![]() ![]() "When you're purchasing flowers, you're really purchasing them for the bloom, like that's where your money is going," Sandonato said. Stevens said it's especially important to remove any leaves that would sit below the water line, since those can feed bacteria and cause the flowers to wilt. Once the flowers make it home with you, it’s time to “condition” them by stripping extra foliage and trimming the stems. "If it squishes, it's very old, like you might have two to three days max." TLC at home "If you do a light squeeze and it just feels firm, that's a nice fresh rose," said Sandonato, who has been working with flowers for 24 years. Aside from picking bouquets whose blooms aren’t fully open, she suggests checking roses by gently squeezing the bottom of one flower’s head before purchasing them. Tara Sandonato, the operations director and lead designer at FlowerSchool Los Angeles, picks up flowers every morning at the Original Los Angeles Flower Market, which receives new shipments daily (except Sundays, when it's closed). (If you’re looking for a farmers market in L.A., we have a database here.) Stevens instead urges people to buy flowers from local farmers. "Just from a scientific, botanical perspective, there's no way that a plant can lose that much of its turgidity - the positive water pressure that keeps its stem rigid,” she explains. However, they won't bounce back 100%, she said. And then you put them in water, and they perk back up again." “And when you get them out, they're just sad, and they're all droopy. "You can leave them for weeks,” Stevens said. Joan Stevens, the flower farmer behind Mamabotanica Blooms in Pasadena, is wary of grocery store bouquets because of how long the flowers may have spent in transit or refrigeration. Trader Joe’s notably gets new flower shipments every day of the week, but many big-box supermarkets get flowers delivered only on certain days, meaning they can be past their prime before you even bring them home. But there are still some things to consider around buying, displaying and tending to your new bouquets to help the blooms last. ![]() The short answer is that for most flowers, you really just need fresh water in a clean vase. With dozens of different suggestions coming from all angles, you may be wondering what’s actually necessary to keep your flowers looking strong and fresh? One florist suggests throw ing out the flower food that comes with store-bought flowers, and opting instead for a few inches of water and a few drops of vinegar. ![]() Others endorse " forbidden lemonade " - a mixture of water, sugar, lemon juice and bleach that has been claimed to keep bouquets happy for two weeks. Some people swear by placing an ice cube, a shot of vodka and a penny dated before 1980 into their tulips' water. Now with spring in full force and Mother's Day around the corner, TikTok is flooded with videos from florists and flower lovers suggesting different ways to keep bouquets healthy for as long as possible. The debate over how to take care of flowers probably began as soon as humans started cutting them and displaying them in vessels - enthusiasts have been encouraging people to stick a pin in each tulip stem or throw an aspirin into their vases for years. A previous version of this post included a quote from FlowerSchool’s Tara Sandonato saying the market’s flowers are freshest Mondays and Wednesdays. May 5, 2023: The Original Los Angeles Flower Market receives fresh flowers every day that it is open. ![]()
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