I have mentioned before that buying local, fresh flowers is a little different than at your traditional florist or supermarket. One major difference is vase life, or how long the flowers last after cutting. Think of a bouquet you received or had sent to a loved one that first day. It is stunning! Everything is in full bloom, the colors and forms are full and at their peak beauty. However, this is typically the best it's going to get. By the time those flowers have been cut and shipped to the florist's cooler and finally arranged they are days old and the clock is ticking. After a few days some of those stunning blooms start to fade and you slowly watch your beautiful arrangement wilt and wither away.
The luxury of buying fresh cut flowers is there is no travel time so they have a longer vase life. When I put a bouquet together it is with the earliest stages a flower can be cut, often times when they are still in bud form. So the end result can sometimes be underwhelming (unless they are made for an event, in which they would be arranged when the blooms are fully open for the biggest impact). However, this means when you receive the arrangement instead of watching your flowers slowly die, you get to watch them come to life and open a little more everyday.
To show you what I mean, I have made an arrangement and photographed it every day so you can see the difference. The bouquet was maintained using the care instructions described here.
Looking through the photos, you can see the buds get larger and the flower spikes start to open one by one up the stem, filling out the arrangement. The bouquet is finally in it's fullest bloom on Day 6!
You really cannot beat the vase life of local flowers! Picked so fresh they continue to bloom in front of your eyes. Don't believe me, test it for yourself and support a local flower farmer near you!
