{"id":1999,"date":"2012-05-25T13:35:00","date_gmt":"2012-05-25T04:35:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/2012-05-25\/1999"},"modified":"2012-05-25T13:35:20","modified_gmt":"2012-05-25T04:35:20","slug":"lifehack-keep-cut-flowers-fresh-with-a-splash-of-bleach","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/2012-05-25\/1999","title":{"rendered":"Lifehack: Keep Cut Flowers Fresh With a Splash of Bleach"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n\n
\nNOTE<\/b>: Images with an icon next to them have been artificially shrunk to better fit your screen; click the icon to restore them, in place, to their regular size.\n<\/div>\n\n\n
<\/a>\nNikon D700 + Voigtl\u00e4nder 125mm f\/2.5 — 1<\/sup>\/<\/big>1000 sec, f<\/span>\/2.5, ISO 400 —\nimage data<\/a><\/span>\nStill Fresh<\/span>\nnine days in the vase\n<\/div>\n\n

I lost the last two days of my life to a cold<\/span> that started coming on while writing the previous post.\nStarting to feel better today, a light<\/span> and airy subject like flowers helps to brighten the mood.<\/p>\n\n

I have the opposite of a green thumb... I kill every<\/span> plant I touch,<\/span> it\nseems, regardless of whether it's potted or vased. When I get<\/span> cut flowers\nfrom the florist (e.g. for Mother's Day, etc.) I sometimes<\/span> get that\nexpensive liquid you add to the vase water that's supposed to extend the\nlife of the flowers, but it has never seemed to work for me, and the\nflowers go bad after a couple<\/span> of days. (This is after, mind you, re-cutting\nthe stems crisply at an angle and all that stuff that's supposed to help\nthem thrive.)<\/p>\n\n\n

<\/a>\nNikon D700 + Voigtl\u00e4nder 125mm f\/2.5 — 1<\/sup>\/<\/big>1000 sec, f<\/span>\/4, ISO 800 —\nimage data<\/a><\/span>\nCreamy<\/span>\nhelped along by a touch<\/span> of Lightroom's “negative clarity”<\/span>\n<\/div>\n\n

Last week when getting flowers for Fumie for our 14th<\/sup> wedding\nanniversary, I thought<\/span> to ask the florist about that keep-em-going liquid\nstuff, and he told me his secret: just add a dash<\/span> of bleach to the water\nwhen you first fill it, and you're done.<\/p>\n\n

I was skeptical, to say the least. Bleach smells!<\/p>\n\n

He said that you don't have to change the water... the bleach kills the bacteria, which is what sends\nthe flowers bad before their time. How much? Just a capful.<\/span><\/p>\n\n

<\/a>\nNikon D700 + Voigtl\u00e4nder 125mm f\/2.5 — 1<\/sup>\/<\/big>1000 sec, f<\/span>\/2.5, ISO 800 —\nimage data<\/a><\/span>\n<\/div>\n\n

It sure works.<\/p>\n\n

These flowers have been sitting in front of the window for nine days\nnow, and still look pretty fresh. I'd added<\/span> a small<\/span> splash of bleach, which\ndid smell at first because the concentrate was exposed as it was getting\npoured, but it was never noticed after that. These particular flowers don't\nhave much of a smell<\/span> themselves to begin with, so it's not like a strong<\/span>\nflower smell was merely covering up the bleach smell.<\/p>\n\n

An added bonus of not having to change the water is not having to recut\nthe stems every day. It's truly<\/span> a “fire and forget” kind of thing.<\/p>\n\n

<\/a>\nNikon D700 + Voigtl\u00e4nder 125mm f\/2.5 — 1<\/sup>\/<\/big>1000 sec, f<\/span>\/2.5, ISO 400 —\nimage data<\/a><\/span>\n<\/div>\n\n

I wish I would have known about this long ago.<\/p>\n\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I lost the last two days of my life to a cold that started coming on while writing the previous post. Starting to feel better today, a light and airy subject like flowers helps to brighten the mood.<\/p>

I have the opposite of a green thumb... I kill every plant I touch, it seems, regardless of whether it's potted or vased. When I get cut flowers from the florist (e.g. for Mother's Day, etc.) I sometimes get that expensive liquid you add to the vase water that's supposed to extend the life of the flowers, but it has never seemed [...]","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1,6],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1999"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1999"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1999\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1999"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1999"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1999"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}