Squeeze the avocado, smell the stem of the melon, and shuck the corn. All acceptable actions in a grocery store to determine the quality of the produce. But flowers, how do you check their quality? My three-step process for DIY Flower Shopping and Arranging is a winner when choosing the best and freshest.
Step One
Look for the color that will look good where you want to put them. If it is a dinner table, make sure the flowers have little to no fragrance: carnations, hydrangea, alstroemerias, tulips, thistle, berries, daisies, chrysanthemum, gerbera, succulents, kale, iris, and anemone. If it is a mantle or side table, away from the delightful automatic from your food, more fragrant flowers can be used: roses, lilies, stock, lavender, and carnations.
Step Two
Look for the bouquet makeup. It should have some small flowers and leaves, some medium flowers, and a couple (ideally at least 3) large flowers. Luckily, since the DIY era has begun, that is how most bouquets come if they are packed by a knowledgeable grower. Unfortunately, there are still many grocers that get a multiple-box shipment of flowers, and the employees closest to those boxes are asked to put bouquets together.
Step Three
Peal back the packaging, and loosen the band or string holding the bouquet tightly together. Check out each flower and leaf. Are they broken, squished, brown, wilted, or mushy? If the answer is no, continue to the end of the stems. Are they straight and not peeling? Do they look curled or soggy? If the answer is still no, then you are good to go.
Fact: When flowers are shipped, the farm counts on the ends of the stems drying and sealing. Then the flowers can be transported with just the water already trapped in the stem. When the flowers reach their destination, all the stems need to be chopped off and put back in water so the flower can continue their process. The process is sucking up water into the stem and opening the flower petals. When you find the perfect bouquet. Take them home, and get that plastic off first thing! Don’t forget to cut all the stems again before you put them in water. That little packet of powder is an excellent treat for your new friends. It is also a must to get them out of the clump you found them in, make sure the flowers each get a good breath of their own fresh air. This is the perfect time to sort them by their like families. You will ensure that you don’t create the problems you were avoiding in Step Two.
If you would like to have a step-by-step process on how to arrange the flowers, please check out my post on flower arrangements. And if you want some suggestions on vases to collect, I have a post about that too. Please post your beautiful bouquets! We would all love to see them. And if you are a gardener and want to post your yard babies, please do. The same three steps apply. Color, small, medium, large, water, and air. Talk to you soon.
