Making a Bouquet Last Longer

I love getting fresh cut flowers - especially when they are California grown!  I find that I emphasis certain things in my classroom that I don't really mean too - 100% juice and CA Grown labels are two examples.  When a student brought me a bouquet of flowers the last day of school it was a nice surprise but when I said that I especially love them because they are grown in our state (and pointed to the 'CA GROWN' label) he smiled really big and said "I know how much you like those!" it was an even better surprise!

When you receive a mixed bouquet some of the flowers last longer than others so instead of throwing the entire bouquet out you can follow these simple steps to get a few new bouquets of of one old bouquet.

Here is the bouquet after two weeks of sitting as my kitchen table centerpiece.  You can see some of the flowers still look great while others are drooping.

So, I sorted them.

I placed the yellow flowers (are these some kind of daisy?) into a white pitcher.

Didn't like it so I took the candle out of the candle holder and put the flowers in - love it!

I put the orange gerbera daisies into a bud vase (a tall shot glass would work just as well).  I decided to experiment and see if they would perk up again since I cut the stems.

And within a day they perked right back up!

Lastly, I bunched all of the red gerbera daisies . . .

then put floral tape around the stems.  I used the floral tape since the stems didn't hold up too well in the original bouquet. 

It worked quite well and I placed them in the white pitcher. 

I used ice cubes to help them stand up straight in the pitcher and just an FYI . . . that is a BAD idea when you place said pitcher full of ice and water on a summer day on a wood surface.  It is all so clear to me now but I guess I wasn't thinking at the time!  I no have some water damage on the lazy susan . . . oops!

There was how to make a two week old bouquet last another two or more weeks!  Do you have an tips for making bouquets last longer?