How to preserve flowers is an important question and one you think of whenever you receive a gorgeous bunch of florals or cut some from you garden. They are often connected to memories you don’t want to forget. Here is a recipe for preserving your beautiful flower arrangements by Gregory Milner.
Did you receive a flower or bouquet for your birthday? Perhaps you’ve had the happy occasion of getting married and want to preserve your wedding bouquet; or, maybe, you simply have lots of roses in your garden, and would like to prevent them from drying up and withering away when the winter season comes.
You can make up your own preservative or use a commercial one. For home-made preservative, cane sugar (sucrose) is most suited to cut flowers and should be used together with vinegar or citric acid and bleach or swimming pool chlorine.
There are many commercial brands of preservative (known as Bactericides) in sachet, granular or iquid form. These are graded in quality and can be purchased in commercial as well as domestic quantities. Obviously it’s best to go for the highest quality that you can afford – you will find White King bleach used on its own to be far more effective than a no-name brand.
Some of the more popular quality brands include Chrysal, Floral Life and Florish. There are also preservatives that are structured to specific flowers, such as bulb flowers, Narcissus specialty, Lilium and Alstroemeria specialty, Syringa, Mimisa, Chrysanthemeum, Tulip, Bouvardia and Rose.
These types of preservatives are mainly available in sachet form. When using preservative, always use the correct amount for the container size and water volume. Check the instructions on the packet.
If Lily-of-the-Valley wilts it can be quickly revived by placing it on ice.
Preservative recipe
Here is an easy recipe to make your own preservative:
5ml (1 teaspoon) of citric acid or vinegar
4g (3/4 teaspoon) of slow release chlorine
(from florists’ suppliers or pool shops)
5g (1 teaspoon) of sugar
5 litres of water
Mix all the ingredients together and use it as your vase water (do not add to existing vase water).
Using a conditioning solution
If flowers have been out of water for a while, it’s a good idea to stand them in a conditioning solution before you recut the stems and put them into a vase.
Conditioning solution recipe
Here is an easy recipe to make your own conditioning solution:
1.25 ml (1/4 teaspoon) of citric acid or white vinegar
1/4 capful of bleach
5 litres of warm water
Loved reading this? – WIN: The beautiful book “Flowers” by Gregory Milner
Flowers is available at all good bookstores (RRP $39.99) and online at Booktopia www.booktopia.com.au
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