We have all purchased flowers from the grocery store that come with the packets of flower food to keep your flowers fresh longer. But you can also achieve a longer vase life with simple steps and products that you probably already have at home! So how do we do this?

First use the flower food that often come with your flowers, BUT remember when you change your water your flowers still need care. I like to forgo the packets and instead use ta mixture of sugar and vinegar to keep my flowers fresh. The sugar feeds the fowers and the vinegar inhibits the growth of bacteria.

What you need:

• Sugar

• White Vinegar

• Warm water

I like to fill a mason jar with warm water and then add roughly 3 tablespoons of sugar and 2 tablespoons of white vinegar. I let the sugar dissolve and then add what I need to a vase before adding my flowers. There are also some mistake we should avoid with our flowers as well.

The first mistake we make as caregivers of our flowers is not giving them a clean home to reside in. I don’t just mean initially, I mean on the regular. I mean, you don’t just clean your house one time and then never clean it again right? Make sure that your flowers have a clean home to live in. Keep the water clean! I like to change my water every other day, but every two days works too! I also take the opportunity to clean the vase before refilling it!

The second mistake is not giving those stems a trim! Whenever you bring flowers home, especially from the grocery store, make sure to trim those stems before popping them into a vase. I also like to make sure to remove any foliage that may sit below the water before adding flowers to a vase. Allowing foliage to sit in water can lead to bacteria and prevent necessary nutrients from reaching your blooms!

The third mistake is keeping your flowers next to a fruit bowl. Now, I totally get the aesthetic reasoning for this, but some fruits like apples, bananas, and tomatoes have a high production of ethylene, a gas that speeds up the aging of your flowers! An alternative to this would be to use dried flowers instead of fresh to achieve the decorative look of your home.

Do all of these things and you will be surprised at how long your flowers last!