Cutting Flowers for Your Wedding Day

Wedding flowers need to look their best for the entire occasion, so if you want to make your own wedding flowers, you'll need to follow a few simple rules.

If you are going to be cutting flowers or foliage from a garden, do it early in the morning or late in the evening. At these times, plants lose the least amount of water via evaporation from the flowers and leaves. Keep this in mind if you are going to be buying your flowers. Do not buy them during the warmest part of the day and be sure to get them into water as soon as possible. If you stress a cut flower by letting it dry out too much, you can reduce its vase life by up to 50 per cent. This could mean your flowers will begin dying on the day of your wedding. With proper care, you can avoid this.

When cutting your stems, you will want to use a very sharp instrument. This will cause the least amount of damage to the cells. If you use a more blunt instrument you will squeeze the stem and rupture the cells at the sides. You also want to cut the stems at an angle. You do this to expose the largest possible surface area of cells to allow for the maximum intake of water.

Flowers that are purchased should be re cut at home. Re cut the stems under water to prevent an air lock from forming. You want the end of the stem to be open to take up water and nutrients.

To re cut them under water, take a pail or large container that is wide enough to fit your hand, the stem, and your knife.
Fill it with tepid water and add flower preservative.
Mix it well.
Cut off about 1 inch off the bottom of the stem with your knife under the water.

Let your re cut flowers and foliage sit in this water with flower preservative for at least 2 hours before using them. This allows your flowers to take up as much water and nutrients as they can and therefore extends their vase life. The flower preservative that you add to the water helps the cells swell. It also helps keep the water clean because it has a fungicide that kills bacteria.

After your flowers and foliage have been conditioned in this way for about 2 hours, you can use them to start arranging. Remove the stems from the water only as you need them. You want to keep the ends of the stem wet to prevent air locks from forming.

These rules are not difficult to follow, you just need to be aware of them. If you follow them when you make your own wedding flowers, you have the best odds of having your flowers look spectacular on your special day.

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