I love having flowers in the house.  Bright, fresh-faced daisies, elegant but bold peonies, delicate wildflowers or even great lacy bunches of babies breath seem to bring the sunshine inside and add that "Oh these?  Yes, I just snipped a few blooms from my meditation gardens as I was strolling the grounds with Chauncy this morning," feeling to a room. 

Shockingly, my apartment complex does not, in fact, have a meditation garden, or, unfortunately, a guy named Chauncy.  This means that, generally, I have to buy my blooms and confuse the hell out of my husband by calling him Chauncy.  (Maybe I could rename the cat...)

The fact that purchased flowers are not exactly cheap (and I'm not exactly rich) means that I want to make them last as long as possible.  The all-knowing inter-webs have a slew of recipes for making your flowers last.  But which one truly works the best?

In order to find out, I'm conducting a Flower Power experiment.  (No goggles or Bunsen burner required.)  I'm taking the top 8 most common Flower-Water-Preservative suggestions and pitting them against one another in the Flower Power Death Match of Doom!  (Everything sounds better when introduced like a Monster Truck Rally.  Frankly, I think ratings of political debates would go through the roof if they tried it...)

The Experiment 

I chose roses to work with as they tend to be pretty common in arrangements.  Each rose was cut to the same length and added to a labeled glass with one cup of water.

The first glass is my control and has no additive.  The remaining seven received a preservative.  Below are the contenders

1.  1 Cup Water
2.  1 Cup Water + 1 tablet of Asprin 

3.  1 Cup Water + 1 Tbsp. Apple Cider Vinegar & 1 Tbsp. Sugar

4.  1 Cup Water + 1/8 tsp. Bleach & 1 tsp. Sugar 

5.  1 Cup Water + 1 Copper Penny & 1 tsp. Sugar 

6.  1 Cup Water + 1 Tbsp. Vodka & 1 tsp. Sugar 

7.  1 Cup Water + 2 Tbsp. Sprite 
8.  1 Cup Water + 1/2 Packet of Grocery Store Flower Food 


Observations
 
- The Asprin water appears murky.  This may subside as it continues to dissolve, but it's something
to keep an eye on. Even if the rose in Asprin looks the best after a week, I may not be likely to use it in a clear vase.
- Likewise, the penny could be mildly distracting in a clear vase.  It doesn't look bad... I just have a feeling it might quickly draw attention away from the roses.
- Preservatives 6 and 7 seem like a party, and, should I partake of too much "Flower Power," preservatives 1 and 2 will help me the next morning!   Okay, perhaps this isn't as useful...




I can't lie - setting the whole thing up was kind of a pain.  But now that I have my odd-but-still-strangely-pretty experiment/centerpiece, I'm excited to see what the results are.  Stay tuned to find out which Preservative Powerhouse ranked highest and made my pretty blooms last the longest!