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Gardening expert reveals simple spray trick to help your flowers live longer
If you are someone who can’t keep a bunch of flowers alive for longer than a weekend, you’ll want to try out this surprisingly cheap and easy spray trick.
With the official start of Spring just around the corner on March 19, now is the time for green-fingered shoppers to take advantage of all the floral offerings that were unavailable during the winter months. But, if like many of us, your home feels like the place where nice-looking bouquets and house plants come to die – you may want to heed the advice of a group of gardening experts, who have plenty of life-saving plant tricks up their sleeve.
Expert reveals spray trick for keeping flowers alive
As anyone who has ever rushed to a supermarket the day before Mother’s Day or on February 13 will know, flowers are actually pretty expensive – and they might even be past their best by the time you buy them.
And beyond trimming the stems, feeding them mysterious flower food liquid and keeping them in water – there usually isn’t much you can do to revive your bouquet once the life starts to drain out of it. At least, that’s what we thought – until we read the latest advice from gardening experts, Ashridge.
According to their advice, flower owners can devise a homemade flower food mixture that will help to keep them healthy for longer, using two ingredients you likely have lying around – granulated sugar and distilled white vinegar.
Simply mix two tablespoons of sugar (approximately 0.50 US fl oz) and two tablespoons of your white vinegar with one liter of lukewarm water, which you can then use to replace the vase water you currently have on the go. Doing this every time you replace the vase water should help to grant your flowers a new lease of life.
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Why this trick works so well
So, why is this handy life hack so effective?
According to the experts, the logic behind it is simple. The purpose of the sugar is to energize your plants, which need nourishment just like any other living organism would.
The white vinegar will also help to lower the pH level of the water. This will improve the flowers’ ability to absorb water, while also removing unneeded bacteria from the vase water.
In her own words, Ashridge CEO Julian de Bosdari stressed that: “Keeping your bouquet clean, hydrated, nourished and out of the sun will go a long way in maintaining it, and eliminating nasty bacteria from its environment can help prevent the flowers deteriorating prematurely.”
More basic steps for maintaining your flowers
Before you get to the stage of manufacturing your own flower food, there are a number of very basic steps you can take to ensure that your flowers are being treated properly.
If you have a nice set of roses, lilies or whatever else that you want to keep healthy for as long as possible, make sure to tick off each step on this list:
- Start by placing your flowers in a clean, recently-washed vase.
- Trim the stems of your flowers at a 45-degree angle to maximize water absorption.
- Remove any foliage that falls below the water line of your vase, to prevent bacteria.
- Keep your flowers away from direct sunlight to avoid wilting.
- Change the vase water every two days, or when cloudy.
- Check on your flowers regularly and cut off any wilting petals.
