If your tulips have started to droop and you’re struggling to get them to stand up, a gardening expert has shared a simple trick that outperformed vodka and coins
Angela Patrone Senior Lifestyle Reporter
04:09, 16 Mar 2026
While there’s nothing quite like watching a mature tulip elegantly bend and dip like a swan, there are occasions when tulips simply flop over the edge of their vase and stubbornly refuse to stand upright again, no matter what you try. Even when you know all the tricks for prolonging the lifespan of your bouquets, cut flowers can quickly show signs of deterioration or poor condition. Tulips are particularly well-known for drooping rapidly.
The cause of their drooping has long been a mystery, as has the solution for preventing it. Yet, following a tulip trial, gardening educator and specialist Bethie shared her findings on Instagram @blueacregarden, revealing the “winning” method to “fix your floppy tulips fast”.
According to Bethie, there was one approach that proved to be the “clear far and away winner” in her experiment.
Beginning with a collection of drooping tulips, the gardener positioned two tulip stems in each of four separate vases and “waited exactly six days” to observe the outcomes.
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The first vase contained vodka, the second featured coins, the third involved piercing the tulips with a pin to make a hole, while the final one served as a control group to demonstrate how the tulips fared without any intervention or modification.
Bethie noted that every tulip received a fresh cut underwater before she recorded the video, and all blooms were situated in a bright location in her kitchen. The gardener discovered that the “biggest loser” of the trial was the vodka vase.
She explained: “The one shot of vodka tulip plants fared horribly.” The blooms were “sad, saggy, and droopy”. The stems had no strength whatsoever.
Bethie added: “It took up a good amount of water, but that seems to have petered off after a few days, and the plants suffered.”
The control group came next, which performed “slightly better” than the vodka approach. There was minimal firmness remaining in the stems, though they still drooped over the vase edge, and the leaves lacked strength, too.
There are times when tulips tend to throw themselves over the rim of the vase and refuse to perk back up
The coin technique was followed, with these tulips retaining some rigidity in their stems and foliage. Bethie remarked, “I honestly think that if I had made a fresh cut on these and put them in fresh water, these actually might perk up a little bit.”
However, the “big and very clear far and away winner” was the pin technique, which requires no more than three seconds to complete.
Bethie said: “That’s right. By putting one tiny air hole using a pin under the petals of your tulips, you can have tulips that stand up nice and tall and strong.
“This method far and away outlasts any of the other most commonly recommended ways to keep your tulips tall and upright.”
By puncturing a small hole at the top of your tulips, you release any air bubbles that may be trapped within the stem. This ensures your plant can absorb an adequate amount of water, enabling it to stand up nice and tall.
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