Flower School: How to Get The Best From Your Blooms with Campbells Flowers

Flowers we all love them right? what’s not to love? Fresh flowers brighten up any house, the gorgeous scent, the beautiful colours, flowers really can cheer a room up! However if you’re anything like me they never last as long a you want them to! Well today Tracey from Campbells Flowers is here to tell us how to get the most from our flowers and how to make them last longer. Tracey is a good friend of mine and a wonderful florist, she creates some amazing arrangements for weddings an is an expert in he field, so I am delighted to have he here on the blog today offering her advice!

I’ll pass the blog over to Tracey……..

My heartfelt thanks to Kelly for getting in touch recently and giving us the opportunity to talk flowers with all you lovely Boho brides and grooms out there.  Here at Campbell’s HQ we’ve had the most incredible wedding season, working with some really wonderfully creative brides designing abundant, ‘just-picked’ prettiness, using the most amount of locally grown blooms ever.  Many of you worry that meadowy, romantic, seasonal blooms don’t last as long as the more traditional flowers you might find in an average flower shop, but this needn’t be the case, if you know how to look after them properly.

So we’ve put together a list of handy hints and tips of how to get the best from your beautiful blooms, whether it’s your special wedding day bridal bouquet or if you’ve been lucky enough to receive a gorgeous hand tied thank you or anniversary bouquet.

Re Cut The Stems

If there’s one golden rule about looking after flowers, it’s always, always re-cut the stems before you pop them into water.  Without going all technical on you, the fact is that once out of water, flower stems start closing up which restricts their absorption of water.  Re-cutting the stems opens all their little cell up to having a good drink – the key to a happy long life methinks!

Clean water, clean vases 

Flowers are a bit like people really, they don’t like dirty water or dirty vases so it’s best to make sure your vases are spotlessly clean and that you change the water every day or two to minimise bacteria.

Fruit and Flowers don’t go 

It’s not a good idea to put your lovely blooms next to your fruit bowl as fruit gives off ethylene gas (used to artificially ripen tomatoes) which will mature your flowers faster than you’d like.

Feed me, feed me 

If you’re given one of those little magic sachets of flower food, then do use them. They contain a heady cocktail of all the nutrients flowers need to keep them going for as long as possible.  However, not all flowers respond well to flower food, a good florist will let you know which flowers do and don’t like food but a general rule of thumb is don’t feed cut bulbs as you pretty much only need to show them light and water for them to do their thing!  Tulips, daffs and iris will all bolt like mad if you feed them flower food and you’ll only have them for a day or so which makes me sad.

I’m best undressed! 

Always remember to unwrap your flowers, especially if you receive them aqua-packed (in a bubble of water) as the packaging is there to look lovely and enhance your flowers. Be sure to take them out of the bubble of water too as this is just meant to keep them fresh for a day or so or while they make their way to you – it’s not meant as a substitute vase!

• There’s lots more very specific advice about how to care for different blooms but if you follow these few simple guidelines then you should find that your flowers look lovely for longer – which can only be for the best.

• I do hope you’ve found this post helpful, if you have any questions or want some specific advice about an experience you’ve had, then do leave a comment at the bottom of this post and Kelly and I will be sure to get back to you as soon as poss.

For more information on Tracey’s work go to

www.campbellsflowers.co.uk
www.campbellsflowers.blogspot.co.uk
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• All Photos by Jess Petrie