Do you know that fresh flowers can change your home atmosphere by enhancing your creativity to making you happier? Numerous psychological and physiological studies have shown that fresh flowers have a direct effect on our bodies and mental health. Stop wasting your money on useless things; here in Mauritius, we get flowers all year round. You’ll be shocked by how a bunch of fresh flowers can bring instant happiness!

10 benefits of fresh flowers

1. They instantly put receivers in a good mood, sometimes for days.
2. Also, fresh flowers in offices cause workers to relax and so diminish stress levels.
3. To add to this, they reduce anxiety and worry and cause the brain to switch into relaxed mode.
4. Studies have shown that people who receive fresh flowers tend to recover faster than those who don’t.
5. Furthermore, memory capacity in elderly people has been seen to increase as well as socialization.
6. Fresh flowers from the garden embellish the house at no price.
7. They can be used in infusions to treat minor health problems like colds, coughs, headaches etc.
8. Radiant blooms give your house a feeling of festivity and comfort.
9. Moreover, fresh flowers initiate creativity in a person.
10. They are good motivators; by expecting future opening of buds it encourages a person to keep moving forward.

How to arrange flowers

Basically, arrangement depends on you, but once you have your flowers in hand, the best place to put them is where you will often see them: office table, kitchen, bedroom, living room.

You can place your flowers in vases or use kitchen utensils such as cups, bottles, old kettle etc. Just a few ideas to remember:

• Place long-stemmed flowers in tall clear vases.
• Use old glass bottles for long stemmed flowers.
• Put short, single flowers in teacups or old perfume bottles.
• Get a bunch of bright flowers and put them in jugs, or old kettles. Works best with old water cans on garden tables.

Which colors to choose from?

Like the saying goes, taste and colors are not to be discussed. Go for whatever makes you happy or you think someone else may like.

It’s just good to note that certain colours invoke specific feelings

• Red – Passion, excitement, love
• Blue – Serenity, peace, trust
• Yellow – Fun, joy, sunshine
• Green – Tranquillity, safety, calm
• Orange – energy, excitement, warmth
• Purple – arrogance, mystery, royalty
• White – Innocence, purity, simplicity
• Pink – Romance, sweetness, tenderness
• Brown – Home, simplicity, warmness

Weather also plays a role in choosing the right colored flowers. For instance in summer you’d go for light colored bouquets while in winter you prefer dark colored flowers. Well, again, it is a question of choice. For me personally, when it’s cold I love bright yellow, orange flowers with foliage which reminds me of the summer days ahead. And in summers I prefer simple bouquets of dark colored flowers. Finally, it’s all up to you.

Don’t throw away your dead flowers!

Most flowers can stay fresh for one week, although flowers like chrysanthemums remain robust for up to two weeks. When you see that the petals are starting to fall off, remove your flowers from your vase and pull out all the petals. What will you do with them now?

1. Potpourri – let the petals dry out in the sun or in an oven. Put them in a tight jar and add a few drops of essential oils: rose oil, lavender oil, whatever you like. Close your jar and shake it well; let it rest for 3-4 weeks. Your wonderful smelling potpourri is ready!
2. Bath – use petals especially rose petals with rose oil for a relaxing moment in your water bath. It helps to refresh you and calm you down.
3. Decoration – use your petals to decorate tables, couches, beds etc.
4. Press them – when the flowers are dead, you can press them in books until they become flat enough. You can then use them as decorations for cards, in diaries, for frames, candles or to decorate anything you like.
5. Dead bouquet – put the dead flowers to dry in the sun and plenty of air to prevent microbial and fungal decay. You can spray with an anti-microbial agent to be on the safe side. Let them dry for a week. Remove them from the sun and arrange them in a vase the way you like it.

Flower care tips

1. Use clean vases/containers and clean water to prevent the proliferation of bacteria.
2. For your flowers to last longer, prune the leaves at the bottom of the stem or remove the leaves that can fall into the vase.
3. Cut the stems of your flowers at an angle with a knife. If they are cut bluntly, it will affect the transport of water along the stem.
4. Put your flowers in open spaces, not direct heat nor cold.
5. Change water every 2 days so the stem can pick up clean water.
6. If you have it, use flower food for the flowers to get their doses of chemicals; if not, you just take care of them properly!