Care for your flowers
Rose Hamson Flowers recommends the following to ensure your flowers keep looking beautiful for longer:
1. Make sure that your vase is clean – dirty vases encourage bacteria, and bacteria kills flowers
2. Use fresh lukewarm water and add the supplied flower food – lukewarm water has less oxygen and helps prevent bubbles which can block up the stem and hinder water uptake. The flower food supplied will help to kill off bacteria, lengthen the life of flowers and will encourage the buds to open
3. Strip all the leaves below the water level – leaves in water will rot more quickly, which in turn will cause bacteria to form in the water
4. Take at least 3cm (1″) off all stems, making a slanted cut with a sharp knife or very sharp scissors – this gives a bigger surface area for the flowers to take up water, and stops the flowers from suffocating themselves by resting on the bottom of the vase
5. Avoid direct sunlight, heat, or draughts which can shorten your flowers’ life
6. Keep flowers away from fruit and remove faded flowers as they occur – ripening fruit releases tiny amounts of ethylene gas which prematurely ages flowers. Dying flowers do the same so always remove them from the vase
7. Top up the water regularly
