What Makes Cut Flowers Last Longer?

Everyone has heard some trick to keep a bloom-filled vase beautiful. We find out which ones really work

One of the majuscule joys of horticulture is takingbeautiful bloomsfrom favourite works and placing themindoorsto lighten up a room . track blossom , however , can quickly lose their beaut . A quick internet search yields a wide sort of method acting exact to draw out the life of cut flowers . Most of the methods involve adding something to the water in the vase , usually items found in the average rest home : bleach , lemon - lime soda , vinegar , and others . Many recipes combine two or more ingredients intended to add food and delay vector decomposition , and admit cultural drill , such as trimming root word close at an angle under run for H2O as well as refreshing the water every two days and retrimming the stem end . It chop-chop becomes consuming .

I confess that I am a piece of a lazy nurseryman . Forcut flowers , I arrange them in a vase , tote up water , and shake off them out severally when they start to wait spoiled . cut off the stems at an angle ( a common practice ) and adding a little something when they first go into the vase seem reasonable to me , but I ’m not go to do much more than that . Most home nurseryman whom I ’ve met seem to be uncoerced to expend about the same level of effort . So with that in thinker , how do the household additives or industrial plant - food packet compare with just plain H2O ? I decided to convey an experimentation to find out .

In the end , were the final result enough for me to change my lazy ways ? For cut peak from a shop that make out with a packet of plant food , dead . But at dwelling , with flowers from my garden , most belike not , unless a particular occasion necessitates it — a really prospicient special occasion . Fortunately , I populate in a area with a long growing season and have a set of flowers to fill again my vase .

How the test was done

I set up an experiment at theUNC ( University of North Carolina ) Charlotte Botanical Gardensto screen six additives against unmistakable pee . These treatments were advocate on multiple site , and they include sugar for nutrient plus an antibacterial federal agent — the two thing that deletion - flush preservative are designed to supply . I used freshly write out heyday to best mimic a gardener ’s experience and because store - bought flowers are often pretreated in some room . I recorded information daily for 15 days on the calibre of the flowers and rated them with a number system:2was “ good , ” meaning they looked like I had just picked them;1was “ acceptable ” in that they were well enough to keep in the container ; and0meant that they were wilted or shriveled to the extent that they need to be removed .

I pick out flush commonly grown in home gardens that also make full cut flowers : helianthus ( Helianthuscv . , annual ) , celosia ( Celosiaargenteacv . ) , and lisianthus ( Eustoma grandiflorumcv . , USDA Hardiness Zones 8–11 ) .

Sunflower

alike plants :

Shasta daisy ( Leucanthemum×superbumcvs . , Zones 5–8 ) ; aster ( Symphyotrichumspp . and cvs . , Zones 4–8 )

Lisianthus

Rose ( Rosaspp . and cvs . , Zones 2–11 ) ; peony ( Paeoniaspp . and cvs . , Zones 3–8 )

Celosia

Amaranth ( Amaranthusspp . and cvs . , annual ) ; yarrow ( Achilleaspp . and cvs . , Zones 3–9 )

The Experiment

Water—the control group

Average:6 to 14 days

Results : unvarnished water was dandy in overall quality — up to a distributor point ( ordinary of 7 days)—but began rapidly declining soon after . The water in the container stayed fairly vindicated for most of the experiment , and the flowers survive well-nigh as long as those treated with FloraLife Flower Food 300 .

Cut Flowers in Water

Vinegar and sugar

How much:1 Tbs . sugar and 2 Tbs . acetum per dry quart of water

Average:2 to 7 days

Results : This treatment produced the least favorable final result , with prime starting to droop by day 2 . Stems started turning brown at the bottom and moved upward toward the flower across all peak types — the quickest being the sunflowers . I ascribe this to the sunflower ’ big shank size , which absorbed the treatment faster than the other flower type . Lisianthus bring the longest to show impact , which I trust supports my theory .

Sugar

How much:1 Tbs . per quart of water

Average:5 to 10 days

Results : The flowers did well overall until about day 6 , which is when I noticed leave beginning to wilt on some of the celosia stem . The same eventually happen across all the flower types . The flower petals themselves did not look to be feign . So the flowers lasted , but they did n’t look large over the long haul ( or as good as those treated with FloraLife ) .

Bleach and sugar

How much:1 Tbs . sugar and ½ tsp . bleach per quart of water

Average:7 to 10 days

Results : While the efflorescence broadly managed to last through the duration of the experiment , I notice brown spots and blotching on the leaves . This is what affected the overall calibre . The flower flower petal seemed unaffected by the bleach . The container weewee stayed pretty percipient throughout the experiment .

Listerine

Average:7 to 9 days

result : The benefit of using Listerine is its antibacterial qualities . This discussion had a similar result as the plain water ascendance grouping : It did well up to a peak , then decline quickly . The downside with this treatment was that I could smell the Listerine without accept to put my nose up to the container , masking any pleasant fragrance from the prime .

FloraLife Flower Food 300

How much:2 tsp . per quart of water

Average:9 to 14 day

Results : Flowers handle with FloraLife Flower Food 300 hold up the longest and calculate the best — and the water stay unmortgaged . The constituent in FloraLife are proprietary , but the company ’s web site account this ware as containing “ a simoleons for victuals , an acidifier to lower the pH of the urine , and a course of instruction of compounds called root word absorption foil . ”

Mae Lin Plummer provides community pedagogy and horticultural workshops for the UNC Charlotte Botanical Gardens . She is also the owner of The Laughing Garden , a landscape painting - conception and gardening - look up company in Charlotte , North Carolina .

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Woman placing sunflower in a Mason jar with test additives around her including Listerine, bleach, soda and plant food

Photo: Danielle Sherry

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