How-to Preserve
Fresh-Cut Flowers and Roses

Preserve the fresh beauty of freshly florist delivered cut flowers, long-stemmed roses, and floral bouquets for years in their natural vivid colors without a lot of expense or work.

To perpetuate freshly cut flowers and roses:

Simply mix up a combination of four parts of borax to one part of silica gel. Stir your mixture by hand; run the borax through a sieve before mixing with the silica gel to remove any lumps.

Select all of your flowers to be preserved as soon as possible after picking. Cut off the stems next to the base of the flower. In the bottom of an air-tight plastic bag or jar place a layer of your preserving powder, then lay a flower blossom face down on the powder. The cover over completely the blossom with additional powder. Repeat this procedure until the bag or jar is full. Put on your lid, or if using a bag, press down on it lightly to force out all the air. Your bag or jar must be made air-tight!

Now place your flowers and powder mixture away in a dry indoor setting for about four weeks and leave them undisturbed.

At the end of the four weeks, open your container gently and remove the blossoms one at a time and gently blow the powder off them. You can concoct a stem by running a piece of florist's wire through the lower side of each flower blossom. Now you can enjoy garden fresh preserved flowers.

To lenghthen the essence of freshly cut flowers and roses:

To maintan the vitality of freshly cut flowers, place small amount of ammonium chloride, potassium nitrate, sodium carbonate, or camphor in the water in which you have the flower stems inserted. These chemicals will keep the flowers fresh by retarding germ growth. They also energize the cells of the flowers. However, this is not permanent like the preserving treatment with your borax and gel solution.

Preserving flowers allows you to save your pleasant memories via keepsakes of a wedding corsage, gift flower bouquets, Valentine's Day flowers, boutonnieres,or other special occasions forever.

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