How to Make Your Flowers Last

Wow! They’re beautiful! 

How good is it to be sent a gorgeous bouquet of flowers to celebrate a special event in your life?

Bouquets from Ruby Oak Floristry will be delivered to you in perfect condition, beautifully wrapped, ribboned and with the flower stems packaged in water.

Of course you (and your work colleagues will if your bouquet has been delivered to your place of work) will spend a little time just standing back and admiring the perfect blooms and finding out where they came from. “Wow, those roses! Are they real?” “What’s that beautiful pink flower, I’ve never seen that before”.

Yes, that wet-packaging in your bouquet will help your flowers stay well-hydrated for a while. But flowers are a natural product and need to be unwrapped and put into a vase of fresh water to maintain and prolong their life.

Here’s a few quick and easy steps to make sure your bouquet lasts as long as possible.

Unwrap

As soon as you are able to, unwrap all the paper and ribbon around the bouquet. Unwrap the cellophane containing water at the base of the bouquet over a sink to avoid getting water everywhere. It’s important to leave the tie around the middle of the bouquet – this will keep the bouquet together in the amazing design that the Ruby Oak florist made it.

Prepare a vase

Find your favourite vase that suits the size of your bouquet and half-fill with fresh tap water. It’s even better when your bouquet arrives in its own simple and stylish glass vase! (a great option when you order with us).

Snip the stems

Use a nice sharp pair of scissors to give each stem (flowers and foliage) a 1cm snip. This allows the stems to take up the fresh water.

Change the water

The best way to prolong the life of your flowers is to change out the water every couple of days. Give the stems another 1 cm snip at the same time. Remove any flowers or leaves that are past their best. Don’t wait until the vase water gets discoloured or slimy, or your flowers will not last well.

Extra Care

Ruby Oak Floristry get our flowers directly from the Sydney Flower Markets, buying from growers with premium freshly picked blooms. One of the best parts of our job is choosing from the incredible variety of fresh perfect flowers each day!

Your flowers should last between 7-10 days depending on the varieties of flowers in your bouquet. Some flowers like roses, peonies, hydrangea, lisianthus, carnations, tulips and delphinium are just naturally more longer lasting than others. Others such as ranunculus, snapdragons and poppies are a little more delicate.

Flower food

Don’t forget to use the sachet of flower food that came with your bouquet. It contains nutrients that prolong flower life.

Keep it cool

Once your bouquet is in its vase, place it in a reasonably cool place out of the way of strong drafts and winds. Cut flowers do best when they are out of direct heat and strong sunlight.

Unsurprisingly they also last longer if they are not directly blasted by a fan or an air conditioning vent.

Water bath

Just like us, some flowers love a good soak! For flowers like hydrangea and phaelenopsis orchids that may have begun to droop, despite your best care you might want to give them a rehydrating soak.

Just fill your kitchen sink or a bucket with tap water, trim the stems a little and gently lay the blooms face down. Aahh!, the blooms drink up the water through their petals overnight and will look much better in the morning. Pop them back into your vase and enjoy them for a while longer.

Enjoy your flowers!