Flowers add freshness to any room and I'm rarely without an arrangement or two in my home. I purchase seasonal flowers from my local grocery which happens to have a large selection of premade bouquets and a 3for$10 mix and match section. By now, I have learned which varieties fade quickly and which will outlast all the others. Hmmm....I'm having a spark of the mind for a future posts about long lasting flower varieties. Stay tuned!
In today's blog post I'm breaking down how I revive and give new life to my store bought flower arrangement. While I have no problem buying fresh flowers each week, I do hate to throw out any flower that has life left even if others around it have wilted. Here is a picture of a fall arrangement I have been displaying on my mantle before I gave it new life. For reference this arrangement was made using two large store bought bouquets.
You don't need a magnifying glass to see some of these flowers are days past their prime, however, there are just as many that will continue to thrive with a quick trim and drink of fresh water. Where another may toss the entire thing out to start fresh, I chose to revive my arrangements. Not wasting any flowers or money in the process. Something my husband is thankful for. It's a perpetual cycle of sorts.
I begin by removing the vase from my mantle and placing it on my kitchen counter. From the counter I get a better view of what stems need to be removed and a easy to clean work space. This is important because I am a messy home florist.
Once I have removed and discarded the wilted stems, I remove the remaining flowers and thoroughly wash my vase. I dry it well with a kitchen towel and fill it with a little bit cooler than room temperature water, adding half of a flower food packet that came with the stems. Using the white sugar-like granules has many divided so if you are aghast at the thought of using the store bought flower food packet, don't come for me. You are after all on At Home With Grace. I promise not to judge how you arrange flowers in your home. I would add a wink emoji here but I have yet to figure out how to do that.
Before I go on, can we have a moment of silence for this stunning Simon Pearce Nantucket Hurricane I am currently using as a vase... My gosh it is a thing of beauty. I have a pair of Nantucket Hurricanes which were given to me by one of my husband's uncles several years ago and I treasure them. Thank you again, Richard! If I'm able, I will include a link below. I dream of having a collection of Simon Pearce glassworks. Ok, enough daydreaming about glass.
Back to the flowers. One by one I snip the water logged end off each stem on a slant and remove any leaves that have turned to mush before adding back into the prepared vase. I repeat this process with the flowers I have purchased to fill in the vase only instead of trimming the water logged end I trim to the height needed to arrange them. On this day, I used one small pre-arranged bouquet and 1 group of stems from the 3for$10 section I told you about. My apologies for not taking a picture of the new flowers, I got happily caught up in the process and forgot.
The end result is a bright and fresh arrangement I'm proud to display again. Week after week - season and after season I use this practice to revive my arrangements. It's fair to say I have kept stems a month or longer. Especially stems of greenery.
I hope you find this blog post usefully in your own flower arranging. If you do, I'd love to hear from you! Until next time....
Xoxo, Grace
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