Warm weather is lovely for most things. Flowers are the exception.
A hot day in transit is hard work for fresh stems. They're cut, they're on the move, and by the time your bouquet lands on the doormat, it's been without a proper drink for longer than it would like. If you unwrap it to find a few droopy heads staring back at you, don't worry. Nothing is wrong with your flowers. They're just thirsty.
Here's how to bring them round.
1Give the stems a fresh cut
The ends of your stems will have dried out slightly on their journey to you, which makes it harder for them to take up water once they're in a vase. Snip about 2cm off the bottom of each stem, on a diagonal. The angle matters here, it creates more surface area for the stem to drink through, so your bouquet rehydrates faster.
Use sharp scissors or a knife rather than blunt kitchen scissors if you can. A clean cut makes all the difference.
2Get them into water quickly
This one sounds obvious, but it's the step people rush. Fill your vase with cool water and get your flowers in within a few minutes of cutting the stems. The longer they sit out of water, particularly on a warm day, the harder they have to work to recover.
If a few stems are still looking sorry for themselves an hour later, that's completely normal. Give them time. Most bouquets perk up fully within three to four hours of a proper drink.
3Top up the water daily
Flowers drink more than you'd expect, especially in warm weather. Check the water level in your vase every day and top it up as needed. A vase that's run low is one of the most common reasons flowers wilt early, and it's the easiest to avoid.
4Change the water every two to three days
Water that sits for too long starts to grow bacteria, and bacteria is not something your flowers want to be drinking. Every couple of days, tip the water out, give the vase a rinse, and refill with fresh cool water. While you're at it, trim another centimetre off the stems. It sounds like a small habit, but it can add several days to how long your flowers last.
5Keep them out of direct sunlight and away from heat
A sunny windowsill looks beautiful in photos and is genuinely the worst place for cut flowers. Direct sun and nearby heat sources, radiators, ovens, sunny conservatories, cause the water in both the vase and the stems to evaporate faster than your flowers can cope with. Find them a cooler spot out of direct light instead. A hallway table or a shaded corner of the kitchen works well.
6The one that gets overlooked: flower food
If your flowers came with a sachet of flower food, use it. It's not just sugar water, it contains something to feed the bloom and something to keep the water clean, which matters even more when temperatures are up.
A bouquet is built to make a moment feel special, but a hot day is still a hot day. A little care when it arrives goes a long way towards making sure it lasts, whoever it was sent to.
Looking for something new to brighten up the house this week?