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Can anyone suggest a good home recipe for adding to water to keep cut flowers fresh? When you are gifted with, or buy, fresh flowers you get a little packet of powder to add to the water to feed the flowers and keep them fresh. That is supposed to be done every 3 or 4 days so the flowers outlast the flower food. Anyone have a good home recipe?

Your flower water should contain an antibacterial/antifungal agent, an acidifier to improve fluid transport up the stem, and simple sugar food for the plant cells. A flower arranger friend of mine says the easiest formula they use at the florist is:

75% water
25% regular lemon-lime soda (not diet soda)
1/4 teaspoon plain bleach per quart of solution.

Change the water every 4 days.

We've used this formula and cut flowers seem to keep about 10-14 days. YMMV.

Thanks! That's really useful.

Hi try putting an Asprin in the watter, or a copper penny, a tsp sugar is supposed to help. I can promise you though that a Lemsip works wonders.

Well, there is actually a trick I like to use. I learned it from my mother. Every time I receive a flower delivery uk from my mother containing fresh cut flowers I throw a penny into the water and half of an aspirin. The aspiring keeps the flowers fresh and the chemical components in the penny help the flower to bloom beautifully and fully!

Chop the ends of the flowers off half a centimetre or so and quickly insert into the water

I also do the aspirin sugar and a little bleach (dash)
and keep changing the water.