I love love LOVE having fresh flowers around! Flowers at home (especially if they are from jeff) are one of my favorite things. They totally cheer up a room! Last week, I picked up a bunch of fresh cut hydrangeas. The very next day, they looked like this:
So sad and totally not cheery at all!
Hydrangeas drink up a lot of water and wilt easily. I read that this is because of a sticky substance that clogs the stems, preventing moisture from reaching the blooms. I asked my florist friend how to prolong the life of my hydrangeas and he gave me these tips:
Hydrangea has woody stems so its water absorption is poor compared to other fresh flowers. To help it get as much water as it can, cut a long diagonal piece off the bottom of the stem, exposing the white pithy part:
Cut off all extra leaves because hydrangea leaves take in a lot of water:
Fill a large bucket with ice cold water and submerge the entire stem and bloom in the water for 4-6 hours, or better yet, overnight:
In just a few hours, the blooms will start to perk up:
Remove from water and shake off all excess water, arrange in a vase:
Other tips:
- Re-cut the hydrangea’s stem every 1-2 days to ensure that the bottom of the stem is not blocked
- Check and change the water in the vase daily
- Never to expose them under direct sunlight and avoid blowing them directly with a fan
A properly cared for hydrangea can last for 7-10 days! I made mine last over a week with this trick!
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great tip Ilene!!
That’s a great tip there!! I soooo want some hydrangea bushes. I just love them! (Nice photos too! ; )
Great Tips. I hadn’t realized that fresh cut Hydrangeas needed so much care.
Sure Fit Slipcovers
excellent farmville tip! i don’t ever cut my hydrangeas, i leave them in the ground in RLFV, but if i ever do, thanks for the tip.
actually, Ilene, it’s even easier and quicker than this!!! AND they will last even longer! here is what you do (I got this tip from the very elderly owner of Wollam Gardens in VA….he provides flowers to local whole foods markets in addition to selling them from his farm)
all you do is fill a vase with some flower food and HOT water (and I mean HOT….as hot as you can get it out of the tap). trim the stems (according to him, not neccesary to trim at an angle, but it can’t hurt), and put them in the vase. VOILA!! repeat this every couple of days, and your hydrangeas will last OVER TWO WEEKS, i swear. I have had some last up to 3 weeks! it’s hands down the best tip I have ever gotten. This will also revive wilted stems like the one you picture, usually within an hour or two. you should absolutely try this method – i promise it works like a charm.
FYI, apparently this works with ANY woody stemmed flower (i.e. dahlias), and the hot water doesn’t harm other flowers either (so, for instance, if you have a mixed bouquet with woody-stemmed varietals, go ahead and do this for the whole bunch).
wow, thanks for the tip, Linda! I will definitely have to try this!
Great advise !! One of my hydrangeas wilted. I was going to remove it from the vase. I’m embarrassed to say I didn’t notice the stem was shorter than the others. The water line dropped below the stem and so was starving for water.. My fiancee’s mother loves flowers. Many months ago she said if their is a little life in a flower you keep it alive if possible. I didn’t know anything about hydrangeas but was very inspired by her love for flowers. So this is what I did. In a totally wilted shrunken state I took the hydrangea out re-cut it and made a small hole into the stem. I put it back with the rest and voila in two days again the hydrangea was in full beautiful bloom. My hydrangeas are two weeks old and in perfect bloom. Love is our best teacher and I’m inspired about the care of not only the hydrangea but all flowers.
This tip absolutely SAVED the day for some hydrangeas I bought for my sisters baby shower. After 9/10 of my clippings wilted the day before the event, I tried the hot water option for one of them and it didn’t work at all. The poor things were looking really sad and I was quickly losing hope. My stems were really long to begin with and had many leaves. I cut off about 8″ of stem and got rid of all of the leaves. Within 2 hours in the ice bath ALL of them began to perk up. THANK YOU for the great tip on this very beautiful water-guzzling flower…maybe that’s why “hydra” is in the name.
I plan to use hydrangeas in my wedding center pieces I got 3 stems to play around with… Within 6 hours of me trimming them they were all wilted. I tried this technique on 2 blooms over night and it worked really well. Thank you for sharing!
I also tried a second technique with the third bloom where I put the stem through a paper towel and submerged the stem only in a heat resistant cup of hot water, almost boiling. The paper towel protects the bloom from steam. I left it in the cup over night as well. And in the morning the bloom was just as perfect as when I got it from the florist.
They were all really badly wilted when I noticed the issue. I am very pleased with the results of both techniques. I intend to keep an eye on both versions to see how they fare. Thanks again!