Make Flowers Last
A good bouquet should give you a week, often closer to two. Most last four or five days — not because of the flowers, but because of what happens in the first hour after they arrive.
Here is what actually makes the difference.
1. Cut the stems again, at an angle, before they go in water
The moment a stem leaves water it begins sealing itself, and air draws into the channels that carry water upward. A flower with an airlock cannot drink no matter how full the vase is.
Take two centimetres off each stem at roughly 45 degrees, and do it immediately before they go into the vase. The angle stops the cut end sitting flat against the base of the vase and blocking itself.
Use a sharp knife or florist’s scissors. Household scissors crush the stem rather than slicing it, which closes the very channels you are trying to open.
2. Strip every leaf below the waterline
Leaves underwater rot within a day. That rot feeds bacteria, the bacteria block the stems, and the flowers wilt while sitting in a full vase.
This is the single most skipped step and probably the most costly one.
3. Change the water every two days
Not top it up — change it. Rinse the vase while you are there. Cloudy water is bacteria, and bacteria are what shorten the life of a bouquet more than heat or light.
If you do only one thing from this list, do this.
4. Keep them away from the window, and away from fruit
Direct Nairobi sun through glass will cook a bouquet in an afternoon. A bright spot out of direct light is ideal.
The fruit bowl is the surprising one. Ripening fruit releases ethylene gas, which tells flowers to mature and drop their petals. A vase next to a bowl of bananas ages noticeably faster.
5. Use the sachet
Flower food is not a token. It contains sugar to feed the bloom, an acidifier to help water travel up the stem, and a mild biocide to slow bacteria. All three matter.
If you have run out, half a teaspoon of sugar with a few drops of lemon juice does part of the job — the feeding and the acidity, though not the antibacterial part. Which brings us to the myths.
Two things that do not work
A coin in the vase. The theory is that copper acts as a fungicide. Modern coins contain little copper, and what is there does not dissolve meaningfully into water. It does nothing.
Lemonade or soda. The sugar does feed the flowers, but you are also adding a great deal of sugar to standing water, which is an excellent bacterial culture. Any gain is lost within two days.
6. Prune as you go
Mixed bouquets do not die together. Some blooms fade in four days, others last twelve. Pull the spent ones out as they go — a dying flower releases ethylene and drags its neighbours down with it.
Toward the end you will often be left with a handful of strong stems. Move them to a smaller vase. A tight arrangement of six good flowers looks considerably better than a large vase that is mostly gaps.
A realistic expectation
With the above: roses eight to twelve days, chrysanthemums up to two weeks, lilies around ten days with new buds opening throughout. Without it, halve those numbers.
We arrange fresh flowers for same-day delivery across Nairobi, and every bouquet goes out with care instructions. If you are sending to someone else, tell us and we will make sure the note reaches them too.