Valentine Roses

For St Valentine's Day last weekend, my lovely husband bought me two bunches of roses, one pale yellow and the other white.  I'm not a fan of red roses to be honest and the flowers at our wedding were pale yellow and white.

I don't know much about looking after cut flowers but I do seem to have a way with roses.  So often, bought roses end up with drooping heads and don't open up.  It's due to them not being able to take up enough water to stay alive.  Roses have woody stems which means they can only take in water on the cut edge and water can't permeate through the rest of the stem.

Whenever I am given roses, the first thing I do is snip the ends of the stems off as it gives them a fresh, clean edge to the stem.  Secondly, I peel the green of the stems for at least 10cm from the cut bottom edge to reveal the white underneath .  A vegetable peeler is the easiest way to do this.  If you don't want to peel the stems, you could bash them with a rolling pin to crush the stems apart instead.  Either will allow the roses to take up more water.

No doubt other people will have all sorts of top tips.  I'm sure I have heard of plunging cut flowers into iced water and adding aspirin to their water.  I always add the plant food that comes with the flowers and keep the water level above the peeled area of the stems.   I also change the water at least once a week.

As you can see from the photo, a week after St Valentine's Day the roses are still going strong and smell gorgeous.  The majority have opened up and there isn't a droppy head in sight.  One other tip would be to keep them in a cool spot if possible.  Above all, just enjoy them!