We love tulips! And we know you do too! At SF we love our tulips in a bunch of only one type—it’s just simple classic elegance that can’t be beat.
For us in Bahrain, tulip season is during our chillier months (anyone feel that frost out there this week?!) because these beauties aren’t tolerant of our regular desert climate. If you’ve received a bunch of tulips, or if you’ve signed up for our Fab Feb Spring Deal to get these beauties delivered weekly, we’re sharing some tips below to keep them fresh for as long as nature allows :)
Step 1: Get ‘em Naked!
(if they’re in paper… otherwise keep it’s fancy vase on)
Unwrap Your Tulips
If you’re the proud recipient of a bunch of tulips wrapped in paper, the first thing to do is to remove any packaging—this includes any decorative paper, ribbon, or twine as well the water bubble or wet cotton at the bottom of the stems.
Next: Find a suitable home (i.e. a vase) for your new blooms. In general, a flower vase should be about 1/2 to 2/3rds the height of your flowers. Make sure your vase is sparkling clean with no nasty reside on the bottom or sides. If it needs a wash, give it a wash with warm soapy water.
A Good Rule of Thumb For Vase Hygiene:
If you won’t drink out of it your
flowers shouldn’t be drinking out of it!
Step 2: Snip, Snip
(Vase folks, pay attention here!)
Give Your Tulip Stems a Trim
Trim your tulip stems using clean sharp cutters. Tulips stems are not hard so you could get away with a pair of normal scissors—just make them the sharpest ones you have! It does pay to invest in a pair of cutters dedicated especially for flowers.
How Much to Trim: About 1-2cm from the bottom.
How to Trim: At a 45 degree angle. Cutting at an angle increases the surface area for your flower to absorb water (it’s math!) and prevents the stems from sitting flush against the bottom of the vase which can also prevent the uptake of water.
If you have received your tulips in a vase you should trim your flower stems after a couple of days of receiving them. Do also make sure to wash your vase and top it off with fresh, cool water.
Step 3: Keep ‘em Hydrated, Keep ‘em Cool
(Flowers… they’re basically just like us!)
Give Your Tulips Plenty of Fresh Cool Water and a Nice Cool Spot
Fill your clean vase up with plenty of fresh, clean, and importantly, cool water. Flowers are thirsty creatures! Clean water prevents bacteria from growing (which is what causes flowers to die).
How Much Water: Fill to about half way up the vase. Try to make sure no leaves are folded back into the water.
How Often To Change Water: If you want to be the best tulip Mama or Papa out there make sure to change your vase water every second day. At the very least try to make sure your flowers get fresh water (no reusing!) and a clean vase (yep, wash that vase!) every 3 days.
Find Your Flowers a Cool Spot: Keep your tulips out of direct sun and in a fairly cool room. These beauties are heat sensitive and direct sunlight or a hot room will significantly shorten their vase life.
Step 4: Cheer
Them On :)
(And don’t forget to refresh their water!)
Even Flowers Need Some Lovin’!
Keep an eye on your blooms and make sure they always have sufficient water and don’t get too hot. If any leaves start to look a bit sad, remove them by peeling them off gently—this will help bacteria from spreading into the water and to the rest of the flowers.
Tulip Fun Facts:
Tulips are one of the few flowers that continue to grow after they’ve been cut. Your blooms might grow up to 5cm in one week!
Cut tulips are phototropic—this means they will grow towards natural light if it is nearby. If your tulips seems to be growing in one direction, simply rotate your vase. Alternatively, you can keep your vase of tulips in a spot with soft diffused light and this should prevent them rubbernecking towards any light source.
Tulips are also geotropic! This means that their growth is affected by gravity. In normal people speak this means that tulips can naturally bend down towards gravity (i.e downwards) when they are first trimmed and placed in fresh water. A bendy tulip is not a dead tulip! Give your tulips some time and they will once again stand upright. These blooms are magic like that! Alternatively, you can use a tall slender vase which will encourage the blooms to stand upright.