Heavy Drinkers

Like party girls, the blooms from Drift Farm are fresh, pretty and smelling good. But if you want them to party all week long, there are things you should do:

• Fill her up. These girls are heavy drinkers, happily chugging a half vase a day. Room temperature water is fine.

• Clean them up mid-week. Bathe them in the sink by directing water into the vase and flushing out the old water.

• Hold an intervention if they start to droop. Cut them off – about a half inch of the stems from the bottom. Then change out the water. Your bouquet arrives in flower food, which has carbs and an acidifier to kill bacteria. If you have a spare flower food packet handy, use it for the intervention. Vodka and or 7-up can be used in a pinch. No joking.

• Keep blooms away from the bad guys, apples and bananas, who emit ethylene.

• Below the vase line is sacred space, a place where no leaves are allowed. If you move blooms to another vase, avoid pushing leaves into the water, which will create bacteria.

• Vase life varies dramatically from flower to flower, so pluck the dollies who can’t keep up. If you have survivors at the end of the week, move them to a bud vase in your bathroom and get another bouquet.

• If moving to another vase, it must be clean enough to drink out of.