Perk Up Your Vase of Droopy Tulips with These 5 Simple Fixes

Keep Your Tulips Standing Tall for Days in a Vase with These 5 Easy Tips

Find out how to revive tulips in a vase when they droop and keep them looking fresh as long as possible.

A vase of cheery tulips is an easy and affordable way to add a little color to a room. However, these flowers do have a tendency to droop more than other cut flowers. Here are a few proven ways to revive drooping tulips and keep them looking gorgeous for longer.

1. Use Flower Food

Cut tulips tend to last longer with some flower food in the water than they would in plain water. Many store-bought bouquets come with a small packet of flower food to add to the water. If you're cutting tulips from your own garden, you can find larger containers or packs of flower food packets online or at garden centers. Follow the instructions on the packet.

2. Don't Mix with Daffodils

A springtime combination that seems like a no-brainer is a bouquet of daffodils and tulips. They may look pretty together in a vase, but the tulips will droop and dry out much faster than the daffodils. This is because daffodils have a chemical in their sap that makes it difficult for the tulip stems to take up water. Keep daffodils in their own vase to avoid this problem.

3. Give Them a Twist

Unlike many other cut flowers, tulips have the ability to grow and bend toward the light (they can actually grow up to an inch even after being cut), so you may notice cut tulips start to droop if they're on a side away from the window. Rotate your vase each day to help the stems stay straight and to give each bloom balanced light.

4. Make a Fresh Cut

Each day, trim about a half-inch off the cut ends of your tulips with clean kitchen scissors. Snip each stem at a roughly 45-degree angle. This will re-open any clogged stems and provide a good amount of surface area to take up plenty of water. Then put your tulips back in the vase with fresh water. Give them an hour to re-hydrate and the flowers should look perky again.

5. Keep Tulips Away from Fruit

If you have your vase of tulips near a bowl of ripening fruit, the flowers may droop and wilt faster. That's because bananas, apples, and other fruit give off ethylene gas as part of their ripening process. This chemical also accelerates a flower's development and aging. Avoid exposure by keeping your vase of flowers far away from any fruit.