Now that you’ve put plans in place for your own flowering fortress, the garden experts at Home magazine have tips and tricks for when exactly to pick flowers for your home.

When to pick flowers

• Early morning – The plant cells are full of water after a period of darkness during which they have not been that active.
• Cut at an angle – This way there is no flat surface that rests against the bottom of your vase and the stems can suck up more water.
• Not in direct sunlight – Keep the plants in a bucket of water in the shade while you pick. Take two buckets into the garden – remove at least two thirds of the bottom leaves while you pick and throw them in one of the buckets, which you can later take to the compost heap. Fill a third of the other bucket with water and immediately put the cut flowers in it. This means that you will have less mess to clean up inside the house later on and also ensures that there will be no foliage under the water level, which can rot or put added stress on the stems to absorb water.
• Do not cut down to ground level.
• Leave a part of the stem behind if there is some leaf growth on it. In the case of bulbous plants, such as lilies, the underground bulbs rely on the photosynthesising leaves to provide food for them and thus ensure that the plants will grow and flower again during the next season. If the leaves are situated at the base, as in the case of daffodils and narcissus, the stems can be cut at ground level without any negative consequences.
• Do not cut all your flowers from only one part of a shrub or perennial, as this will make it look bare.

Florist secrets
1 Use commercial cut-flower food, or mix two tablespoons sugar, 1 litre warm water and 1½ tablespoons household bleach. The old folks used to believe that a crushed aspirin tablet or a copper coin would also extend the life of cut flowers.
2 Before arranging flowers, stand them overnight in water up to their necks.
3 If flowers such as roses appear wilted you can cut a few centimetres off their stems, place them in hot water for an hour and then arrange them in cold water in a vase.If it is very hot you can add ice cubes to the water.
4 Some varieties of flower require special techniques to last longer:

• Hydrangeas – plunge overnight in a bath of cold water.
• Roses – immediately after picking, place roses in 3,5cm boiling water for 30 seconds before putting them in cold water. Cover the petals with a piece of cloth to prevent the steam from damaging them.
• Poppies – pick them when the buds are still closed and seal the stems with a candle flame or quickly plunge them into boiling water.
• Daffodils – pick when the flowers are still tightly closed.
• Gladioli – pick when the first flower has opened at the base of the stem.
• Tulips – place wire netting in the mouth of the flower vase to support the turning stems of the flowers.
• Amaryllus and Delphiniums – turn the flowers upside down and fill the hollow stems with water. Seal the stems with a moist cotton-wool plug and place them upright in water.

Text and image: Home magazine