Vodka & Coin Flower hack: What works, and what doesn’t?
For many homeowners, adding a bouquet of flowers to their decor is an important part of creating a bright and inviting environment. Yet, without the proper care, flowers can sometimes wilt earlier than we’d like them to - leaving us having to get a new bouquet earlier than we planned.
But, for those wondering how to keep flowers fresh in a vase, many people may find themselves turning to popular viral hacks to make flowers last longer, such as putting vodka in your vase, or even adding copper coins to name a few.
As such, the team here at Euroflorist conducted an experiment with these viral flower tips, to find out once and for all which one’s will make flowers last longer, and which one’s won't.
To make the experiment fair, we trialled these hacks on two bouquets, one bouquet containing only water (left bouquet) alongside another bouquet that we conducted the hack on (right bouquet). We also didn’t follow any of our recommended care advice on either bouquet, to see the true effects of these popular flower tips.
Continue reading below to see the results:
The Vodka Hack - Test 1
The vodka hack is an unusual method to help assist flower growth, but it can produce some benefits for your bouquet. Using vodka for this helps to inhibit ethylene production, a gas that plants emit, to keep them healthy and stop maturing or wilting.
To carry out the hack, simply add a teaspoon of vodka into the water of your flowers, and continue to add every time you change your bouquet's water (once every 3-4 days).
The results of this hack did show some improvement for some species of flowers in the bouquet, but overall, the flowers did not have a significant enough improvement to be considered a better method than using standard flower food and fresh water.
The Copper Coin Hack - Test 2
A common old wives’ tale was that a copper coin inside a vase of water was all you needed to help the growth of your flowers. This is because the copper in the coins contains a natural fungicide that can prevent any bacterial growth, preventing your flowers from dying early.
But while this hack might have been useful at one point in time, the results of the experiment showed that this did not have any significant benefits to the growth of the flowers, and actually, resulted in many flowers dropping prematurely.
How to Properly Care for Flowers?
The experiment has shown that famous flower tricks are not always as effective as we would expect. The key to the longevity of a bouquet is the right care methods. Here are some basic rules that will help your flowers stay fresh longer:
The vase should be clean. Wash it thoroughly with dishwashing liquid and warm water to remove bacteria.
Shorten each stem by 2-3 cm and remove any leaves that could be below the water line.
Every 2-3 days, trim the stems again and change the water.
Avoid placing flowers near fruit, drafts, direct sunlight and heat sources such as radiators - these factors can affect their lifespan.
More on: How to care for cut flowers
To sum up, although some popular methods may seem interesting, the best way to extend the life of a bouquet is to follow proven flower care rules.