Tips For Preserving Your Fresh Flowers

Although most people love fresh-cut flowers, the one downside to them is the fact that they don't last long. If you're looking for ways to extend the life of or preserve the flowers you're investing in, there are many options. Before you just let them wilt and die, read on to see two ways that you can protect them.

Silica Preservation

One way to preserve fresh flowers is with silica gel. You can find it at most craft stores, and it comes in a powder form. For a large bouquet, you'll want to get a large bag, enough to fill a bucket that's deeper and wider than the bouquet itself.

Fill the bucket with silica gel powder until it's a couple of inches from the top. Then, trim your flowers about an inch from the bloom. Save the stems, because you can reattach them once it's preserved. Push some thin wire into the base of the bloom and wrap it around the top of the stem.

Take the silica powder and sprinkle it gently inside the bloom, filling up the spaces between all of the petals. Then, stand the flower up inside the gel powder in the bucket, so that the flower is upright. Fill the tub completely with more silica gel, making sure all of the flowers are completely covered. Close the container and let it sit for about two weeks. Remove the cover and carefully dump the silica powder out until you can get to the flowers. Pull the flowers out and brush any residual powder off them. Then you can unfold the wire, force it into the stem pieces, and use a little bit of glue to hold it together. Let the glue dry, then recreate the arrangement. Place it in a shadow box for display, if you'd like.

Hairspray

While the flowers are still fresh, vibrant, and fully open, you can preserve them with hairspray. Remove them from the vase and place each stem into a foam block. This keeps them upright and allows you to cover the entire area with hairspray. This is easiest done with an aerosol product so that you get a consistent stream. Step back and spray them gently from a distance so that you don't damage the petals with too much force from the spray. Cover the entire flower with the hairspray, then hang the flowers upside down until the hairspray dries completely. Once it's dried, you can then rearrange the flowers and display them how you wish.

To learn more about preserving your flowers, talk to flower services near you.

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