How To Make Your Flower Arrangements Last Longer

I think we’ve all been there – a beautiful bouquet is delivered to our door but we only get a couple days of enjoyment before it starts to look sickly and ends up in the trash. Glancing at the bouquet currently on my desk, I realized that it has been there for 11 days now and is still looking pretty lovely:

Sure, it’s much smaller than the original, but it’s still nice to look at. And isn’t that the point of flower arrangements after all? Since it’s often lucky to even get a week out of a bouquet, I thought I’d share some of my tips for making them last longer.

One caveat: if you’re the “set it and forget it” type, these tips are probably not for you. Okay, let’s get started.

Ignore the Instructions on the “Flower Food” Packet

Most bouquets come with a packet of flower food made of some weird crystalline stuff. They may tell you to mix the entire packet with a quart of water and then only pour part of it into your vase. But who really wants to have a random quart of flower food solution sitting around just for a bouquet of flowers? This is especially unrealistic if you have a bouquet delivered to your work where you’re lucky to have a vase let alone an empty container to store the food solution in.

Instead of pouring it all in the vase at once and hoping for the best, use just a little bit at a time, which leads me to the next tip.

Monitor the Water and Change It Often

Just like you wouldn’t want to reuse your bath water, cut flowers do better when their water gets changed often. Changing the water every other day is great, but every two days is okay too (in the case of leaving them in the office over a weekend).

The most important thing is to check the water level regularly. If it looks low but it has only been a day, change the water. Depending on the sunlight and temperature conditions, your flowers could be very thirsty! The more you change it, the better, so always err on the side of too much.

Each time you change the water, add a little bit of the plant food to it – maybe about 1/4 to 1/2 tsp. Just a bit of a sprinkle. Swish it around to help it dissolve.

Pick, Prune, and Trim

Lastly, it’s important to get rid of the flowers and leaves that no longer look healthy. If petals are drying out or falling off, or leaves are yellowing, get rid of them! If a flower bloom looks good but has yellow leaves, just snip off the leaves. If you remove the dead weight there will be more nutrients left for the ones that are still thriving – survival of the fittest in a way.

The stems will likely turn yellow and/or mushy at some point. If that happens, trim them down a bit – down to where they’re green again if possible.  Trim them on an angle, with a knife if you have access to one.  Scissors tend to squeeze the bottoms of the stems together, collapsing their veins and making it harder for them to get water.

So there you have it. A few simple tips to getting the most out of your bouquets.  A little TLC can go a long way!

My Vacuum Cleaner Dilemma

I’m writing this post in hopes that someone else on the brink of madness will find it reassuring.  Ever since I moved into an apartment of my own, I’ve had issues with vacuum cleaners.  My normal vacuuming regimen is as follows: vacuum carpet, switch to hose attachment and vacuum bare floors/tile/linoleum/etc. in preparation for floor scrubbing.

Here’s the problem: every time use the hose attachment, my vacuum blows dust, hair, and debris out the bottom. Pretty much defeats the purpose of vacuuming in the first place.  I resorted to borrowing a canister vacuum for when I need to do bare floors.

I’ve had two or three vacuums, different brands (Hoover, Bissell, Eureka), all with the same problem.

One Last Shot…sort of

With the move to our first place rapidly approaching (read: more floors to vacuum), we sought to find THE solution to my woes.  So Jason hit up Consumer Reports. The most highly recommended was a Hoover T-Series WindTunnel Rewind. It was on sale at Target so we decided to try it out on a whim. Jason faithfully put it together and vacuumed the carpet a bit so we could simulate the normal routine. Then came the moment of truth: we switched to the hose and vacuumed the kitchen floor.  After a few moments I lifted up the vacuum and, much to my dismay, I had the SAME PROBLEM.  Dust and hair on the floor right where the vacuum had been sitting.  At this point, I was flabbergasted.  Not only was it zero improvement over our current vacuum, the hose itself was stupidly short.  Keeping this hunk of disappointment was not an option.

Thinking I couldn’t possibly be the only person in the world with this problem, we took to the Internet to see if anyone had the same problem or recommendations. We found nothing. I was in quite a state and refused to believe I was the only person with this issue. How was this possible?  Do people just not use the hose attachment much? How is it that in the past 5 years, I’ve had the same problem with every vacuum I’ve tried?

Sorry, Consumer Reports

We decided that maybe Consumer Reports was wrong. Maybe we’re not typical consumers. After all, the GE Profile line of ranges was the highest rated by Consumer Reports but every time we looked at them in person they just felt…cheap. On the other hand, Electrolux was not quite as highly rated by Consumer Reports, but actual owners had given overwhelmingly positive reviews.

Hello, Dyson

After returning the Hoover, Jason stopped at Best Buy to look at some Dyson models. By some stroke of luck, the lady he spoke with actually knew what he meant about vacuums spitting out dust and hair when sitting on bare floors.  Finally! She had experienced the same thing until she got a Dyson herself.  Oh, sweet validation!

I know what you’re thinking. That’s one of those designer brands that is popular because the commercial voice-overs have an accent! I was thinking that too. I was also trying to swallow the price tag.

So we did the same test: vacuum carpet, move to bare floor.  The Dyson is a very different creature compared to other vacuums. But different can be good. It features a button to turn off the floor brushes for when you’re using the ‘wand.’ And that seemed to do the trick.  I lifted up the vacuum. Nothing? Nothing!

I’m Not Saying Go Buy A Dyson

My main point of this post is that not all vacuum cleaners are created equal. Don’t be afraid to try them until you find one that suits your needs. You may have to try a few to find the right one. Just be sure to get them from a place with a solid return policy.

Thoughts on the Couch to 5k Program

The Backstory

While jogging one night at the gym recently, it occurred to me that at one point I wrote a post about my first week of the Couch to 5k program.  Almost 2 years ago? When did that happen? Or better yet, how?

Now I remember.  Not long after I hit publish on that post, things changed dramatically.  We had just moved our wedding date up a year (meaning only 2 months to plan) followed a death in the family.  What followed was pretty much a roller coaster for the next 4 months. Oh and somewhere in there I changed jobs and Jason had outpatient surgery.  Yeesh.

The Program

Though I never got around to posting about it, I did complete the couch to 5k program.  And I can undoubtedly say IT WORKED!  I finished the program sometime in August 2010, and that September I ran my first 5k from start to finish with no walking.  I was pretty proud, even though my time wasn’t anything special.

Time, Not Distance

I really think that the program works because it lays out time and distance for each day.  The distance estimates are for someone jogging about 6mph, which I was definitely not close to.  I always used the time provided instead. Once you jog for 30 minutes at any speed, things start to get easier.  You can also repeat a week or two of the program whenever you feel the need.

I wasn’t jogging five kilometers on week 9 of the program, but it gave me a jumping off point for the next few weeks.  I just kept adding time until I was running for 38 minutes straight, which was a 5k for me.  For my first race following completion of C25K, the Capital City River Run in September 2010, I came in at 36:51.

Keep At It

After accomplishing my goal of jogging an entire 5k, I began to work on my speed.  Over the next 6-7 months I gradually increased my speed. In April 2011 I finished the Komen 5k in 31:05.  Not winning any medals, but a personal best.

At Present

The Komen 5k came just before Jason and I went on our long-awaited honeymoon.  I’ve been continuing to work at it and am pretty happy with the results – a 5k is now a weeknight workout for me, rather than a special occasion.  It’s slow progress, but progress nonetheless.

I plan to keep working on my speed and hopefully do at least one 5k this summer.

Bottom line: I’d recommend the C25K program to anyone.