What to do with your St. Valentines’s flowers…

It’s such a pleasure to receive a big bouquet of flowers on Valentine’s Day; it shows you how much someone is thinking of you on this special day of love and friendship.
Of course, you want to keep the flowers looking radiant in a vase for as long as possible and to do so, you only need to follow a few, easy tips.

When you receive a bouquet, trim the stems at a slanted edge to increase the water intake surface area and remove any foliage which would otherwise be under the water. Avoid placing the flowers in direct sunlight and change the water everyday; you can also re-trim the stems.

If the flowers start to wither prematurely, fill the vase with hot water, put the flowers in and place them in a dark place. When the water has cooled, take the flowers out and change the water for cold water. Old wives’ tales do work too! Such as adding aspirin to the water to help flowers last longer…

But beyond any secret tips and advice will come the time to say goodbye to your beloved bouquet… not necessarily though. There are good ways of keeping a physical souvenir of your flowers, past the emotional attachment.

You can make rose water for example by submerging rose petals in boiling water. You can also dry petals or whole buds to make flower sachets which can be placed in baskets or hung in wardrobes and which will fill your home with their exquisite scent.
If you are an arty person, you can make a picture frame using dried petals and leaves, even make soaps or try the old favourite of placing flowers between the pages of a large, heavy book. Pressed flowers are very pretty and can be used for decorative purposes.

Without doubt, these are all good ideas for making this Valentine’s Day a long lasting memory, a way of keeping a physical souvenir of this special day.