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Are your blooms fading fast? Here’s how to make cut flowers last longer

Are your blooms fading fast? Here’s how to make cut flowers last longer

caring for cut flowers and keeping flower arrangements fresh

There’s nothing quite like having beautiful fresh cut flowers in your home. They bring a sense of life to any space and can inspire elegant serenity or bright joy. 

The inevitable sacrifice is that their beauty is fleeting. Though you can’t prevent them from eventually withering in their vase, we have a handful of tips that you can follow to help keep your flowers looking fresh and beautiful for as long as possible! 

01 / Refresh the water daily

Changing out the water daily with cool tap water or filtered water is the best possible way to keep cut flowers fresh. Bacteria builds up in the vase, so emptying your vase and filling it with fresh water will do wonders for extending the life of your cut flowers. 

If your arrangement is too large to be lifted from its vase or it’s arranged in floral foam, you can top off your vase with fresh water rather than changing it out entirely. If possible, change in your kitchen sink to overflow the vase and flush out as much of the old water as possible, being careful not to wet any of the flower petals. 

Florist tip - Should you use flower food? It definitely doesn’t hurt, but it’s not necessary! In our years of testing and experimenting, we’ve found that changing the water is the single most important thing you can do to make flowers last longer, and flower food didn’t make a discernible difference.

02 / Keep the water level at the top of the vase

Fresh cut flowers are thirsty! Some stems drink more water than others, and larger arrangements will drink water very quickly. Keep the vase filled to the top so that stems stay cool and have more than enough water to drink.

Florist tip - are there hydrangeas in your arrangement? Mist the petals daily! This humidity-loving flower drinks water through its petals, meaning that it can sometimes falter in our dry desert environment.  

fresh cut flower care, how to make your fresh flowers last longer

03 / Trim the stems every other day

Giving your flowers a fresh trim as often as possible will help them absorb water as they age, and remove any bacteria that starts to grow. Trim ½” off at a 45-degree angle to provide more surface area for water intake and prevent your stems from sitting flush against the bottom of the vase - which hinders their ability to drink and increases bacteria build up. 

how to trim fresh cut flower stems in floral arrangments

04 / Keep out of direct sunlight and airflow

Though flowers love basking in the sunlight while they grow, direct sunlight is actually the quickest way to wilt cut flowers. Don’t place them directly in sunbeams - opt for indirect light or a shady spot in your home. Don’t place your arrangement in the direct path of your AC vents, as the airflow will dry out the petals. In the wintertime, keep them in the coolest spot possible - heat will kill them very quickly! 

Florist tip - different flowers have different blooming lives, so some cut flowers will naturally wilt faster than others, even with the best of care. Carefully remove wilted flowers - just like changing out the water in your vase, removing dead stems will help alleviate bacteria build up.

taking care of fresh flowers and make flowers last longer


p.s. Don’t forget - we offer a 48-hour guarantee on all of our fresh flower arrangements. We always send out the freshest blooms, and our designers carefully check each flower arrangement before they’re sent out, but flowers can be fickle! If any of your flowers have died within the first two days of receiving them, please email us photos of your arrangement and we will happily work with you on replacing the stems that didn’t last.

talktous@camelbackflowershop.com

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