Droopy!

I often get told “no gerbera; they don’t last and their heads droop”. Just yesterday I was asked not to include them in an order for this reason, so I thought I’d share with you some I have at home.

I bought them on the 21st March; they were on ‘Special Offer’ so were most likely already a good few days (possibly even a week) old by the time I took them home. I cut their stems, put them in water and as you can see, three weeks later they’ve not drooped and are still very much alive and thriving.

There are no pins through their necks or wires in their heads holding them upright. There’s no flower food (a total gimmick) lemonade, sugar or any other random thing you may have been told to add to the water. They are literally stood in just a couple of inches of tap water. Nothing more, nothing less.

I have completed a water change every 3 days and each time I’ve taken a mere sliver from the bottom of the stem – this helps stop the bottom from sealing over and not being able to take up any more water. Thats it. I’ve done nothing else to them. In fact, for their first 5 days of life they sat on my bathroom sink in front of a window (do not do as I have done in this situation though. Please always keep flowers away from windowsills and any other source of heat.) the saving grace being its north facing and gets no sun - not that we’ve had any sun anyway!