This means that we stock up on a bouquet almost every other week.
Spoiler alert: sort of, but Im not sure its worth it.
Read on for my experience trying out this hack and updates on my bouquet week after week.
Ashley Chalmers for The Spruce
How the Hack Works
According to the videos, the secret is three-fold.
Normallyand especially in winterI go for something branchy, seasonal, and slightly wild looking.
Instead, I went for a simple bouquet of my favorite winter buds:ranunculuses.
Ashley Chalmers for The Spruce
Knowing that we might have a whole month together, I picked two small bouquets with the tightest buds.
Want more gardening tips?
Though, that was also a mistake in hindsight.
Ashley Chalmers for The Spruce
My first mistake was picking a flower with such delightfully wonky stems.
Unlike something more uniform, liketulipsor evenroses, these ranunculus stems were all different.
Some were long and thin, others were short and thick with lots of little stems sprouting out.
Ashley Chalmers for The Spruce
Discovery #2: Sugar Water Means Murky Water
On day two, I noticed two things.
First, the sugar had turned the water very cloudy.
On the other hand, a lot of the white buds had blown open and looked beautiful.
Ashley Chalmers for The Spruce
But, I decided to leave them until day five.
Almost all of the tight buds had opened, so the ranunculuses were nearly all in full bloom.
The problem, however, was exactly what I expected.
Ashley Chalmers for The Spruce
Enter: vase number three.
If nothing else, this hack is definitely useful for keeping an eye on things.
This definitely felt longer than my bouquets usually last.
Ashley Chalmers for The Spruce
Usually, they peak around day five and are ready to get tossed by day eight or nine.
But as pretty as these blooms looked, would they last another few weeks?
This felt like a whole new experimentwould any of these buds even open?
Ashley Chalmers for The Spruce
My seven-year-old, now fully invested, suggested trying chocolate in this vase instead of straight sugar.
I declined, but I appreciated her scientific method.
There were still enough to keep an arrangement going, though.
Ashley Chalmers for The Spruce
By day twelve, one of the white flowers had blown open so wide that its center was revealed.
I salvaged the final two and let them have their moment.
The Consensus
Did this make the bouquet last longer?
Ashley Chalmers for The Spruce
Technically, I think so, yes.
I tossed my final flower three weeks from the day I bought the bouquet.
Was it worth it?
To be honest, I didnt love having a new chore on my list every other day.
By the end, my daughter said it looked like the bouquet from a weddingand she wasnt wrong.
The tighter the arrangement got, the more bridal it looked.
