Hi everyone, welcome to Kellogg Garden's Youtube Channel, I'm Kim. Today I'm going to take you
through the cut flower garden and show you some of my favorite tips to make sure that you have
a longer-lasting floral arrangement. But first, make sure you hit the subscribe button and the
notification bell so you can always get great content like this from Kellogg.
After months and months of hard work, it's so fun to be able to walk out to
the cut flower garden and pick flowers for an arrangement. I'm going to share with you
some tips that have helped to extend the vase life for my flowers. Okay so, what you're going
to need is a clean and sanitized bucket with warm water. Some clean and sharp pruners.
A vase or any kind of vessel to put your flowers in with water. Some flower food
and some hydrating treatment for anything like basil or hydrangeas, anything like that.
Start with a clean and sanitized bucket and base to prevent bacteria. That can plug up
the stems and prevent them from getting water. Harvest during the coolest part of the day in
the early morning or the evening when the flowers are hydrated, so they'll recover more quickly from
the shock of being cut. So, I try to find some of the longest stems possible just makes for a better
flower arrangement. So, here's one for instance, and this one has the best of both worlds; It has
the fuller blooms but it also has one that's just starting to open up. So, when these start
dying back you'll still have more flowers that are blooming. And now, I'm going to cut it at an angle
because that way it's going to be a lot easier to absorb the water
by having a maximum surface. Strip all the foliage that would be covered in the water in the vase.
The other thing I love about cosmos is the gorgeous foliage that it has.
So, all of this. First again, you're going to take the foliage that's going to be
in the water out, but it just adds so much interest.
So, I'm also going to get some snapdragons in here
and there are so many bees buzzing around. I'm trying to
keep my distance from them. This is such a beautiful cut flower. Snapdragons tend to last
longer in the vases, at least for me. And, it adds so much interest, it's such an interesting bloom.
This is all the chantilly mix, and all of these came from the same seed packet.
But, they're just soft and pretty, they'll go really well with my cosmos.
So, I've let the stems sit in the bucket and rest. Try to recuperate from all the trauma, and I've
added the floral food to the vase. I'm actually going to use a pitcher today, but I'm going to
show you all the different containers that you can use. And, I'm going to start with the greenery.
And then, I'm going to use that cinnamon basil that I talked about. Now, this is a great filler,
but like I said it's kind of a wimpy little thing, and it's hard for it to hydrate.
So, what I'm going to do is, I'm going to dip it, after I have cut it again at an angle, in
this instant hydrating treatment. So again, in my opinion, because I'm not the most formal creator
when it comes to floor arrangements, just mix it up, have fun, whatever looks good put it in there.
Re-cutting at an angle and placing them
strategically in the arrangement.
Again, you can be much more formal with this process.
Make sure when you're putting them in the bucket that you're actually putting the stems,
each one, separately in the bucket to make sure it's getting hydrated.
Because this one looks like it had some problems, and it didn't quite get the
hydration it needed. It's so much better to add the greenery at the beginning and then work
around it. And then, the taller stems are going to be on the inside.
I keep turning it around too because I don't want just one side to look good and that's
what I tend to do when I don't keep turning it. So, I kind of just turn it around as I'm going.
I try to balance out the color,
so I had two of the pinks, so I'm kind of trying to place them in different spots in the container.
And, the cosmos just add so much. I love them, my favorites.
Every single flower arrangement I have
has cosmos in them. You can use all kinds of different vessels for your flowers; You can use
ironstone pitchers, regular pitchers like this one, mason jars, galvanized. So, these are kind
of at their end, but you get the idea. So, I just used an old bucket, but I put them in mason jars,
so they held their water, normally they wouldn't, it would leak. So, you're able to have them stand
upright better, and you can use vintage buckets that have holes in them and it doesn't matter. So,
let's recap. Make sure you harvest during the coolest part of the day,
you need a bucket that is clean and sanitized with warm water and clean and sharp pruners.
Try to harvest some of the buds that are slightly opened rather than completely opened.
Don't forget to cut at an angle, remove foliage from stems where the water is going to hit
in the vase, and don't forget to leave your flowers in clean water
and let them rest in a cool spot for a few hours just to give them a chance to rehydrate.
And there you go! There are my cut flowers for the day.
Just a couple other tips, don't forget to add the floral preservative or flower food into the vase
and make sure you re-cut the stems at an angle before you place them in the vessel.
I hope some of these tips were helpful for you today. If you have any questions at all,
make sure you leave them in the comment section; And,
if you liked this video please tap the like button. Until next time, happy gardening!