Hydrangeas are one of my favorite flowers to display in our home. I recently discovered how to double the life of cut hydrangeas and am beyond thrilled to extend the life of my beloved beauties! (And to make the money I spent on them go a little further!)
I love the simplicity of a few blooms in a fishbowl vase. (And that this pic makes them look like a hydra-heart!
But these intricate beauties always seem to turn into this way too quickly for the money I spent…
And it makes me crazy when some of the blooms die while the others are still kickin’. Especially when the removal of the dead ones will make the living ones look so darn lonely. Argh.
I should add a disclaimer here that the two “dead” blooms pictured above didn’t die under normal circumstances. Ding dong that I am, cut their stems too short so they were dying of thirst. But generally, this is not the case and I get the same result…a partially dead arrangement through no fault of my own.
Anyway, the fix for this is crazy simple. Take those puppies out of the vase and soak them in water.
No joke. It sounded way too easy to me but I had nothing to lose by testing this method. I filled my sink with enough water to cover the blooms. I’ve read mixed reviews on warm vs. cold water but I used cold tap water. I also snipped a teeny bit from the stem to allow it to soak in even more water but that was my own recipe and I have no clue if that had any effect or not. #notabotanist
But look at this craziness!
Turns out, one of my blooms was, in fact, dead. I’m a horrible person, I know. But I’m glad it turned out this way so you can see a direct comparison of dead vs. undead! It takes a few hours for them to reconstitute, so be patient.
Hydrangeas loooove them some water. Who’d a thunk it? Hydra-whaaat????? Seriously. Sometimes I need a good forehead smack.
And if your blooms are really dead, what do you have to lose by soaking them in water as a last ditch effort to save them? You can always soak them in a bucket instead of the sink and use the leftover water to hydrate other greenery around your home. I just don’t happen to have a bucket because I use a steam mop. Trying to be green sometimes bites me in the butt.
Anyway, this is the same arrangement minus one fallen soldier. I can’t tell you how happy it makes my heart to give new life to a supposedly dead flower! I get to adore these lovelies a few more days…or weeks!
This new (to me) method to reconstitute my blueish beauties has me on cloud nine! I only wish this magic worked with my beloved tulips! And if you know of such a trick, hook a sistah up! Seriously!
Kara is a self-proclaimed Martha Stewart wannabe with the taste of an aristocrat and (thankfully) a penchant for bargains. She hopes to inspire you to live life beautifully and affordably while laughing at her expense along the way.
This is really a cool trick. We have hydrangeas growing on our property and I also love to bring them inside, but don’t like to see them die off so quickly.
I wish this worked for all flowers!
Glad I saw this. Sometimes, I have the same problem but since I grow my own, I just go cut more. Won’t do that again until I try your trick.
I wish we could grow them. Just lost another attempt at growing a bush.
For drooping Tulips – try poking a hole in the stem just under the flower head. Air bubbles trapped in the stem keep water from going up to the flower head. The hole allows the air to escape and the water to come up.
Thanks for the tip! I’ve also been told to add vodka to the water, which definitely makes them stand up, but your trick may help prolong their life!
Sometimes, you can stretch the staying power of a tulip by refrigerating arrangement over night. And did you also know that tulips can grow up to an inch after cut, so plan your design accordingly. This is one tried and true tip:)
Interesting! I generally just put them in a fishbowl vase (I’m a little obsessed with them) and let them do their crazy thing but that explains why they get super crazy after a while!
This actually worked!! So many times you see a hint somewhere and try it and it fails but this really worked! My daughter bought a bunch of hydrangeas for me day before yesterday and they had cratered by last night so I trimmed the stems again and soaked them in cold tap water and within an hour all but 1 had revived and that last one was back by morning! Awesome!! Thank you!!
I’m so happy to hear that! I was seriously over the moon with this discovery. Glad you found it useful and props to your daughter for her good taste! 🙂
I also read that if you add alum (spice) to the water it adds time to the life. Cut my own 5 days ago and they still look amazing.
Oh, wow! Will definitely have to try that. Thanks for the tip!
Alum really works, cut steam & dip into alum, they will last weeks. If you leave them they will dry out & you will have the dried blooms for a couple of years, they also keep there colour if you use alum. Ive had some dried blooms for 4 years now.
Thanks for the tip, Carol!
For tulips, add a coper penny to your vase and They will stand up straight for you.