Have you been lucky and received a delivery of beautiful bouquet of seasonal blooms from The Flower Shop Southampton? Or perhaps you have ordered some fresh flowers from your local florist to brighten up your home during lockdown? We hope you love your flowers, and to help you care for them our expert team wanted to share some easy steps to ensure your flowers look stunning for longer.

HOW TO LOOK AFTER YOUR CUT FLOWERS

Step 1 – Unwrap your gift

As soon as your flowers are safely delivered to your doorstep (The Flower Shop Southampton are offering contactless flower delivery in and around Southampton during COVID-19), carefully remove any packaging, string and protective wrapping. Wherever possible please recycle any of the packaging.

Keep your eyes open for the hand-written card with a personal message from the sender nestled in your bouquet!

 

Step 2 – Home sweet home

Next step is to find the perfect home for your flowers. A glass vase, china jug or container is ideal for displaying flowers in.

• Find a good size vase or container for your flowers – it needs to be a good height and depth to support the stems.
• Give the vase a quick rinse with soapy warm water to remove any bacteria.
• Fill the vase half full of room temperature water.
• Add the flower food provided by The Flower Shop Southampton to the water.

 

Step 3 -  Snip, snip, snip

Using a pair of sharp scissors, carefully cut 2-3cm from the bottom of each stem. Gently remove any leaves or foliage on the stem that will fall below the water line, this helps stop bacteria forming.

Top tip - make the cut at a 45 degree angle as this gives the stem more surface area to absorb water.

Some flowers (Roses in particular ) may have guard petals when we deliver them. The guard petals are left on to protect the delicate petals during the journey, and may look a little unattractive! You can gently peel the guard petals off when you are arranging the flowers in the vase.

 

Step 4 – Proudly display

Now is the artistic part! Arrange the flowers in your vase, placing stem by stem to build up your design. Once ready, find the perfect spot at home to display your magnificent new flowers!

We recommend:

• Find a sunny spot but away from direct sunlight
• Protected from chilly drafts
• Avoid placing next to strong heat sources like radiators, cookers or log burners.

 

Step 5 – A little love

To help your flowers looking beautiful for as long as possible, they just need a little maintenance. Every couple of days check the water level and top up if required, if the water starts to look cloudy change the water for fresh water and remove any wilting leaves or flower heads.

 

The Flower Shop Southampton

Our 3 branches of The Flower Shop Southampton are currently closed to the public due to COVID-19, but our team are safely working behind the scenes so we can continue to deliver contactless flowers and gifts to our loyal customers in the local area. You can give our team a call to order over the phone or easily order flowers online for delivery.

We look forward to opening our doors again soon – we will keep you updated!