How to Care for a Bouquet of Flowers

You have been given a bouquet of flowers and now you want to know how to look after it so you can enjoy its freshness for as long as possible?

This article is written from the point of view of an experienced florist who has worked with a number of different suppliers over the years.

Let us start with the single most important thing to take into account.

How the flowers travelled from the Netherlands matters.

Yes, more than 80% of the flowers sold in Romanian flower shops are imported from the land of tulips, the Netherlands.

And no, the remaining 20% are not home grown. Most of them are imported from South America or Africa. Only a very small share is actually cultivated in Romania, and here we are talking mainly about chrysanthemums, which are abundant in autumn.

The quality of that journey plays a significant role in how long the flowers in the bouquet you have just received will last. Shipping flowers in optimal conditions involves extra costs that are anything but negligible.

Higher quality flowers are longer lasting flowers.

Premium flowers will always be more expensive, more beautiful and, not least, longer lasting.

Cheaper flowers may well be damaged stems, or flowers that were cut a good while before they were put on sale.

With all that said, here is what is worth knowing and what lies within the power of whoever has just been given a bouquet.

Temperature is extremely important.

A low temperature in the room where the bouquet is kept will have the strongest impact of all.

It is also advisable to keep the bouquet out of direct sunlight.

Change the water daily and trim the stems.

A fresh cut makes it far easier for the flowers to take up water.

Trim the stems of the flowers in the bouquet with a pair of garden secateurs every two days.

Dutch hydrangeas are less hardy than the ones grown in South America.

To revive a hydrangea that has started to “flop”, cut a centimetre off the stem every two hours and repeat until it has fully recovered.

With tulips we prefer not to trim the stems at all until the moment we finish the bouquet. Cutting tulip stems does nothing but speed up their opening.

Fresh cold water every single day, on the other hand, is good for every type of flower.