Today I’m publishing a different kind of recipe than you’re using to seeing on these pages — for Homemade Flower Food! If you frequent our FLOWER archives, you’ll have read a lot about flower food here at JustineCelina along with our flower care and conditioning tips. But did you know you can actually make it at home with just 4 ingredients — and you probably have all of them in your home right now? Today, flower maven Rebecca Dawn Design is sharing her Homemade Flower Food Recipe with us, a secret weapon among professional florists to prolong the life of any bloom.
If you’ve always wanted to know how to keep your flowers from fading, are looking to brush up on your flower care skills or are looking for a DIY alternative to premade flower food packets, you’ve come to the right place! Come hang out with Rebecca and I today while we chat about a simple combination of household and kitchen staples to keep your flowers looking fresh and perky. Also, how darling are these Double Bloom Hellebores?
HOMEMADE FLOWER FOOD RECIPE
With our summer gardens in full bloom, Rebecca and I thought it was the perfect time to share this Homemade Flower Food Recipe with you. This simple mixture of household staples acts to preserve any type of bloom by encouraging stems to take in the water they require and providing an energy source that allow flowers to continue blooming. Sugar feeds the flowers with a steady stream of carbs and bleach helps to fight bacterial activity in the water while lemon juice keeps the PH neutral. If you have these ingredients along with 5 minutes to spare, you too can make this nutritious flower cocktail at home!
INGREDIENTS
Yield: 1 vase full
• 1 tsp sugar
• 1 tsp bleach
• 2 tsp lemon juice
• 4 cups of lukewarm water
INSTRUCTIONS & FLOWER CARE TIPS
Utilize Rebecca’s expert flower care and conditioning tips along with her Homemade Flower Food Recipe to maximize the life of your blooms.
1. Once you get your flowers home, remove any wrapping right away to allow the blooms to breathe and air to circulate freely.
2. Use a pair of garden shears or a kitchen knife to cut the bottom 1/2 inch off of each stem at a 45 degree angle.
3. Snip off any leaves or flower parts that will fall below the lip of the vase. The only things that should be inside the vase are the stems and water.
4. Prepare your Homemade Flower Food by dissolving sugar, bleach and lemon juice in warm water.
5. Transfer the Homemade Flower Food into a vase.
6. Place the flowers in a vase of room temperature water. For optimal flower life, change the water and trim the stems every 2 – 3 days.
7. Place the vase of flowers out of direct sunlight and away from heating vents or radiators and enjoy!
Thanks for stopping by today to learn how to make your own flower food at home! We hope you enjoyed the latest installment in our FLOWER EDUCATION series and learned something new today — this is such a useful recipe to have in your repertoire. If you try it out, please tag me on social media or leave us a comment below. We absolutely love to hear from you! And if you’re looking for even more flower inspiration and resources, be sure to follow along with our Flower Board on Pinterest!
Disclaimer: This post is not sponsored, and contains our genuine thoughts, ideas and recommendations. JustineCelina uses affiliate and referral links, which allow me to receive a small commission when you make a purchase through one of my links. Thank you for supporting the brands and businesses that support JustineCelina.com!
19 Comments
Thank you and Rebecca, so much! We always have cut flowers in a beautiful square vase in our living room and I’m always sad and disappointed when sometimes they start to fade after just a couple of days! I will make this easy flower food and keep my cut flowers healthy and strong!
You are very welcome, Nicoletta! Always happy to help. Let us know it works out for you!
I didn’t know you could make plant food from scratch! I’m going to save this to refer to the next time I have flowers!
I didn’t know until Rebecca and I started working together either! It’s a great recipe to have on hand during this summer. 🙂
This is wonderful!. I’m going to cut a bouquet of my newly flowering hydrangeas and try this asap! Thanks Justine and Rebecca for this awesomely useful tip!
You’re very welcome Colleen — please report back!
I’ll admit I’m a little shocked by the bleach. My grandmother used to put sugar in her flower water, she was a florist and everything I know I learned from her. I am certainly no expert unfortunately so I’m looking forward to trying this recipe next time I have fresh flowers! Thanks for sharing it.
I was shocked at first too, Diana! The bleach work to minimize bacterial activity in the vase, which is ultimately what shortens the flowers lifespan. Looking forward to your feedback!
Bleach and lemon, eh? That sounds like one heck of a cleaning agent but I trust you and Rebecca! Honestly happy that I learned this as I am expecting some flowers soon (or is that wishful thinking?) and I want to help them last through this heat wave!
Haha, I know it sounds harsh, but the quantities of bleach and lemon are really diluted in the water. If you give it a try let us know how it goes! Have a great weekend, love. It’s a scorcher here too!
So simple! Who knew? Must try.
Exactly! Well — now you know! 🙂 If you do give it a go I’d love your feedback, Elaine.
[…] Homemade Flower Food Recipe […]
This has been so helpful. Can I ask that recipe. Is it for one vase?
I’m so glad, Melanie! We designed this recipe will fill one vase — however, that will depend on the size of your vase. You may need to double the recipe for larger vases, or split the original recipe up among smaller vases.
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