For preserving flowers

Flowers of any kind are a beauty to behold and bring in a breath of fresh air. A bouquet of flowers blend in beautifully indoors, but how do you make them last longer than just a few days? Saad Molheim, owner of Saad Flowers at Dune Centre, Al Dhiyafa Road, Dubai, gives us a few tips:

Do’s

• Cut the edges of the stem diagonally and put in a vase with water. Change water every two to three days. Although each flower is unique and calls for a different treatment, generally this applies to all flower species. Lilies will last for 10 to 15 days and chrysanthemums and carnations up to a month with this method.
• Add a capful of a small sized Clorox bottle to a litre of water for your bouquet. This will double the lifespan of the flowers.
• Add a few teaspoons of sugar to the water if you don’t have Clorox. This will not improve the lifespan of your flowers, however, it will strengthen the stems.
• Wrap your roses in a newspaper every night. Roses usually last for three to four days, but wrapping them in a newspaper will increase their lifespan by six days.

Don’ts

• Add salt to the water. It is a great misconception that salt prolongs the life of flowers. On the contrary, it kills them.
• Give up on your roses when you see the heads beginning to wilt. Take them out of the water, cut the stem edges diagonally and place them in lukewarm water for a minute. Then put them in fresh cold water. The heads begin to wilt when the stem no longer absorbs enough water. Putting them in warm water ‘opens up’ the veins and water begins to circulate to all parts of the flower.