Velvet Brown - Home Accessories

The cut flower to buy in March has to be the tulip - one of our favourites.  Always buy tulips when the flower head is closed but showing good colour, the leaves should be crisp and green.  When you get your tulips home, leave them in their paper then cut approx half inch off the base of the stems.  Stand the tulips in tepid water, still wrapped in their paper, for approx an hour before arranging.  This will ensure your tulips stay straight and firm.  You can then arrange your tulips in a clean vase or jug, but don’t put too much water in the vase - about 4 or 5 cm of water is plenty. 

Tulips are greedy flowers and will continue to grow in length in the vase.  By topping up your tulips with fresh water, little and often, you will help prolong their vase life.  As we like to say ‘Keep them hungry’ ! To keep your tulips tidy, you can trim their stems every 3-4 days although we love it when they continue to grow and become all wiggly and take on their own personality! Some of our favourite tulips available in good florists are: ‘Strong Gold’ (yellow - very long lasting), ‘Princess Irene’ (Orange with a mauve stripe), White Weber Parrot Tulips (a parrot-tulip with a hint of pink), Flaming Parrot (a long-stemmed French Tulip with yellow and red stripes).

For a fascinating insight into the history of tulips, read ‘The Tulip’ by Anna Pavord.  See www.annapavord.com for details.

This entry was posted on Saturday, March 8th, 2008 at 10:58 pm and is filed under Floristry Tips. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.