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21st Mar 2021

The clever hacks that keep your tulips from drooping

Trine Jensen-Burke

Want to stop tulips drooping? Or bring them back from the dead?

Tulip season is in full bloom – however, once you have splashed out on a bunch, you might be keen to know how to get the longest out of your flowers.

Tulips are at their prettiest when they are super-fresh and not even properly sprung out. When they are all tall and straight and not drooping down and hanging over the edges of the vase.

And so luckily, I recently came across two nifty little hacks; one that will stop tulips drooping for ages – and another that will save them if they already have.

According to Good Housekeeping, an expert flower seller at London’s Columbia Road Market told gave them a tip to pop a copper coin into the bottom of the vase and then fill it with water before putting your tulips in. This will apparently stop them drooping and, according to the magazine, it genuinely works.

If it’s too late for prevention and your tulips are already flopped over the side of the vase – all is not lost.

Firstly replace the water, adding a teaspoon of sugar this time as a little DIY plant food. Then trim about an inch off the bottom of each stem, on the diagonal.

Finally, wrap some string or even tape around them at the top of the stem, just by the neck of the flower itself to hold them back in place. Pop them back in the vase and give it 30 minutes in the new water. When you remove the tape, you’ll have lovely fresh tulips standing tall again.

So there you have it – and now, we are off to buy some tulips.