CUT 'EM
When flowers are cut, the stems dry out and it makes it difficult for them to take up the water they need. To fix this, you need to cut off the tips of the flower stems when you get them home. There are a couple of things to think about here. First, avoid scissors if possible. Scissors, especially dull scissors can pinch the water uptake channels and make the problem worse. The other thing to remember is to strip off the lower leaves. If leaves touch the water they promote the growth of bacteria, which makes the water cloudy and smelly. Yuck.

Some people say you need to cut the stems under water. In a perfect world, maybe. But you try it. Actually don’t, because you’re more likely to cut your finger than to cut the flower stems. Best advice, use a sharp knife and plunk that baby in the water right away. Rule of thumb is to cut off about an inch of stem. Some experts say cut at a 45 degree angle so you expose more of the part of the stem that takes up water. Others say it doesn’t matter. (We can speak for tulips, either way is fine). Let’s face it. How much could it matter?

USE WARM WATER (EXCEPT FOR BULB FLOWERS!)
There is actually a scientific reason for this that has something to do with how fast molecules move. Okay, they move faster in warmer water than colder water. You want those molecules speeding moisture and nutrients up those reopened water channels to revive the flowers. Bulb flowers (tulips, daffodils, hyacinths, lilies, etc.) however, prefer cold water. Perhaps that’s because so many of them are grown in Holland, where molecules are taught to keep up, even when the water turns cold.

FLOWER FOOD
Flower food is what’s in those little packets of powder the florist gives you. Flower food? Come again? These cut flowers are, well, dead. Okay, so technically it’s a flower preservative. But that doesn’t sound very nice, and what’s the point of lingering on the whole dead thing while the flowers look so fresh and lively!

Flower food is sort of a triple whammy, made of carbohydrates which pep up the cells in the flower stems, an antibacterial ingredient to keep those smelly bacteria at bay, and an acidifier, which helps regulate the pH in the water to keep the flower channels open.

You can actually make this stuff yourself. A couple of teaspoons of lemon or lime juice, a teaspoon of bleach and one of sugar to a quart of water and you're done. If you don’t have lime or lemon juice, some lemon lime soda will do the trick, but cut back on the water and skip the sugar.

Or you could drink the soda, and just use those little free packs the florist gives you. You choose.

Note: don’t use cut flower food with tulips. They don’t need it. Just lots of water.

MORE THAN YOU NEED TO KNOW.
That pretty much covers the basics. Check out our bulb flower tips for step-by-step info on those beauties. If you really want to delve deeper into the mysteries of cut flowers, or if you’re thinking of ditching your neurosurgery gig for a career as a florist, you can learn such arcane cut flower techniques as splitting the base of a woody-stemmed mock orange or blanching the oozing end of a milky-stemmed euphorbia with a hot match from the learned folks at the Brooklyn Botanic Garden.