I Tried 3 Methods to Keep My Roses Fresh—Now I'll Use This One Every Valentine's Day (2024)

I know I'm in the minority here, but Valentine's Day is 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. So, it should come as no surprise that I am always looking for ways I can stretch the lifespan of my Valentine's bouquet.

This year, I decided to do a little experiment ahead of the holiday. I tested out three popular hacks for keeping flowers alive longer, and the results were a bit of a surprise.

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. I reserved one vase for the control group of just water so that I could have a good reference point.

I thoroughly cleaned each vase before adding the first round of water and test substances. Additionally, I made sure to refresh each solution and give the flowers a clean cut at an angle every two days. Each vase received eight fluid ounces of water in addition to the additives I tested.

I'm already on the flower side of TikTok, so the algorithm has been showing me bouquet health hacks for quite a while now. I decided to test out the following popular methods that have been making their rounds.

The Methods

Vodka and Sugar

The idea behind this flower hack is that the vodka keeps the bacteria in the water at bay and prevents ethylene production. Ethylene is a gas that flowers produce when you cut them, and it's their signal to start naturally wrapping up their lifespan by wilting. The sugar provides the flowers with the nutrients they need to thrive—it's like a little flower co*cktail.

Too much vodka can harm the flowers, so I just added three drops of vodka and one teaspoon of sugar to the eight ounces of water.

Flower Food

My bouquet came with one packet of flower food, so I divided it into fourths. Each time I changed the water, I added a fourth of the packet and stirred. Flower food typically contains a combination of sugar, citric acid, and bleach.

This combination is supposed to keep the water clean and pH balanced while also providing the flowers with the nutrients they need to keep blooming.

Crushed Aspirin

Blooming plants, roses especially, thrive in acidic soil. By adding crushed aspirin to a bouquet's water, you elevate the acidity and mimic the environment of the soil. For this experiment, I crushed two baby aspirins with a mortar and pestle and added them to the water.

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.

Surprisingly, the control group that received just water was doing second best, with the stems still standing stiff and only the outer petals showing a few signs of wilting.

However, the vodka and sugar group was starting to look a little droopy, and the aspirin group also wasn't doing its best. 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.

Days 4-7

After day three, I decided to quarantine the vodka and sugar vase and aspirin vase on the other side of the kitchen. I once interviewed a florist for another story, and she told me that the ethylene that flowers produce as they wilt can actually cause nearby flowers and produce to ripen faster.

On day seven, I placed all the vases back together for this photo to compare how they were doing. As you can see, the vodka and sugar roses and the aspirin roses went off to flower heaven. The control group was still hanging in there, but the edges of the petals were starting to turn a bit dark.

On the other end, the flower food roses looked almost as vibrant as the day I got them since they were really opening up. I'm writing this article the day after this photo was taken, and they are still alive and well.

Conclusion: Flower Food is Tried and True

It turns out that flower food seems to balance all the benefits that the other methods promised. 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. While I only used baby aspirin, in retrospect, I think I should have just added one tablet since I was using such a small amount of water. I wonder if using two tablets made the water a bit too acidic and backfired on the roses' health.

The same goes for the vodka and sugar group. While I don't think three drops of vodka was too much, I do think a half teaspoon less would have been more appropriate since excess sugar can actually cause bacteria to grow.

Moving forward, I am sticking with the flower food packets. There seems to be less room for error, especially when you follow the directions on the packet well.