How to Keep your Bargain Bucket Flowers Perkier for Longer.

I love cut flowers! I have two designated areas for flowers in the front room and nothing makes me happier than when both vases are full of blooms. Ed usually buys me flowers for the larger vase, so the smaller vase is up to me to fill. I am aware that cut flowers aren't the best when thinking about green choices, so to try and balance this out I make a big effort to buy flowers from the reduced buckets. I like the feeling that I am saving them from just being thrown out and wasted. 

This particular bunch cost me £3.30 and lasted me for a good week and a half, even without any flower food being included. I owe the longevity of these blooms to a crafty little concoction, which is super cheap and easy to make.    

It is really simple to make a homemade substitute for flower food, all you need is sugar. I use regular white granulated sugar, but you can use whatever sugar you have in your cupboards, as long as it dissolves easily in water. 

For a bunch of flowers this size, put about 5 tablespoons of sugar in with clean, cold water and give it a stir until the majority of the sugar has dissolved. Then put your flowers in a vase and enjoy them for a long time. You can also use lemonade, especially if you have some that has gone flat (I think this works mainly because of the sugar content). 

I have found that flowers with thick stems, like tulips, last for up to a week and a half whilst flowers with woodier stems, like roses, are prone to drooping much quicker after being retrieved from the reduced bucket. So keep this in mind when doing your bargain rummaging. 

Happy Perky Flowers.

Much Love,

Kirst

House Plants to Hurry Spring Along.

It feels like winter has returned this past week! We have had snow, ice and cold, blustery wind. This time of year I love to have beautiful flowers and plants in the house to remind me that it won't be long until I can get busy at the allotment and go adventuring in the countryside. 

The Auricular is my all time favourite plant. When I was little my mum and I use to walk down the country lanes to this lovely ladies house, she lived in a little cottage that smelled of lavender and always had a log fire crackling away. Before we went home she would always give me something, whether it was 50p or some dolls clothes she had made. This one time she gave me a beautiful auricular that was a dusky blue I think. That little plant survived for years in the garden. So when I saw this pretty plant in the market for £1 I just couldn't resist. It has been in constant bloom for over 2 weeks and has brightened my day every time I have seen it. I think I will plant it in the allotment when it has finished flowering  alongside Frasier the Christmas tree.  

Lovely Edward usually buys me flowers then the old ones have gone over, I usually put the dead flowers in the wormery or on the compost heap at the allotment so they don't go to waste. I think Ed buys me this colour occasionally because his favourite colour is orange. My favourite cut flowers are probably either roses or big lilies as they are pretty and they make the house smell sweet.

I bought this plant from the Gardener's World show a couple of years ago, it was very pretty and the older plants were as big and flat as saucers. I think I bought the freak! The mummy plant has grown down on the weird stalk and has now grown babies around the base. I think it is kinda odd but pretty, especially now the baby plants are growing on it. I want to research to figure out when I can split the young plants off the mummy.

Hope you have had a productive Thursday and have some exciting plans looming for the weekend.

xkx