Make your fresh cut flowers last longer in Hong Kong

Prolonging the life of fresh flowers:

I tend to find that its harder to keep cut flower arrangements for more than a few days in Hong Kong. The high humidity here causes mold to develop onto the stems within days if you just put the flowers in plain water. I have found that using a bit of bleach and sugar in the vase water can exend the life of the arrangement by over a week.

Below are tips from this useful site:

http://www.mastergardeners.org/picks/extendlife.html

I tend to go for number 3 with the sugar and bleach but havent tried this with lemon juice yet.


Flowers are living things, and like us they need food for proper growth and healthy color. Amazingly, you can provide much of what a cut flower needs with one of the following simple vase solutions. They contain acid to improve water flow in flower stems, sugar to help buds open and last longer, and a preservative to reduce growth of bacteria and fungi.

(1) Mix one part of any of the common lemon-lime sodas with three parts of water. Do not use diet drinks or colas. Diet drinks have no sugar and the colas contain too much acid for flowers. Adding 1/4 teaspoon of household bleach (Chlorox or similar) per quart will keep the solution clear.

(2) Put 2 tablespoons of lemon juice or bottled "Real Lemon," 1 tablespoon of sugar, and 1/4 teaspoon of bleach in a quart of warm water. Add another 1/4 teaspoon of bleach to the vase every 4 days.

(3) Use a commercial flower preservative. These are sold in florist shops and supermarkets but may not be as effective as the above recipes for improving flower vase life. However, they are inexpensive and very convenient to use; simply follow the directions on the packet.