I love having fresh flowers around the house. My gardens are finally alive with color, which has made this the perfect time to start picking lots of blooms.
Tonight I thought I’d let you in on a super easy was to keep your cut stems looking vibrant for as long as possible.
My grandmother told me this. Actually–she wrote it to me during her final months as she battled a cancer that took away her voice box. So when I was visiting she would communicate on little pads of paper. It wasn’t the quickest method. But it worked. She was an avid gardener. I don’t know how it came up, but she once asked if I knew how to keep cut flowers looking fresh. {Obviously not.}
She told me her favorite trick was to pour a little soda–the clear kinds, like ginger ale, Sprite or 7 Up–into the vase. No more than a quarter cup will do the trick. Flowers crave sugar that they soak up from their roots and other parts of the plant. Once cut, they lose that source of sugar. So keeping some in the water will help them thrive in your living room.
I asked about just mixing some sugar into the water {I’m not much of a soda drinker, usually.} She said that is a technique that some people use…but it’s better to use soda. Granulated sugar, even when mixed in, can clog the pores in the stems.
Give it a try. It’s an easy tip to know that will make you look like a gardener extraordinaire.
Amy
