Remove all of the leaves which will be under the water while in the vase. Leaves that are submerged will rot, thus creating bacteria and shortening the life span of your flowers.

Always add the cut flower food supplied to you by your floral provider, to the water in the vase. Change the water and flower food every three to four days.

Our grower fresh flowers are shipped when they are in bud or half open, which is the recommended state to pick flowers. You will then have the pleasure of seeing them slowly open up, this also increases the life span of your flowers.

Never place your floral arrangements in full sun or over a radiator. This will cause excess water loss from the flowers, and they will wilt very quickly. For a maximum life span the best place for your flowers is in a cool room.

Use a container that is in proportion to the amount of flowers you have. Too small of a container for the flowers will not hold enough water, and they may dry out before you realize it.

Once or twice a day lightly spray your finished arrangement with clear water to create a humid atmosphere around the flowers.

Arranging Fresh Flowers
Think about the size of the space in which your arrangement will be placed, and choose the size of you container and flowers accordingly. A big vase and lots of flowers will look overcrowded on a small side table. A small vase and few flowers would look lost in a larger display area.

When using open flowers, such as roses, daffodils or gerbera daisies, try to turn some of them at different angles to show different shape. Try not to arrange your flowers all facing in the same direction if the arrangement can be viewed from various angles.

Try to allow some space between the flowers to prevent a crowded effect.

Make sure that your vase is leak proof and that it has a neck which is big enough for the flowers to fit comfortably.

If the flowers sometimes don't stand up straight it could be that your vase is too short for the flowers, or that the flowers are too tall for the vase. A good way to check if the vase you would like to use is of an appropriate height, is too see if the vase is at least half as tall as the flowers.

If you cut your flowers too short, don't think that it is all for loss! Either put pebbles or marbles at the bottom of your vase for shorter flowers to stand on. You could also simply cut the head off of the flower and float it in a decorative dish, along with candles.

You can use filler flowers in a sparse looking arrangement to give it a much fuller appearance. Some good examples of filler flowers include, feverfew, ferns, Queen Anne's lace, baby's breath, heather, statice, and aster.

To give your arrangement more dimension cut the flowers at various lengths. Place the longest stems in the center of your bouquet.

How To Care for Your Flowers
The sooner that you put your flowers into water, the longer they will last.

The flowers should be re-cut at the stems while submerged in water. This is important for hollow-stemmed flowers so it will prevent an airlock from forming in the stem which may prevent the flowers from taking water.

The stems should be cut on an angle, which will create a wider exposed area and allow the flowers to take the maximum amount of water.

Flowers will last longer if the plant food is added to the water. An example to an alternative to plant food would be sugar.