Receiving flowers as a gift can be touching and exciting and, if you were surprised, all the better. Flowers let you know someone is thinking about you and wants you to have a good day. They are a lovely gesture and can celebrate a happy time or make a difficult situation a bit easier by showing support. Indeed, flowers can have a very profound affect on the recipient and if you are that person, you’ll want to do everything you can to keep them around for as long as possible. With proper care, many flowers will last more than a week and some will last several weeks and look beautiful until the end.

But, there are some things you need to do to help keep your flowers looking as beautiful as the day you received them. While everyone knows to put fresh flowers in water, there are some other things you can do to help keep your flowers happy and alive. These include:

Trimming – Trim flowers at an angle so they can absorb water more easily. Don’t place them in water with their stems uncut. They won’t last as long.

Leaves – Remove any leaves that will be immersed in water. Keep thorns if you received roses.

Supplements – Use the supplement package usually supplied with your fresh flowers. This will keep your flowers fresh longer.

Home “remedies” – Copper pennies and aspirin seem to breathe more life into flowers. Though people aren’t completely sure if this is a theory. You can also try lemon lime soda and bleach (yes, bleach!) combinations or Listerine mouthwash.

Temperature – Keep temperatures on the cool side if you can. Fresh-cut flowers don’t do very welkl in direct sunlight so keep them in a shadier place in your home.

Fruit – Don’t store flowers in a refrigerator to keep them fresh or near fruit on a counter. Fruit releases a gas that will cause the flowers to wilt very quickly.

Water – Use warmer water for any flowers not from bulbs and cold water for daffodils and tulips.

With just a little know-how and some common sense, you can keep your flowers looking their best for much longer than if you just dump them into a vase and forget about them until they wilt and you need to throw them away. Take a bit of care and keep the flowers longer. After all, someone cared enough about you to send them. Why not show them you care enough to nurture them a bit to make them last?
What to do next? Buy your flowers from our Toronto Flower Shop.