stems diagonally instead of a horizontal cut. This is crucial otherwise, the whole of the cross-section of the stem will keep touching the base hampering the flow of water.
4. Clean and dry your vase; fill it up with water. Pour flower food if it came along with your flowers. You can use sugar to achieve similar results. Flower food originally contains sugar, citric acid and bleach.
5. Change the water every 2 days and don’t forget to add in the flower food. Clean the vase too when replacing water. Keep an eye on your flowers and the water to see how they are doing. Remove any brown petals or moldy flowers if you see.
6. Keep your flowers away from direct sunlight or any heat-releasing appliance. Also keep them away from fruits as they might give off ethylene gas.
7. You can also refrigerate flowers overnight. This has been shown to slow down the wilting process. If that is not possible, keep them in a cool environment.
That’s it. 7 major tips on How to keep cut flowers fresh and enjoying them for a little bit longer. If you don’t keep or grow flowers in your home, I propose you do so. You will see a difference in your well-being.
It’s just something about the flowers being themselves and still being beautiful. We can learn a thing or two from flowers.
Here are three lessons I learnt from flowers over the years.
- If you are not thriving, focus on fixing your environment.
- Don’t compare yourself to others. You are beautiful in your own way.
- There is space for everyone in this world.
Want to read more? Here are 25 lessons I learnt during 25 years of my existence.
Tell me in the comments, do you keep cut flowers in your home? Do you swear by any tip on how to keep flowers fresh for longer?
Sources:
- What flowers do we like? The influence of shape and color on the rating of flower beauty – PMC (nih.gov)
- Foliage colors improve relaxation and emotional status of university students from different countries – PMC (nih.gov)
- The physiological and psychological relaxing effects of viewing rose flowers in office workers – PMC (nih.gov)
- 0738-2898-14_2_97.pdf (silverchair.com)The Biophilia Hypothesis – Google Books
