The epitome of natural perfection, roses make an amazing gift for any person, whatever the occasion. When given enough TLC, a bunch of roses can stand fresh and beautiful for a good fortnight, but even the precious things like roses cannot last forever.
However, there are some ways, allowing you to preserve your blooms so that they can last for life and remind you of those special moments associated with being gifted with the finest of flowers.
Handy Tricks How to Extend A Vase Life of Fresh Roses
Delicate natural creatures which, surely, roses are, cannot boast of great longevity. Still, some useful lifehacks are allowing you to boost a lifespan of cut blooms.
Cut Their Stems
Before putting your roses in water, trim 1-2 cm off the end of each stem using garden shears, sharp kitchen scissors, or a good knife.
Consider cutting at an angle so that it will be easier for stems to absorb water as they will not sit firmly against the bottom of the vessel. Experienced florists recommend slightly re-trimming rose stems every other day.
Eliminate Dead Foliage
Remove fallen leaves and petals from the vase regularly to prevent bacterial multiplication. This makes a special sense for mixed bouquets composed of heterogeneous flower types that may have different blooming periods.
Select the Optimal Container
Big, heavy flowers should be snipped and placed in a low vase where stems can easily support each other while also having enough space to spread out.
Lighter, more delicate blooms are better to be accommodated in a taller vessel. Make sure you don’t overfill the vase; if in doubt, you can always distribute a large bouquet between two vases.
Refresh Water Regularly
Select a clean vase of a proper size and pour lukewarm water into it. Then you may add some flower food like sugar to provide blooms with some nutrition.
Make sure, the nourishing ingredients are dissolved completely before you place a bouquet. Change the water, add a new portion of flower food, clean the vase, and snip the stems every second or third day.
Keep Roses Away from Heat, Sunbeams, Drafts, and Fruit
Roses will last longer in cooler conditions where they are unexposed to direct sunlight.
Do not place them near equipment that generates high or low temperatures, such as stoves, air conditioners, ceiling fans, and even your smart gadgets or a TV set.
Placing a bunch on a windowsill is also a bad idea as this will also cause blooms to dehydrate faster.
Finally, prevent these delicate cuties from coming into contact with fresh fruit, which emits a small amount of gas that can affect the lifespan of your flowers.
Flower Food Packet
The ready-to-use packed flower food is a common free complement to your bouquet when you send fresh flowers to Denver or any other address in the world.
Florists often add some packets of flower food containing everything the blooms need to stay in their finest longer: carbohydrates (glucose), biocides (antimicrobial agents), and acidifiers (help to lower pH).
These substances feed the blooms, fight bacteria, and regulate water pH to increase water absorption.
Experienced florists recommend adding a new portion of flower food to the vase each time you change the water, so never hesitate to ask for several packets every time you buy or order flowers online.
Add Special Ingredients to The Vase with Your Roses
Folk remedies to enhance the vase-life of cut roses include adding vodka, soda, aspirin, copper coins, lemon juice, apple vinegar, and even bleach to the water.
While all these methods have a right to exist, think twice before adding aggressive chemicals like bleach to subtle creatures like roses.
After all, it is household chemistry that is very dangerous for human consumption. Why would you want to poison your exquisite flowers with that detrimental stuff?
All other ingredients look much more harmless. Vodka, for example, helps to slow the shriveling process through the ethanol’s ability to stop the production of ethylene – the gas released by vegetables, fruits, and plants as they are maturing.
Soda keeps blooms perky too as it delivers the much-needed sugar. A popular analgetic aspirin lowers the pH level in the water, creating more favorable conditions for stems.
Coins contain copper that has an acidic effect and helps to beat bacteria. Apple vinegar and lemon juice also help to keep malicious microorganisms at a bay.
Put Them into A Refrigerator
This method is ideal to keep your buds fresh and fine as there is no exposure to sunlight, gas-emitting fruit, and drafts.
Moreover, bacteria cannot grow in cool conditions, meaning, there is simply nothing in a fridge to compromise the beauty of cut roses!
Ways to Preserve Roses
Despite all your love, care, and attention, one day, cut roses will begin to die. But you don’t need to be sad because many techniques allow you to put your withering flowers to good use.
Air-Drying
Air drying is one of the simplest ways to dehydrate and preserve roses. This method consists of hanging flowers upside down, which allows the stems to dry straight rather than wilt.
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Preserving with Glycerin
Glycerin is one of the best ways to keep roses intact. When roses are put in glycerin, they gradually absorb it, and water contained in roses is substituted with that substance.
This allows roses to maintain their shape and texture without developing signs of dying. However, over time, the color will still fade.
To preserve roses with glycerin, you need to create an appropriate solution (one part of glycerin plus two parts of water). Place your roses into this solution and let them stay in glycerin for several weeks.
Microwaving
Drying roses in a microwave with a desiccant to remove moisture is a process that takes days, not weeks. To use the microwave method, all you need is a microwave oven, scissors, a desiccant, and a cup of water.
- Remove excessive foliage to fit in a microwave-friendly container.
- Cover flowers with a desiccant. Before putting flowers in a container, fill it with a layer of a desiccant such as silica, and then place the roses on top. Lay blooms upon the top of the first layer of silica, and then fill the rest of the container with silica.
- Put a cup of water in the microwave so that flowers do not over-dry.
- Microwave in increments. Heat roses in the microwave at half-minute intervals. Once the petals are dry, remove flowers from the microwave. Leave flowers in the silica gel for at least another 24 hours before removing, cleaning, and displaying the dried flowers.
Pressing
Flower pressing is an old-school method of preserving roses that involves pressing the moisture out of the petals.
This flower preservation method will leave you with charming pressed roses ready to be displayed. To press roses, you only need petals, which you then put in the middle of a big thick book.
Make sure you inset some backing paper to prevent ink from rubbing off and coloring your flowers. Distribute the petals evenly on the backing paper, ensuring they are not overlapping.
Preserve with Hairspray
Although this technique is not very common, using hairspray to conserve your flowers can help them keep their color and shape for quite a while.
Hairspray can also prevent roses from breaking into pieces, so you can admire a well-preserved bouquet of roses for months. Here is how to use hairspray to preserve your cherished roses:
- Hold a hairspray at some short distance from roses and spray them evenly while they are in the vase.
- Take out the bouquet, tie it with string or dental floss, and hang it upside down in a dark place until it dries.
- Place the bouquet back in the vase with water.
- Repeat the procedure in a day or two.
Other popular methods of preserving roses include freeze-drying, baking, putting them in the sand, and sealing buds in resin.
Preserved flowers can then be used for displays such as potpourri or dried bouquets as well as in different crafts such as hand-made cards, photo frames, soaps, candles, or cosmetics.
How to Care For Preserved Roses
Curiously but dried roses are not set-it-and-forget-it. Even preserved, they still require some attention of yours. Here are some useful tips to maintain preserved flowers.
- Place dried roses in a cool, dry place indoors and out of direct sunlight, as exposing your flowers to the hot sun can accelerate the process of fading.
- Distribute hairspray after the preservation process to protect roses from damage.
- Make sure your preserved plants are never in contact with water.
- Do not bend, squeeze, or squash petals or stems.
- Try not to touch the preserved blooms unless it is absolutely necessary.
Remember that the key to keeping your treated roses beautiful is plenty of care.