I love having cut flowers in my home throughout the year. I have plenty to choose from in my yard during the summer, but unfortunately have to purchase them in the winter...and they're not cheap, so I want them to last as long as I can. Well, they always supply you with a small packet of preservative when you buy cut flowers, but that's washed away the next day when you add fresh water. So I decided to try using some of my Christmas tree preservative in the vases during this holiday season, and I found out that it works! I use the liquid Xmas tree preservative (it costs less than a $l.00 for an 8 oz. bottle here), which is very cheap. I only put a few drops of preservative in each vase, I still change the water every day just as before, and now my cut flowers now last well over 2 weeks in the vases (sometimes up to 3!). My vase of tulips has looked beautiful for almost 2 weeks now, with no signs of dropping petals. Thought you'd want to know...
Great tip! I love having a vase of flowers in the house, too. I'll have to check and see if any of the local stores has the tree preservative still available . . . maybe it'd even be on deep discount now.
