Homemade Flower Food Experiment

Many of us enjoy a vase of flowers in the home. You may have treated yourself to a bouquet whilst shopping or have received them as a surprise gift. Wherever they are from you expect to enjoy a beautiful display of flowers for many days.

How you care for your flowers can have an impact on just how long they may last. My recent homework task, for the FlowerStart online flower arranging workshop I am enrolled on has me conducting my own flower experiment.

What to add to the water of your flowers?
Most purchased flowers will come with a special sachet of food for you to add to the water. But you may also have heard many an old wives tale about adding lemonade, or a coin to your water to prolong the life of your flowers.

My experiment? How long will flowers last in water with different types of flower food.

The flowers in water experiment commenced…

Homemade Flower Food Experiment

I took 5 single Zinnia flowers, cut fresh from my garden. I used 5 very clean glass vases / glasses, which contained tap water. I then added different ingredients to each and then added the flower.

1 Tap water + homemade flower food
2 Tap water + lemon juice
3 Tap water + bleach
4 Tap water + sugar + 2p coin
5 Tap water

Six days later I checked on each of the flowers.

1. Home made flower food – the flower with the homemade flower food is dead and you would normally have removed the flower from any display.

2. Lemon juice – the flower is in good condition but the water has gone cloudy has a gloopy mould around the stem of the flower. I have left the flower in the water but if I was not doing this experiment I would change the water but still add lemon juice.

3. Beach – the flower is in very good condition and the water is very clear.

4. Sugar and coin – the flower petals are starting to die, and the water has turned cloudy.

5. Just water – the flower is in good condition but just starting to turn at the edge of the petals.

There is still a few more days to go and I will watch the remaining flowers with interest. At the moment there is not much to choose between flower 3 and 5, that’s bleach + water and plain tap water.

Final Results
After 12 days, it was a close call between the bleach and just the plain water. I think the bleach may just have won this one.
I do plan to try this again using sachet flower food and not my homemade version, just to be sure.

Find Out about the Online FlowerStart Course
It has been an interesting and fascinating course, who would of thought it was possible to complete a flower arranging course online. You can see how my flower arranging has progressed with my previous blog post about my Flower Arrangement in a Teacup, which by the way is super sweet and far more beautiful than I had ever hoped. Yes that is me giving myself a pat on the back!

Do let me know if you have a tip you use for prolonging the life of your vase of flowers.

About Julie Davies

Julie is a trained florist, and also teaches flower arranging workshops in Kent. The use of technology now allows Julie to teach anyone with access to a computer how to arrange flowers. The FlowerStart courses were created especially for those of us whose home or work commitments prevent you from signing up for traditional evening classes.

Enrol in the next course

If you want to enrol and learn how to flower arrange the next 4 week FlowerStart Classes costing £89. Do not worry too much about not having all the kit to take part. Julie also suggests alternative items eg. jam jars that you are sure to have at home.

Disclosure: I received a subscription for the FlowerStart course in exchange for this review.