Five common flower care mistakes

It’s easy to feel overwhelmed when looking for advice on plants and flowers. There is so much to remember and you are always worried about doing the wrong thing and accidently killing your houseplant. In order to keep your houseplants and cut flowers fresh as a daisy without all the jargon, simply follow our list of what NOT to do with your plants and flowers for a stress-free experience.

1. Smash or pierce the stems, or use blunt scissors, as this destroys the water vessels and inhibits water uptake, and causes bacteria to multiply more quickly and over a larger area. It also causes the flower undue stress which shortens its life.
2. Put flowers near ripening fruit – it releases tiny amounts of ethylene gas which prematurely ages flowers. Dying flowers do the same so always remove them from the vase.
3. Place flowers in a draught which chills the flowers, or in bright sunlight which encourages bacteria to breed. Keep them away from very warm central heating.
4. Put copper coins, aspirin, lemonade, or bleach in the water. They’re popular tricks but they don’t work, and they can’t feed your flowers adequately. Homemade formulas are messy, time-consuming and do more harm than good. 
5. Mix daffodils and narcissi with other flowers. They emit latex from their stems when cut, which shortens the life of other flowers. Keep daffodils alone in vases, or use the special bulb cut flower food which makes them safe to mix with other flowers. You can place the daffodils in a bucket of water for at least 12 hours on their own and then arrange them with other flowers, making sure you do not cut the stem again.