**Sun, balmy evenings and your feet in the sand... finally it feels like summer! But whilst we couldn’t be happier with the sunshine and being outdoors, your flowers need some extra love and care when it's warm. Here’s our top 5 flower care tips to help your flowers stay fresh for longer through the summer! **

1. Flower freshness starts with a squeaky clean vase

You need

: detergent, a sponge and gloves

Your flowers will thank you for a spotless clean vase. Because of the warm weather, bacterial growth happens quicker. Make sure you clean your vase thoroughly with soap before you start arranging your flowers.

2. Looking sharp: Cut your stems right

You need

: bloomon Style Set (alternatively: gardening scissors or a sharp knife)

The stem is how your flowers draw up water and nutrients, damaging the stem hinders this. So, don’t tear, squash or leave stems frayed. Trim about one cm off your stem at a sharp angle – this keeps the stem from sitting flat against the bottom of the vase. Stems cut properly can give your flowers days of extra freshness! Retrim your stems every three days, whenever you change the water in your vase.

3. Drink up!

You need

: Fresh, clean water (⅓ in your vase)

This may sound like a no brainer, but vase water gets murky quickly. dirty water harbours bacteria and flowers can’t thrive. Ever smelled putrid vase water?... yikes! To prevent bad-smelling milky water, refresh the water every 2-3 days. Especially in the summer, because like us, flowers are thirsty in the heat.

4. Breakfast of champions

Need

: bag of flower food

They say breakfast is the most important meal of the day. Same goes for your bouquet – we deliver flowers in the bud, so adding flower food when your flowers first arrive gives them some extra energy to bloom. bloomon’s flower food consists of a careful formula of glucose.

Protip

Whilst glucose helps flowers go from bud to bloom, adding flower food more than once can shorten vase-life, as they bloom too fast. Once at the beginning is enough!

5. Find the perfect spot

You need

: a cool place without drafts, out of all-day direct sun, and away from ripening fruit

They may grow in the sun, but cut flowers can be more picky with temperature and conditions. Flowers bloom faster in direct sunlight all day, so best to keep them out of intense light for too long. Ripening fruit, especially apples and bananas emit ethylene gas which causes flowers to wilt. Best to keep them away from drafts and heat sources like radiators, too. The ideal bouquet spot has natural light, a cool constant temperature, and somewhere uncluttered to admire it.

ProTip

Put your flowers in a cool place at night so slow blooming and water loss.

Ready to get started? Share pictures of your bouquet on Instagram or Facebook using #bloomon. Our community love to see your flowers. And so do we!

For more Tips & Tricks, like how to arrange a bouquet, head to our Facebook page.