For those who read my blog regularly you know that I am a huge advocate for flowers. They are a great addition to any space and instantly uplift your mood, that is why every luxury hotel in America adorns their lobbies with beautiful and aromatic arrangements. Flowers are perfect for entertaining, sprucing up your kitchen, and bringing a little magic to your nightstand. There is nothing better than to wake up to flowers!

Flowers are easy to find, and you don’t need anything exotic to feel their effects. Just a few arrangements around the house or office will instantly boost the energy. Plus, flowers are incredibly easy to arrange, they just need a little prep work to keep them lasting as long as they do from the florist.

5 must have tips to get the best floral arrangement:

In order to get the best results from your flowers you will need to prepare them properly. It does not take a lot of time and it is all very easy. Skip these steps and your flowers could die with in 3-5 days, so instead of throwing your investment down the drain, take 15 minutes to prep them properly and it will help prolong the life of your flowers to two weeks.

1) Buy your flowers from an actual florist, flower mart or floral supply house.

Here locally, I use Smith and Rogers. Every major city has a floral district, or warehouse supply shop. The quality of floral they sell is fresher, and first grade as opposed to the second grade lower quality sold at places like grocery stores or Costco. Now, there is nothing wrong with buying florals from the grocery store, I do it all the time, however the florals are typically close to a week old before they get to the consumer. Floral marts typically have flowers that are only 1-3 days old so this helps them last longer.

Something that I did not know is you can also buy from flower farms! I just received a note from Paula Carli, from Windmill Farm out of California, who is a flower farmer. And she says:

“A great place to look into is, Field To Vase. They are an organizattion of flower farmers from around the US. I just saw a few flower farms in in your area so thought I would just give them to you to try out if you haven’t already. The Farmer’s Florist in Nashville; Humble Flowers; Tallahassee Creek Farm; and Emily Daniel-Flower Farmer of basilandbergamat.com. Also check out localharvest.org.” Paula Carli

• You can find out more about Paula and her farm here.

2) Remove the leaves with shears or scissors.

Leaves contain dirt and bacteria and this will effect the life of the flower significantly and turn the water to a filmy haze.

3) Pluck the buds.

This is a great floral tip that most people don’t know. Bulk roses, peonies, even tulips from a flower supply house are a better quality and often have tight center buds…something inexpensive grocery store buds don’t usually have. Pluck the outer, damaged leaves from the buds to reveal tight, sumptuous flowers, perfect for your arrangements. Set the loose petals aside for potpourri or a fun night of romance!

4) Settle the water.

Don’t ever fill up a vase and plop your flowers into the vase right away. Instead, fill up the vase and let the water “settle” for at least an hour. Water can contain a lot of minerals, and have an incorrect temperature which can shock the flower. Settling allows the water to acclimate to room temperature and allows the minerals to settle down so your flowers don’t get shocked.

5) Change the water.

Many people don’t like to fuss with this, but if you change the water every three to four days it will prolong the life of your flowers. Think of a glass of water sitting around the house for four days…would you drink out of it? If you are adamant about not changing the water fill a thimble or something similar with vodka and throw it into a gallon of water. This will help keep the bacteria down, but depending on how delicate the flower is, the alcohol may shock it.