How I make my flowers last longer

For some, this post may be teaching you to suck eggs but until a friend visited the other day and mentioned she would never have thought to do this, I thought it may be of some use to you.

As mentioned in my last post I was given a lovely bouquet of flowers.  Since my arrangement was already beautifully cut, they went straight into a large vase.  However, with any bouquet with a variety of flowers, they will likely die at different rates.  So while my bold gerberas faded away and died an untimely death, my roses, carnations and lilies were all still fighting on.

Of course it makes sense to remove the dying plants but I often find the arrangement never quite has the same charm about it.  So my solution is to split them up and place the flowers in a number of smaller arrangements in vases, teacups, glasses etc.  Often I find that my new arrangements are nicer and have more character than the original larger floral delight.

Roses in a glass incense holder

carnations in a drinking glass

It's unlikely that we have in our homes countless vases of differing shapes and sizes so it pays to be a little creative.  In this case I used a shot glass, a drinking glass and an incense jar.  Teacups, bowls, candleholders and even ashtrays can also make excellent new homes for your leftover flowers.  

Lily in a shot glass

It also means you can share the flowers throughout your home, before they would have been placed in one room.  Now I can have some in the bathroom, bedroom and my lounge instead of a full arrangement  in one room.

I find that grouping a few of the smaller arrangements together in certain areas, like my coffee table, it makes a lovely statement and refreshing pop of colour to an otherwise practical area of the home.

So, that's my wee tip for a Sunday ... Hope you are all looking forward to the bank holiday - unfortunately for me I will be working it!
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