The Right Care for Roses

If you receive your beautiful bouquet of roses outside it is important to wrap the roses in the paper again. This will protect the flowers and create a small barrier from drying out in the short term. When doing this, make sure that the stems are outside the paper and that there are no leaves or thorns underneath the binding.

When you are at home, put out a vase and unwrap your roses from the paper.
Now remove the bracts from each flower head. These are typically a little darker than the inner petals and can even look a little wilted.

Sometimes the florist will already remove these bracts. If the outermost petals look fresh, do not remove them.

Shorten each rose with a sharp knife. How much you shorten is entirely up to you and can be adjusted according to the height of the vase. What is important, however, is to cut the rose stems diagonally. This increases the surface area with which the flower can absorb water. The cut surface should be about 2 cm long. Because: the more water the roses can absorb, the longer they will stay fresh.

Fill a clean vase with lukewarm water. Add the sweet packet of flower food that came with your roses to the vase. Place the roses in the water immediately so that the stems do not have time to absorb air. This is because air in the stem causes the roses to "nod". When air gets into the stems, the air bubble rises and when it reaches the flower head, the stem softens and the rose hangs its head.

Change the water about every two days, but at the latest when it becomes cloudy. If you want to enjoy your roses for extra long, you can also re-cut the stems every time you change the water.
You can also add fresh flower food to the water every now and then. If you have only received one sachet, don't worry. Flower food usually contains sugar and a germ-inhibiting substance. You can easily conjure up this effect yourself with apple cider vinegar and sugar. Add about 2 tablespoons of vinegar and the same amount of sugar to the vase and voilà. Also, always remove petals that fall into the vase water. These rot and raise the pH of the water, which counteracts the freshness of the rose bouquet.

Keeping roses alive is all about counteracting the naturally occurring rotting of the flowers.
That's why you change the vase water so often and why flower food also contains germicidal substances. Alternatively, you can add a splash of vodka to the water. This inhibits the proliferation of rotting bacteria and makes the bouquet fresh again - even if it is already a bit lame!

Even aspirin helps the rose bouquet! The acetylsalicylic acid contained in it not only drives away headaches in us humans, it also has an immune-boosting effect on flowers. It also lowers the pH value of the vase water, which in turn has a germ-inhibiting effect.

1. Remove the bracts from the rose.
2. Cut the stems diagonally.
3. Fill the vase with lukewarm water.
4. Put the roses in the water immediately.
5. Change the vase water every 2 days.
6. Re-cut the stems.

Enjoy your roses!