by Arlene Wright-Correll

Created on: February 07, 2010

Over my 75 years I have received many bouquets of flowers and some of them have been roses. I have also treated myself to many bouquets of flowers, including roses during the bleak months over winter.

 However, I have lots of roses growing in my gardens and they need the same care once you cut them and bring them into my home as the delivered ones do.

 Choosing the vase depends on whether I am cutting roses from my shrub roses, climbing roses or tea roses.  My shrub roses require smaller, shorter vases and often my climbing roses do also.  However, my tea roses usually require a taller vase.

 I fill my chosen vase with lukewarm water and since I usually have small packages of floral preservative laying around I empty a package into the water. However, that is not really necessary.

 I remove all leaves that will be below the water line with a sharp scissors or knife avoiding scraping the stems or cutting the bark.  Leaves left in the water will promote bacterial growth and shorten the life span of your cut roses or any flower for that matter.

 For my shrub or climbing roses I do not do much arranging with them as they generally fall into their own arrangement. However, for my tea-roses, which are taller, I often take some floral tape and at times have just used some masking tape, even once running out of both I resorted to cutting narrow strips of duct tape and I tape a grid across the top of my vase.  Into each space I put a rose.  This keeps them from falling all over each other and it also allows me to decide whether I want them all the same height or if I want the ones in the middle to be taller than the ones on the edge of the arrangement.

 I make sure when I cut the rose stems at an angle regardless of what kind I am arranging. 

 I add fresh lukewarm water each day and about every 2 to 4 days I completely change my water.  At that time I may well snip about ¼ to ½ inch off the bottom of each rose as this ensures the roses will last longer.   This is also the time I may need to remove any leaves that now might be below the water line since my roses are now shorter.

 As the days go on I may remove any discolored blossoms or petals thus maintaining a fresh look in my arrangement.

 In order to keep my arrangement from dehydrating I keep them out of direct sunlight, away from appliances that give off heat such as my TV, away from fireplaces that may be lighted and especially away from my heating vents or air conditioner vents.

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