I’m calling bullsh*t on flower food.

Let’s do some flower science.

There’s a lot of things in floristry that are done because they’ve always been done that way. But being told what to do, without a good reason, makes me petulant.

The first flower shop I worked at had a big plastic jug of flower food hooked up to the tap. As a Saturday girl filling plastic vases and buckets was my job. Each time a glob of flower food went into the water it would click loudly. Eventually I knew how long to fill each different vessel depending on how many click, click, clicks. I got told it was ‘good’ for the flowers, so I never really questioned it.

At floristry college we did an experiment. (I should preface this with this: I went to floristry college a very long time ago.) We tried using plain water, lemonade and bleach. I remember the bleach being very effective.

So using a tiny dash of bleach has always been my go to method. Back in my charity marketing era I worked at an organisation that ran a day centre for older clients. I’d been hired to write newsletters, edit the website, manage the social media accounts. Somehow I found myself teaching a group of ladies flower arranging. When I told them I added a tiny dash of bleach to my flowers someone shouted: 

‘You’re off your rocker, dear.’ I really hadn’t anticipated being heckled by an 80 year old.

Although if I’m really, really honest, my go to method is using nothing. Because I’m lazy. So I decided to test out best practices. I did this experiment back in February, mainly for my own benefit, but I’m sharing the ‘results’ with you, because I’d be interested in hearing your experiences.

I used imported flowers for the test. I have less experience working with British grown flowers, so I’ll read up, experiment and chat with those in the know about this. If any flower farmers would like to share their thoughts, I’d love to hear them!

Also, I’m not alone. Whilst scrolling IG the other day I saw that Snapdragon Edinburgh have also ditched flower food. They’ve written a thoughtful blog post about why they’re no longer giving out sachets of flower food to customers.

I did six different tests:

• Bleach

• Commercial flower food

• Homemade flower food

• Plain water (never changed)

• Plain water (changed daily)

• Lemonade

Each test had three different flowers. They were all delivered on the same day. During the test I kept them all in the hallway, at the same temperature and out of direct sunlight. The flowers were:

• Spray rose

• Carnation

• Muscari

I picked these three because I find muscaris have a short vase life, carnations have a a long vase life. I left them for seven days.

The results:

Bleach
Fairly clean water, but perhaps a little worse than the plain water one! Rose feels dehydrated, starting to brown. All stems are fairly okay, but a bit of disintegrating on the muscari.

Commercial flower food
Water is slightly murky, some slime going on, the muscari is definitely disintegrating. Rose is okay, slightly browning. Carnation is definitely drooping a bit. Most bloomed rose, but probably the third worse for browning / dying after homemade and bleach.

Homemade flower food
(Equal parts white vinegar to sugar) By far the worst out of all six. The muscari has nearly entirely melted. The water is cleaner than the commercial flower food though. The rose is brown and crispy, all the buds have wilted. The stem on the rose is also brown. The lower part of the stem on the carnation is turning a gross green / brown colour. Very full and open bloom though. 

Plain water (never changed)
Fairly clean water, no smell. No melting stems, all stems looking green and healthy. Rose and carnation have a good bloom. Muscari has some alive petals left.

Plain water (changed daily)
For full disclosure, I forgot to change the water one day! Carnation bloom isn’t fully open yet. Water spotless, no smell. Rose still looking fresh, slight browning on one petal. The muscari stem is still intact. Probably have the best rose from all of the tests. 

Lemonade
(Not sure if it matters, but it was cheap morrisons lemonade) Slightly cloudy water. Carnation has a strong stem and good bloom. No obvious smell. Muscari flower is very old looking. Rose is slightly browning, but could be a bruise. All stems looking good. Second best rose.

My verdict:

The homemade flower food was an absolute no go! I got the recipe from a very popular lifestyle brand, that lots of people swear by, but it just didn’t work for me. The bleach one kept the water clean, and no bad smells, but the rose and carnation in the plain water (never changed) was probably a little better. I think the commercial flower food was best for getting a really full bloom, but it reduced the overall lifespan of the flowers. So if you’re wanting your flowers to bloom in time for an event that might be a good shout.

Overall, I’m going to stick to just plain water and giving it a regular change of water.

There’s obviously so many factors that play into this, like how clean your vase is, how clean your scissors are, where you keep the flowers in the house. So there’s definitely a lot of trial and error. I’d love to here if you have a method you swear by!

Do you have any other flowery questions? Can Dr Sarah, PhD in flower nonsense, help you?

With love,