You’ve received flowers — or ordered them for someone — and you want them to last as long as possible. Good news: with four simple steps you can easily double the life of your bouquet. No experience needed, no complications.
The first thing to do when you get home
Before putting the flowers in a vase, there’s one step that makes the difference between a bouquet that lasts four days and one that lasts ten: trimming the stems.
When flowers are cut, the ends of the stems seal with air and stop absorbing water. If you cut them again, the flowers start drinking again.
- Use clean kitchen scissors — the most important thing is that they’re clean.
- Cut diagonally at a 45° angle, about 2-3 cm from the bottom of each stem.
- Place the flowers immediately in the vase with fresh water.
- Repeat this cut every 2 days when you change the water.
💡 Remove any leaves that will sit below the waterline — if they rot inside the vase, the water clouds quickly and your flowers will last much less.
The water: what to add and what to avoid
The water in the vase isn’t just water — it’s the «food» for your flowers. Here’s what works:
- The flower food sachet that comes with the bouquet: always use it. It contains sugar to feed the flowers and a bactericide to keep the water from going bad. It’s the best trick.
- Half an aspirin per litre of water: lowers the pH and helps flowers absorb water better.
- A teaspoon of sugar + 2 drops of bleach: the homemade preservative that works if you don’t have a sachet.
- A tablespoon of hydrogen peroxide (pharmacy 3%): keeps the water cleaner and extends bouquet life by 2-3 extra days.
What doesn’t work: hot water, detergent, or leaving the water unchanged for days. Change the water every 2 days at minimum.
Where to put the vase at home
Where you place the vase matters more than you might think. Cut flowers are not houseplants — they don’t need sun. Quite the opposite.
- Avoid direct sunlight — the sun dries flowers out very quickly.
- Avoid air conditioning and fans — dry air dehydrates them.
- Keep the vase away from fruit — bananas, apples and pears release a gas that speeds up wilting. In Tenerife, where heat intensifies this effect, this is especially important.
- Best spot: somewhere cool with good natural light, but out of direct sun.
Something we see all the time: people put flowers in the living room in full sun because they look beautiful in photos… and by the next day they’ve drooped. If you want nice photos, take them right away, then move the vase somewhere more sheltered.
When to change the water and clean the vase
Change the water every 2 days. When you do, wash the vase with soapy water, rinse well and trim the stems again. This stops bacteria from shortening your flowers’ life.
If the water turns cloudy in less than 48 hours, the vase had residue from a previous time — clean it with a little white vinegar, rinse thoroughly and start fresh.
A trick not everyone knows
At night, if you have space, you can move the vase to the coolest part of the house — even the hallway, where the heat doesn’t build up. Flowers rest better at lower temperatures. In a Tenerife summer, this small gesture can make a difference of 2-3 extra days of life.
What if the flowers arrive looking tired?
Sometimes, even when everything is done right, a flower arrives slightly dehydrated from transport. Don’t worry — there’s a fix: submerge the entire bouquet (yes, including the flower heads) in a large container of cold water for 20-30 minutes. In most cases the flowers recover on their own.
If they still haven’t recovered after that soak, write to us. We take the quality of every bouquet seriously and want it to arrive in perfect condition.