Over the years I have heard several varying methods to keeping cut hydrangeas fresh in a vase longer. And if you are anything like me then this information has overwhelmed you with not knowing which method works the best. So I decided to put this to the test. I did a cut hydrangea care experiment and documented it all so I could myself know which method really worked best.
So in true science experiment rules from grade school I used the same size containers, the water was the same temperature (boiled) in each glass container and the amount of “preservative” was the same in each glass that was added. I also made sure that one of the containers was just plain boiling water without anything added.
The preservatives that were used were: alum, hydrogen peroxide, granulated sugar, flower food and boiling water.
All the hydrangeas were cut at the same time from the same bush. I boiled water and then filled each of the glass containers and added the same amount of preservative in each and then made sure to label each container.
The containers were placed on the mantel in our living room and I documented each day how they were doing.
In the end the material that did the best was the flower food. My criteria for this was that it had not started to wilt, however it had started to show some rust spots and started to dry out. I was shocked that this was the one that performed the best since there are so many “secret” ways out there on the internet. You can see from the pictures below that the hydrangeas had started to dry out and therefore changed color by day 9.
