Flower Care: How to Make Your Flowers Last

Your flowers, looked after. Three things, and they will last:

• Cut 2 cm off each stem at an angle, with a sharp knife or sharp scissors.
• Use a clean vase, and change the water every two days.
• Strip any leaves that sit below the waterline — they rot, and rotting leaves cloud the water and block the stems.

Then keep the vase out of direct sun, off a radiator or the windowsill above one, and away from the fruit bowl. Ripening fruit gives off ethylene gas, and ethylene ages cut flowers fast. That last one is the thing almost nobody knows, and it is the reason a bouquet on the kitchen counter often goes over before the same bouquet in a cool hallway.

Below is the full guide our florists work to: what to do in the first ten minutes, how each kind of flower wants to be treated, and the popular tricks that do nothing at all. If what you want is a straight answer on vase life by variety, we have that written out separately in how long flowers last, by type.

Just Unwrapped? The First Ten Minutes

1. Take the wrap off straight away. Flowers were travelling in it, not being stored in it.
2. Fill a clean vase with cool water — lukewarm for peonies and tulips, for the reason explained below.
3. Re-cut the stems under running water and put them straight in, so no air is drawn up the cut.
4. If a sachet of flower food came with them, use the whole sachet. Half a dose does nothing measurable.

Then give them an hour before you judge them. Flowers that have travelled come out of the box looking tired and lift again once they have had a drink. That hour is normal and not a fault.

Flower Care by Type

Different flowers want different things, and one or two of them want the opposite of each other. Find yours here.

How to Care for Roses

Re-cut the stems at an angle every two or three days. Rose stems seal themselves over at the cut, and a sealed stem stops drinking however much water is in the vase — this single habit does more for a rose bouquet than anything else. If the outer one or two petals look bruised or papery, take them off: those are guard petals, left on deliberately to protect the bloom in transit, and the rose looks better without them. A rose head that has bent over at the neck usually has an air lock rather than a thirst problem, so cut 3 cm off the stem and stand it alone in deep water for an hour; more often than not it lifts.

How to Care for Peonies

Peonies arrive as tight, hard buds on purpose. That is a peony bought at the right moment, not one that failed to open. Lukewarm water and a warm room will open a peony bouquet over one to three days; a cold room slows the whole thing down, which is useful if you are holding them for a particular date. If a bud feels tacky to the touch, that is nectar and it is normal. Once they are open, move them somewhere cooler — warmth opens a peony and cool holds it.

How to Care for Tulips

Tulips carry on growing in the vase, by a few centimetres, and they lean towards the light. Both of those are the flower alive, not a defect. Cold water and a shallow fill suit them, and turning the vase once a day keeps them roughly upright. The one rule that matters: do not put tulips in with daffodils. Daffodil sap shortens the life of everything else sharing the water.

How to Care for Hydrangea

Hydrangea drinks through its petals as well as through the stem, which is why it behaves unlike anything else in the bouquet. If the head goes limp, submerge the whole flower head in cool water for twenty minutes and it usually comes back. Keep the vase topped up rather than merely full: a hydrangea bouquet drinks more water than anything else you are likely to have standing next to it.

How to Care for Lilies

As each flower opens, pinch out the orange anthers in the middle. The pollen stains fabric permanently and it is toxic to cats. Lily buds open over several days, which is why a lily bouquet outlives most others in the same room; take spent blooms off as you go and the remaining buds keep coming.

Ranunculus and Anemones

Thin, hollow stems. They need clean water more than they need deep water, and they dislike warmth. Fill the vase halfway, change it every other day, keep them cool, and they open wide before they finish — which is the best part of both flowers.

Flowers in a Box or Hatbox

There is soaked floral foam under the flowers, holding every stem at its angle. Do not lift the flowers out and do not re-cut them. Instead, pour a small glass of water into the box every other day, straight onto the foam, until the foam stops taking it. Keep the box off bare wood, or stand it on a plate — flowers in a box are watered in place, and the base stays damp.

How to Care for an Orchid in a Pot

This is not a bouquet, so do not water it on a schedule. Once a week, lift the inner pot out, take it to the sink, let water run through the bark for a minute, drain it completely, and put it back. Roots left standing in water are the one reliable way to kill a phalaenopsis, and it is by far the most common way a gifted orchid dies. Bright room, no direct midday sun. The same drain-completely rule applies to most of our other potted plants.

How to Care for Dried Flowers

No water, ever. Keep them out of direct sun or the colour fades within weeks, and keep them out of bathrooms, because damp makes dried stems droop and then mould. Dust them with a hairdryer on its cold setting, held at a distance. Looked after, they last months and sometimes years.

Mixed Bouquets

A mixed bouquet ages unevenly, and that is normal rather than a sign that something was wrong with it. Every couple of days, pull out whatever has gone over, re-cut the rest, and move down to a smaller vase as the bouquet thins. A ten-stem bouquet that ends its life as a jar of five on the windowsill has done its job well. If you want the long-lasting end of the range next time, chrysanthemums and sunflowers are the two that reliably outstay the rest.

What Does Not Work: Flower Care Myths

Things people swear by, that do not help:

• Sugar in the water — it feeds the bacteria faster than it feeds the flower.
• Aspirin, a copper coin, a splash of lemonade — no measurable effect on vase life.
• A drop of bleach — it does slow bacteria, but the dose that helps and the dose that burns the stems are uncomfortably close together. Clean water every two days does the same job safely.
• Hairspray on the petals — it seals them, and sealed petals die faster.

What does work is unglamorous: a clean vase, a fresh angled cut, cool water, and no fruit nearby.

Flower Care Questions We Are Asked

Why did my peonies arrive as tight buds?

Because that is when a peony should be cut. A peony sent open has already spent most of its vase life in transit. Put the buds in lukewarm water in a warm room and they will open over one to three days; keep them somewhere cool and they will hold as buds for longer, which is what you want if the birthday is on Saturday and the flowers came on Thursday.

My rose has drooped at the neck, can I save it?

Usually, yes. A bent rose neck is normally an air lock in the stem rather than a flower that has finished. Take the rose out, cut 3 cm off the bottom of the stem at an angle, and stand it on its own in deep cool water for an hour. Most roses lift. If it has not moved after a couple of hours, that one is over, and the rest of the bouquet is unaffected.

Can I revive a wilted hydrangea?

Often, and the method is unusual: submerge the entire flower head in a bowl or sink of cool water for about twenty minutes, then re-cut the stem and put it back in the vase. Hydrangea takes water in through its petals, so a limp head can rehydrate directly. Keep the vase topped up afterwards, because it went limp from drinking the vase dry.

Why are my tulips still growing and bending in the vase?

Because they are alive. Tulips keep elongating after they are cut, by a few centimetres, and they turn towards the brightest light in the room. Nothing has gone wrong. Cold water, a shallow fill and a quarter turn of the vase each day keep them presentable; if you would rather they stayed short, keep them somewhere cool and away from a window.

Can I put daffodils in the same vase as other flowers?

Not straight away. Cut daffodil stems leak a sap that shortens the vase life of everything sharing the water, tulips especially. If you want to mix them, stand the daffodils alone in water for a few hours first, then rinse the stems and combine without re-cutting.

Do I need to use the flower food sachet?

If one came with your flowers, use it, and use all of it in the first vase of water. Flower food is a mix of a sugar the flower can actually use, an acidifier and a mild biocide, and the ratio only works at the dose on the sachet. Half a sachet is not half the benefit, it is closer to none. If you have no sachet, plain clean water changed every two days is the next best thing, and it is not far behind.

Is lily pollen dangerous for cats?

Lilies are toxic to cats, pollen included, and the safest answer in a household with a cat is not to have lilies in it. If you already have them, pinch the orange anthers out of each flower as it opens, keep the vase somewhere a cat cannot reach, and pick up any fallen petals. Tell us when you order and we will build the bouquet without lilies.

Should I take the guard petals off my roses?

Yes, if they look bruised. The outer one or two petals on a rose are guard petals, and they are left on deliberately to take the knocks in transit so the petals underneath arrive perfect. Peeling them off is normal florist practice, not damage repair, and the rose looks better for it.

Do dried flowers need any water?

None at all, and water is the one thing that ruins them. Keep dried stems dry, out of direct sunlight so the colour holds, and out of bathrooms and kitchens where steam collects. Dust them from a distance with a hairdryer on cold.

Why does fruit make flowers wilt faster?

Ripening fruit releases ethylene, a gas that plants use as an ageing signal. Cut flowers read it as an instruction to finish: petals drop, buds stop opening, and the whole bouquet goes over days early. A fruit bowl next to a vase is the single most common reason flowers underperform in an otherwise cool room. Move one of the two.

If Something Is Not Right

Flowers travel, and occasionally one arrives unhappy. Write to [email protected] with a photo and we will look at it — we would rather know.

We are a working florist studio in Southwark, and we send flowers across London the same day, seven days a week, with a cut-off at 10 pm. If you want more on keeping a delivered bouquet going, our florists wrote a longer piece on post-delivery bouquet care.