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I used to think flower food packets were a gimmick until the wedding bouquet disaster | Florists - Vivisector

I used to think flower food packets were a gimmick until the wedding bouquet disaster

I used to toss those little flower food packets in the trash. Always figured fresh cuts and clean water did the job. Then two months ago I did a big order for a bride in Austin and her bouquets started drooping by the next morning. I was mortified. A florist at the local wholesale spot told me to actually use the packets for delivery bunches. Tried it on my next batch of mixed stems and they held up three extra days. It's just sugar, citric acid, and bleach which keeps bacteria down. Now I mix my own in bulk for big orders. Anyone else skip flower food and regret it later?

4 comments

4 Comments

murray.robert5mo ago

Three days extra from just adding sugar and bleach?

danielm805mo ago

Hell yeah man, I tried that same trick on some old tomatoes I had... got almost a full week extra out of them before they went mushy. A little sugar and a splash of bleach works wonders for keeping cut flowers alive way past their prime too. It sounds crazy but it really does stretch things out a few more days.

lily_cooper5mo ago

Wait, you actually tried the sugar/bleach trick on tomatoes? That's wild but honestly kind of impressive. Yeah, the science is pretty simple - the sugar feeds them, the bleach kills the gunk that clogs them up. I learned that from the same guy at the wholesale shop, he showed me how the bacteria basically suffocates the stems overnight if you don't treat the water. Now I do a quarter teaspoon of bleach and a teaspoon of sugar per quart of water for my arrangements, and it's night and day difference. The citric acid in those packets just helps lower the pH too, which makes the stems drink better.

paige_robinson245mo ago

My buddy tried it with her grocery store roses and they lasted a whole week longer.