Valentine’s Day has come and gone, so it’s important that you take care of any bouquets of flowers you may have been given. Fresh flowers can help add a pop off colour to any room, but you might find that they don’t last as long as the ones in your garden.
Home hacks fan and Australian TikTok creator Chantel Mila (better known as Mama Mila on the social media platform), revealed her simple trick for keeping shop-bought flowers fresher for longer. Fortunately, all you need is two household staples you probably already have in your kitchen cupboard. This is what you’ll need to do.
How to keep flowers fresh
Firstly, you’ll want to prepare your vase halfway up with water. Then add one tablespoon of sugar – such as caster or granulated – before following with two tablespoons of white vinegar.
Give the water a little stir to ensure the sugar has dissolved properly. If you haven’t trimmed the stems, Chantel advised to cut the ends at a 45° angle underwater and ensure they’re fully submerged, and remove any excess foliage. This will prevent air from entering the stems.
Sugar is particularly important for keeping flowers alive. As soon as flowers are cut, they immediately begin to lose out on nutrients provided by photosynthesis, according to Teleflora.
By adding sugar in the vase’s water, it dissolves and helps to continuously feed the flowers the important nutrients they need, as it draws in the water over time. However, adding sugar to flowers can come at a cost.
Teleflora explained sugar also encourages the growth of bacteria, which can cause your flowers to smell and ultimately lead to their swift decay. This is why it should be paired with vinegar to stop this growth.
Morning Flowers explained that adding sugar to flower vases will help replace nutrients that flowers have lost after they’ve been cut. Its experts also pointed out that the water should be changed and refreshed often to ensure bacteria doesn’t build up in the flowers.
Gardening Know How explained: “Those preserving cut flowers with vinegar are essentially lowering pH, which in turn, increases the acidity. This increase helps to create an environment that is less suitable for the growth of bacteria, which is often the culprit in the speed of decline in freshness of the flowers.”
Vinegar should be used in conjunction with another ingredient, and never by itself. Gardening Know How explained that the ratios of vinegar will vary, but most agree that roughly two tablespoons each of vinegar and dissolved sugar should be used for each one-quart vase.
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