Everyone hates wilting Hydrangeas. Why doesn’t this beautiful flower seem to last? In this short post I will tell a story as to how I found out Hydrangeas are actually capable of outlasting any other flower in an arrangement.
As per our Christmas tradition, my brother and I–who both work at Wholesale Flowers–bought a beautiful floral arrangement for my mothers dinner party. And as always, she loved receiving the flowers and put them square in the middle of the dinner table for everyone to see. The remainder of the night the flowers lay there during the dinner, and one of the many topics of discussion amongst the food and festivities was of course the flowers.
Many of our friends and relatives are curious about the floral industry and love asking us about the current ongoings of our life in the business. Kind of like a test/game, they have me go over all the different flower names in the arrangement. Of the flowers that I can recall now, there were Red Roses, White Carnations, Emerald Green Hydrangeas, Port Oxford Cedar, and some other fillers with ornaments sprinkled in. The conversation shifted from what type of flowers there were to which one would last the longest. I confidently remarked that without a doubt the carnation would last the longest and as the weeks passed on I could not believe how wrong I was.
Next week for new years we arrived at my mothers house for the festivities again, and both my brother and I were stunned to see the carnations were beginning to wilt before the roses. The following week I passed by for a visit and took a look at the arrangement. Figuring it was time to dump out the flowers, I was astounded that everything was dead except the Hydrangeas! I couldn’t believe it. Two entire weeks had passed by and the hydrangeas were still alive? I had asked my mother if she did anything special to them and the answer was pretty simple. She told me they wilted only once a few days after we gave her the arrangement.
A few years ago I learned a trick to revive hydrangeas and passed it onto her. The trick is simple and it fixes the problem of wilting hydrangeas without any special tools or vitamins. I found out Hydrangeas are one of the few flowers that actually drinks water through its petals! And true to its name it loves to stay hydrated. When your hydrangea begins to wilt, it simply means it’s lacking water.
Here’s the trick:
The easiest way to bring it back to life is to fill up a bucket or even your sink with water. Then submerge the entire head under water for about two hours. The stems should be facing up and out of the water. Because the petals are absorbing all the water directly you don’t have to worry about the stems. Once the time has passed by, you take the hydrangeas out of the water, give them a little shake and recut the stems. You can even cut an x into the base by cutting two slits into the stem, which makes it easier for the flower to soak up the water. After this you should be able to extend the life of your beautiful hydrangeas and in some cases like my mothers, even get two weeks out of them!