Make Cut Flowers last Longer

Looking after fresh flowers

By Elena Price

A bouquet of fresh, cut flowers makes a beautiful gift for a friend or relative, and is also the perfect thing to buy in order to treat yourself. If you buy cut flowers, you will want to make sure that they last as long as possible, so we’ve put together some hints and top banana tips to help you to do this.

We found this excellent video about looking after fresh flowers and have listed the key points in proper English (less excitable than the video) below:

WordPress.com Fail – can’t embed – follow the link – meanwhile here’s a lovely image.

Cool and cut your flowers

If you aren’t able to arrange your flowers immediately when they arrive, make sure that you keep them in a cool place until you can. The first step is to remove the flowers from their packaging. Some experts recommend that you then place them into cold water for a while before cutting and arranging them.

You should then use a sharp knife or a pair of scissors to cut about two to three centimetres, at an angle of about 45 degrees, from the bottom of the stem of each flower. If your flowers are tied in a bouquet, you can leave them tied up whilst you do this, so that it’s quick to do and the arrangement retains its shape. Some experts recommend keeping the stems underwater whilst cutting the ends off of them, as they believe that this prevents air from entering the stems, meaning that the flowers can take in water more effectively when you arrange them in the vase.

Choose your vase and arrange your flowers

Make sure that the vase that you are planning to put your flowers in is clean, as the presence of bacteria may have a negative effect on your flowers, meaning that they won’t last as long. Fill the vase with fresh, room temperature water until it is about three-quarters full and remove any leaves which are likely to be below the waterline. This is important because leaves in the water will die and produce bacteria which will affect the flowers. If there is a sachet of flower food with your flowers, empty this into the water, before placing your flowers in the vase and arranging them.

Find the perfect place to put your flowers

Place your flowers somewhere light, but not in direct sunlight as this may cause them to wilt. It’s also important to make sure that they are placed in a room which is the correct temperature for them (about 18 -22°C). Don’t put them next to a direct heat source, such as a radiator, or near to any other appliances that give off heat, such as televisions or computers. You should also make sure that you don’t place them directly in a draft, or near a fan or air conditioning unit.

If you are placing your vase of flowers on a table or work-top, make sure that you don’t put it next to ripening fruit. As fruit ripens, it emits a gas called ethylene, which ages flowers more quickly. You should also try to place your flowers somewhere away from cigarette smoke, as this also contains ethylene.

Look after your flowers

In order to keep your flowers looking beautiful for as long as possible, make sure that you change the water every other day, and remove any dead flowers and any leaves from the water when you see them. Your flowers will also last longer if you recut the stems every three or four days, and you can freshen them up by spraying them gently with water.

If you follow these simple guidelines, your cut flowers should last longer. You can buy cut flowers from florists and markets, or order them online and have them delivered directly to your door or to a friend or family member’s home.

Charity Gifts – Wedding Lists and Goats

Charity Gifts that make a difference

In the first of our series featuring gift ideas – see charity flowers post we now consider the benefits of giving a gift that not only gives a proportion of the money you spend to a charity but actually sends a charity gift directly to people who need it most.

It is easy to confuse ethical gifts and charity gifts and we’d like to attempt to make a clear distiction.

An ethical gift can merely be something made with consideration to the impact on society or the environment. For example this poor selection of ethical gifts here are hardly set to change the world – organic wine, fairtrade chocolate and recycled stationery.  Undislosed amounts “may” be channeled back into community projects but with online shop names such as Ethical Superstore and the even more dubious Nigle’s Eco Store we feel that charity support could be better targeted.

Charity gifts are more specific in their purpose. For example Oxfam have an entire range of charity gifts that go directly to the people who need them most.  Gift ideas include goats, seeds, providing fresh water and building projects – many of these are associated with the devastating effects of global warming on poor people around the world.

Wedding Gift Lists for Charity

Innovative giving is encouraged – setting up a wedding gift list lets you ask guests to your wedding to choose a gift from the charity that will help releive suffering somewhere in the world.  Most popular gift is at first glance bizarre – goat – and on the wedding list of charity gifts you can even give a pair of goats – a happy couple for the happy couple.  In fact full Top Banana kudos for the way this gift is listed:

No ifs and no butts, a goat is a great gift. A locally-bought goat will give a family milk to drink, fertiliser for their crops, and kids to add to their herd. They’re a sound investment – no kidding!

A great way to explain the importance of what may be a confusing choice of gift whilst still bringing a smile of joy to visitors.

By giving farmers  help to adapt to the unreliable seasons – with special seeds that will grow in dry conditions, with irrigation systems, with new farming techniques these too will be a generous charity gift that really makes a difference.

Spain Holiday Ideas – Costa del Sol

Spain – Costa Del Sol Holiday Deals

Fears of the economic downturn are leading more and more people in the UK to consider a taking their annual holiday in this country.  To some this is depressing news however the Top banana team are ever optimistic that where there is muck there’s brass and following hot on the tails of cheap hotel deals becoming available this summer we now explore the wealth of attractions that Spain has to offer.

Scheduled flights to Spain are still affordable and with the possibility of charters not filling to capacity the opportunity of late deals is high.

Checking late hotel room sites before you set off will give you an idea of what class of hotel is available for your money – you may be very surprised that some major city new hotels have incredibly cheap tarifs on their standard rooms and in the heat of summer business customers will reduce in numbers meaning more rooms at even better prices.

Public transport in Spain is clean, cheap and efficient however many visitors still take advantage of some of the lowest car hire rates in Europe. Renting a car gives you better opportunity to explore regions that may only have bus routes to serve workers and are of little use to holidaymakers.

We now learn that the previously reported car hire shortage in Spain as reported in the car scrappage post is overstated and if visitor numbers fall you will have no trouble in finding pleanty of choice when looking for car hire. Spain out of all the to European holiday destinations is aware how vital the avaialbility of hire cars is during the main tourist season and as travel companies, hotels and resorts have not reported a fall in visitor numbers many car rental agencies see no reason to reduce the cars avaialable.

Where to go in Spain.

In the first of the series about taking advantage of cheap holidays in Spain we look at the Costa Del Sol.  Served by the huge redeveloped Malaga Airport the Costa del Sol has thousands of hotels, spa resorts, golf courses and fasinating towns and villages for holidaymakers and travellers to explore and enjoy.

Once a baron rugged landscape the Costa del Sol now boasts luxury accomodation and services along the coast whilst preserving the historic wonder of towns such as Mijas, Rhonda and deeper into Andalucia Seville, Cordoba and Granada.

Watch More

Don’t believe the scare mongerers – test your nerve and try to get a great holiday deal if you plan to visit Spain this summer.