Give power to your flowers

Tips on how to keep your flowers from wilting.

The perfect bouquet of flowers can lighten up any woman’s day. Flowers do have the ability to make you feel special and just a little more cheerful on a dull day. Research shows that smells and scents can impact almost everything, from dreams and emotions, driving and stress, to pain, concentration, memory and romance. While a whiff of lavender releases feel-good hormones and makes us happier, the scent of roses lowers blood pressure and a hint of eucalyptus improves alertness. So here are a few tips on how to keep those buds blossoming for a happier you.

Imported flowers available in the market are twice the price of your regular roses and are known to last and stay in bloom for at least 10 days. However, the downside is, these pretty ones have no smell if any, because of being chemically treated to look nicer for longer.

According to the Reader’s Digest, there are a few simple ways to preserve the freshness and aroma of your flowers.

Bleach

Freshly cut flowers will stay fresh longer if you add a quarter teaspoon of bleach into a vase of water. Another popular recipe calls for three drops bleach and one teaspoon sugar in one vase of water. This will also keep the water from getting cloudy and inhibit the growth of bacteria.

Coins

Your posies and other cut flowers will stay fresh longer if you add a copper penny and a cube of sugar to the vase water.

Hair spray

Just as it preserves your hairstyle, a bit of hair spray can preserve your cut flowers. Stand a foot away from the bouquet and give them a quick spray, just on the undersides of the leaves and petals.

Aspirin

It’s a tried and tested way to keep roses and other cut flowers fresh longer: put a crushed aspirin in the water before adding your flowers. Don’t forget to change the water every few days, as it tends to develop a bad smell over time.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 13^th, 2013.            

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