A Quick Guide to Flower Care

Cut flowers are one of life's great pleasures -- especially the beautiful, artfully arranged bouquets of flowers utilizing exotic species that your florist can make up! It's a pity to waste all that gorgeousness … and there is a lot of confusion out there about the best way to care for flower arrangements.

If you don’t know …

Ask! This is especially true of the expectations you can have of your cut flowers. Your florist will be able to tell you how long a particular arrangement will last looking its best. They can also give you tips on keeping it looking good longer, like taking the earlier-decaying flowers out, pruning off withering leaves and petals, and so on.

Environmental factors

Being in a dry or hot place will mean your flower bouquet doesn't last as long. Keep the flowers as you would food -- away from direct sunlight, in a place that is neither too cool or too warm, and away from dehydrating things like ceiling fans, the tops of radiators and televisions. A humidifier can help your flowers last longer -- but does use electricity!

What to feed them

Flowers can still uptake some nutrients when they are cut, even without a root system. However, some people put all sorts of things in their cut flower vases -- sugar and salt, household fertilizers, and so on. Depending on what you use, this might actually shorten their life. Floral food has nutrients in carefully proportioned amounts, as well as anti-bacterial agents that don’t harm your flowers. Buy floral food from your florist or from a specialty shop for best results and no guessing!

After a few days

• If the water becomes cloudy, replace it entirely
• Recut the stems of the flowers with a very sharp knife or pair of scissors -- blunt scissors will damage the uptake systems
• Take off leaves that will be below the waterline, and remove any leaves that drop into the water; they promote bacterial growth
  

Just for Fun: Hidden Messages in Flowers!

The Victorians imbued a whole variety of flowers with meanings. In an age where parents kept a tight rein on their children's out-of-wedlock affections if they so much as mentioned liking each other, it is understandable that some sort of code evolved! We know that flowers mean whatever you want them to … and that most of their meaning comes from your own preferences. But today, just for fun, we're looking at the meanings of different flowers, according to Victorian thinking. We've grouped the meanings by purpose for handy reference.

General romance

• Baby's breath meant everlasting love.
• Acacia meant secret love
• Ambrosia was supposed to be a symbol of love returned.
• Jonquils meant roughly the same thing -- love returned, or the desire for love to be returned.
• Arbutis was just love … plain, pure and simple!
• Lavender symbolized devotion to your love, while lemon balm was supposed to bring love.
• Moss represented maternal love as well as charity
• Mistletoe is easy to decide -- we use it to mean the same thing today! The sender wants to be kissed :-
• Orchids represent love and beauty, and are a symbol of having many children to the Chinese
• Pansy shows a person that you are in their thoughts - with love.
• Coriander represents lust
• Maidenhair ferns represent the secret bonds of love
• Roses, of course!

Personal qualities

The following flowers are supposed to represent or imbue some sort of personal quality - good for friends and family, and also lovers.

• Bay leaf represented strength
• Angelica provided inspiration
• Bird of paradise represented magnificence - perhaps a good wedding flower!
• Buttercups are cheerful,so are crocuses
• Burnet shows a merry heart
• Magic ferns are supposed to inspire fascination and confidence, and represent shelter
• White roses represent innocence

Coded messages

Every flower has some sort of message to tell, but these are supposed to be more obvious than the others:

• Solid color carnations sent indicates agreement
  
• Striped carnations indicate refusal
• A withered bouquet of flowers was a rather obvious and somewhat cruel way to reject advances! You wouldn't buy your own and let them wither … the flowers would just be sent back

Halloween Flowers!

Halloween is not traditionally a flower giving time … but the time of year is so filled with gorgeous colors, beautiful textures in the form of dried and drying leaves and petals and rich visual inspiration that once you see what online florists create for Halloween, you'll be an instant convert! Check out these awesome online flower bunches for Halloween, available through your Teleflora florist.

There's so much more to the creepy style presentation of this bouquet than the evilly giggling pumpkin box! The tall, straight stems of the bouquet make look like the innards of a stark, ghostly forest, with a thinly threaded orange sheer ribbon completing the spiderweb effect. The colors are traditional Halloween ones, and the flower bouquet is very affordably priced.

The Jack-O-Lantern blooms flower bouquet is stunningly colored -- the black effect comes from sprayed oak leaves and stems. The orange flowers are roses and gerberas, fresh flower favorites and quite long-lived options. The black box and orange satin ribbon make for a rich, spookily colored base! It is around 26" high -- quite imposing and great value.

The Mostly Ghostly flower bouquet uses hanging amaranthus to create a graveyard effect for the sweet white fabric ghost. Red and green flowers capture the colors of the season, while black faux pumpkins create a dark and very unusual background. Rose, Asiatic lilies and chrysanthemums form the body of the flower bouquet. It is 12 inches wide and a big 26 inches high -- very impressive!

Teleflora's Wicked Bouquet is the perfect choice to send to male friends, boyfriends or husbands! Boys are slugs and snails and puppy dog's tails … and the colors and feel of this bouquet seem to bring the spirit of those items to your man, without any actual tails or slugs! Seeded eucalyptus, green carnations and chrysanthemums, black-sprayed magnolia leaves and white hydrangea are what makes a good man's flower bouquet for any Halloween!

After the Flowers Have Gone: How to Make Pot Pourri

Buying fresh flowers is a wonderful luxury, and an affordable way to brighten the days of our loved ones. I'm not sure if you are anything like me, but I always feel a twinge of guilt after the flowers have withered and died and I'm faced with putting a gift from someone I love in the trash! If you feel the same, today we are exploring an alternative to throwing your fresh flowers away and will show you how to make a beautiful pot pourri.

Roses in pot pourri

If you've received a bunch of roses by flower delivery and can’t bear to throw them out, don’t stress. The fresh flowers are highly scented and retain quite a lot of their aroma through the life of the petals. Different colors of roses create different scents:

• Red and pink roses tend to have the standard, sweet scent we know particularly as rose.
• White and yellow roses have a tinge of violet and nasturtium in their perfume.
• Hawaii roses are scented like raspberries.
• Orange roses have citrus and other fruity scents.

Rose pot pourri recipe

Combine your fresh flowers with the following ingredients to keep them for months after they've been delivered.

• 6 cups of rose petals
• 2 cups miniature rosebuds
• 2 cups lavender
• 1 cup rose leaves
• 2 tablespoons of orris root (available from florists) or fiberfix, available from craft shops
• 15 drops rose oil

Once the petals of your fresh flowers look past their best, spread them out on a mesh screen or large tray. Stir them around a little each day.

Put the dried petals in a large bowl, and mix your orris root or fiberfix through. Drop the rose oil in a few drops at a time, mixing with your hands constantly.

Leave your mixture in a roughly sealed paper bag for four to six weeks -- this allows the scent to fully permeate the petals of your once-fresh flowers! Shake it occasionally, and once it is seasoned you can display it in open bowls throughout the house. When the scent fades, you can simply add a little more essential oil. Much easier to revive than fresh flowers … although not quite so pretty.

Seasonal Ideas for DIY Wedding Flowers

If you’d really like to take ownership of your wedding, DIYing your wedding flowers is a lovely way to do it. Arranging flowers is a very relaxing pursuit … sitting along with nature's best, deciding whether to create a speckled design or a graduated one. There aren't many worldly cares that penetrate when you’re arranging flowers! Here we have some great ideas for flower themes for your wedding that you can arrange yourself. Utilize your florist to help you pick the flowers you can put together, and source your flowers through your florist also. This is no time to be skulking around people's front yards! Once you've decided to DIY, here are some gorgeous ideas for buying fresh flowers and putting them together.

1. All the same color

This creates a surprisingly dramatic look. Many people anticipate that it will be boring or somewhat overwhelming… not so! Remember that you have the complimentary colors of napkins, tablecloths and other decorations to help break up any monotony. Keeping your flowers all the one color, but varying the species, is a lovely way to make a statement at your wedding.

2. Match them to the season

That is, match them to the time of year that you’re getting married, not what the designers are doing on the catwalks! You want your wedding to be timeless. Creating a theme for your fresh flowers that is in harmony with nature is a great way to do that. For summer, think about bright, vibrant colors like orange, yellow and red. Spring weddings look lovely with green, yellow and white bouquets, while the winter choice is obvious … white all the way! Fall weddings have so much opportunity for rich colors, even venturing into purples and blues.

3. Long stems

The stem can actually become a large part of your bouquet, not something to be hidden under ribbons or twined around a basket. Many flowers have stems that are green and lush -- and buying from your florist ensures that you'll get the longest, healthiest stems possible!

4. Using Cascades

Check out some of the pictures of bridal bouquets -- there are thousands available on the net! You'll see that many use vines or long, feathery plants as cascades throughout the bouquet. This look is easy to replicate yourself. Make sure you choose a species that matches your mainwedding flowers, and pop it around the edges of the bouquet, rather than in the center.

4 Reasons to Buy Your Man Flowers

Poor guys … I think they often feel that they do a lot of the giving, and not much receiving. I know a lot of women that feel the same way, and coincidentally the two are linked! I'll get into that a little later -- but flowers for men are gaining ground, just as moisturizers for men and facials for men are. They're realizing that the gals have been keeping all these good things to themselves for too long! They're not so used to the concept that they don't need an excuse, though. Here are four great reasons to share the love and buy your man some fresh flowers!

1. His birthday

Sure, he'll probably want something manly, like a football or a racing car for his actual birthday gift. But why not enlist the help of your florist and deliver it along with a bunch of flowers? This can be a great way to ease a guy into the idea of getting flowers as a special sort of thank-you.

2. A pick-me-up at work

Stick to more conservative, manly sorts of flowers for work. You don't want other people's preconceptions to make life hard for him eight hours a day, after all. Your florist can recommend plenty of hardy, masculine plants with flower accents that you can send to help brighten his day at the office.

3. After your honeymoon

Yes, there is a limited window of opportunity for this one! But after a honeymoon is the perfect time to set a gorgeous, fresh flower, gift-giving trend. If you honeymooned in the tropics, choose big, bright luscious flowers. If you had a city honeymoon, choose something a little more trimmed and refined, to bring the spirit of the times back.

4. Whenever you want flowers!

If you've been tapping your mental fingers, counting the days since he last bought you home a beautiful bouquet of roses or had the flower delivery service send you a surprise at work, there is an almost sure-fire way to get yourself in floral heaven again. Buy him some flowers! It's guaranteed to jog his memory. Remember the saying, "What goes around, comes around"? It is never more true than when you're in a romantic relationship with someone and you're busy spreading the fresh-flower love.