Care guides

How to keep cut flowers
alive for two weeks

The same routine we run in the studio coolroom, minus the coolroom. Ten minutes of care doubles most bunches' vase life, and none of it is complicated.

28 October 2026 6 min read By Mia Callaghan

Fresh bouquet in a clean glass vase on a kitchen bench

Start with a clean vase

Bacteria is what kills cut flowers, not age. A vase that 'looks clean' but held flowers last month is a petri dish. Wash it with hot soapy water and a splash of bleach, rinse properly, then fill it. This one step adds days.

Use lukewarm water for most flowers. Natives and woody stems like it warm; bulbs and tulips prefer it cold. Fill the vase two-thirds, never to the brim.

Hot soapy wash, rinse well
Lukewarm water for most, cold for tulips and bulbs
Two-thirds full, not brimmed

The 45-degree rule

Recut every stem at a 45-degree angle before it touches water, and again every two to three days. The angle stops the stem sitting flat on the vase floor and gives it more surface to drink through. Use sharp scissors or a knife, not kitchen shears that crush the stem.

Strip every leaf that would sit below the waterline. Leaves underwater rot fast, and that rot is what turns water cloudy and kills the bunch early.

Cloudy water is a crime scene. Change it and most 'dead' bunches come back to life.

Feed them properly

The little sachet that comes with your bunch isn't optional. It's sugar for energy, acid to keep water at the right pH, and a bactericide. Use it all on the first fill.

Run out of sachet? A teaspoon of sugar plus a few drops of bleach per litre does most of the job. The lemonade trick works too, but skip the 'penny in the vase' folklore, modern coins aren't copper enough to matter.

Change the water, don't top it

Topping up old water is like adding clean water to a dirty bath. Empty it, quick-rinse the vase, recut the stems, refill fresh. Two minutes, every second or third day.

Hands recutting a flower stem at an angle

45 degrees, sharp blade, every few days

Vase of flowers away from a sunny window

Indirect light beats a sunny sill every time

Where the vase sits

Placement matters more than any product. Keep the vase away from direct sun, heaters, air-con vents, and the fruit bowl. Ripening fruit releases ethylene gas that ages flowers overnight, bananas are the worst offenders.

A cool room with indirect light is the sweet spot. Move it to the coolest room overnight if you want to stretch it further; even a few degrees cooler slows everything down.

Follow this and most of our bunches hit 10 to 14 days. If yours dies inside 48 hours of doing it right, that's on us, see the freshness guarantee.

Want this handled for you? Our flower subscription sends a fresh bunch before the old one fades, with a care card naming every variety.