How to have beautiful roses and flower arrangements too

A cheap natural trick for beautiful roses:  flatten a banana peel and bury it approximately 1 inch deep at the base of each rose bush. Bananas contain Potassium and roses love potassium. Potassium also helps with disease resistance too - for roses as well as humans :-)

A few tips for keeping fresh flowers such as roses and other blooms fresh longer in arrangements:

* Remove any leaves that would be under the water, But don't remove the thorns from rose stems. This seems to shorten the life of their blooms,. Most florists remove the thorns for safety reasons but you can leave them on the ones you bring in from your own garden. 

*Lukewarm water is best for most cut flowers, but use Cold water for flowers that grew from bulbs like daffodils, Tulips, etc.

  *Do not place fruit near your cut flowers.  Fruit releases natural gas that will cause your flowers to die or wilt sooner. 

  *Keep your arrangement away from direct sunlight too.

 Here is a recipe for homemade flower bloom preservative:

2 Tablespoons Lemon Juice to 1 qt water, 1 Tablespoon Sugar & 1/2 teas bleach, 1 aspirin and a penny - yes, a penny! It's the copper. Drop a penny in a vase of tulips to keep the flowers from opening too soon.