Tipful Tuesday!

I am Lordwilling going to try to post a Tip every Tuesday or everyother Tuesday or whenever I find one {hehe}. But I actually found one today that was pretty interesting and I needed. it. Recently I was blessed with a vase of Beautiful fall flowers. And I had them at my desk at work, when I came back from the weekend they were starting to die, the water was low. What was I to do? I remember hearing somewhere, you add warm water and sugar. But further searching I found that you also use that and you use vinegar or bleach {yeah, I thought crazy too} and some lemon or orange zest. Hmmmm....why those things? Well below will explain the reasoning to it.

So the tip for today is: "How to keep cut flowers fresh"

Feeding and handling cut flowers the way florists do can make your flowers last up to seven days longer than usual. Plant food consists of sugar, biocides and acidifiers. Biocides are chemicals that kill bacteria, yeasts and fungi. Good biocides to use are bleach and vinegar. Acidifiers are acids that help the water move up the stem of the flower. Lemon juice and orange zests are two common acidifiers. While you can buy plant food, you can easily make your own mixture, too.

I thought "wow, so scientific, pretty organic too" lol.

Instructions:

Things You'll Need:

• Sharp, unserrated knife
• Vase
• 1 pint or 1 quart warm water
• 1 tbsp. sugar
• 1 tsp. bleach or vinegar
• 1 tsp. lemon juice or orange zest

1. Add 1 tbsp. of granulated sugar, 1 tsp. of bleach or vinegar and 1 tsp. of lemon juice or orange zest to a quart of warm water and stir until it's dissolved. If you will only need a pint of water for your vase, use half of each ingredient.

2. Overcrowding causes some flowers to die quickly. Cut 1-2 inches from the end of each flower's stem at a steep angle using the sharp knife. Place each cut flower in a container of warm water immediately. Waiting until you have cut all the flowers you need before putting them in water will shorten the life of the flowers.

3 Keep cut flowers out of direct sunlight. Ease each flower into the vase. Dropping your flowers into the vase can bruise the stems, making it difficult or impossible for the flowers to receive water and food.

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