Tessa Cooper
I know I’m in the minority here, butValentine’s Dayis my favorite holiday.
I love the cheerful pops of red and pink it offers after a cold and gray January.
My intense admiration of flowers is another main reason this day ranks so high in my book.
Tessa Cooper
This year, I decided to do a little experiment ahead of the holiday.
The Experiment Controls
For each method I tested, I used roses from the same single bouquet.
I purchased a dozen red roses and divided them into four vases.
Tessa Cooper
I thoroughly cleaned each vase before adding the first round of water and test substances.
Each vase received eight fluid ounces of water in addition to the additives I tested.
I decided to test out the following popular methods that have been making their rounds.
Tessa Cooper
The sugar provides the flowers with the nutrients they need to thriveit’s like a little flower cocktail.
Each time I changed the water, I added a fourth of the packet and stirred.
Flower food typically contains acombination of sugar, citric acid, and bleach.
Crushed Aspirin
Blooming plants, roses especially, thrive in acidic soil.
Days 1-3
The first day and a half, all of the roses seemed very perky.
Their stems were straight, and you wouldn’t have been able to spot a big difference.
But by day three, you could already start to see the direction the experiment was heading.
The flower food group was still thriving.
The blooms were even starting to open more, and they were standing straight up.
It appeared that the roses were deteriorating from the bottom up.
The bases of the stems were starting to turn yellow, and the leaves were already dry and crispy.
The bleach keeps the water clean, and the citric acid balances the water’s PH.
Plus, it already contains just the right amount of sugar.
As for why the aspirin failed, I have a very unscientific theory.
The same goes for the vodka and sugar group.
Moving forward, I am sticking with the flower food packets that come with myValentine’s Day gift.
There seems to be less room for error, especially when you follow the directions on the packet well.
