YELLOW AND RED CUT ROSES (from M&S)

I always find it difficult to cut my garden's roses to bring indoors.  For one thing, my roses (Wild Eve and New Dawn) don't always have stems suitable for cutting and making a nice display in a vase.  For another thing, the flowers last an awful lot longer when left in the garden unless a storm comes along and even then they often just go with the flow and weather the weather.  Today, mooching in a Marks and Spencers store, I bought yellow and red long-stemmed roses, half price, with a sell by today's date.  I am hoping they will last as long as the dark red ones which I bought over two weeks ago for half price.  There's a trick to making them last...





Yellow and Red roses from Marks and Spencer

...Every few days, I cut an inch of so off the bottom of the stems of my cut flowers (any cut flowers).  Cutting the stem at a very sharp angle exposes a larger area for water to be draw up to the flower's head.  I use flower food which often comes with them, and I ensure that never, ever, are there leaves below the water level.  Under such circumstances, leaves rot and breed bacteria, and bacteria clog the base of the stems and stop water reaching the blooms.  I'm no florist, but this works for me.  I'm probably telling you what you already know but it astounds me how often I see, in an office or wherever, flowers stuck in a vase with the leaves under water which is turning a putrid shade of greeny yellow.  And the flowers last no time at all.  What a shame.

By the way, having said all the above, I must mention that I still have a lot of flowers in my garden, despite Storm Ophelia giving it a lash as she went by the other day.  The penstemons are lovely and strong, there are several Wild Eve roses, fuchsias, chrysanthemums, tuberous begonia, pelargoniums, and the hanging baskets (although not at their best) are still flowering well.