by Patricia Hall
The word flower has ancient roots – no pun intended – that indicate its original meaning was to describe the best part of an object or being.
It’s little wonder that they enjoy such popularity today, with bouquets being given for occasions ranging from birthdays to anniversaries and everything between.
Flowers are beautiful, colorful and certain varieties are even fragrant – but did you know that flowers are great for your health as well?
Feeling Good with Flora
Multiple studies from trusted institutions like Rutgers and Harvard have proven that keeping fresh flowers around can have a mood-boosting effect. Recent research has further supported this link between blooms and happiness, and there’s no better time to tap into the peaceful power of petals than right now.
If you’re ready to set up a vase in your own home, here are some tips for selecting and placing the best arrangement:
Seeing is Feeling
Keep your blossoms where they can be easily seen, such as in a foyer, on a coffee table or in the center of a kitchen or coffee table. They’ll catch your eye each time you pass through the room, giving them a chance to work their good mood mojo more often.
Keeping your flowers in an easily visible area will also make your home more inviting and cheerful to visitors.
Pick the Right Color
Alternative therapies maintain that using certain colors in your home’s decor will encourage a change in mood.
If you are depressed, orange daisies or yellow sunflowers will help bring a little sunshine inside. If you need to unwind after a hectic day, stick to blue blooms like larkspur or bachelor’s button to tell your brain it’s time to shift into low gear.
Greenery such as ferns or houseplants promotes an overall feeling of stability and well-being.
Groom Your Bouquet
Don’t let flowers that are past their prime bring down the entire bunch: remove withered stems frequently to ensure that water and nutrients are flowing to where they’re most needed.
This will keep your flowers fresh for much longer, enabling you to have more beautiful blooms.
Feng Shui and Flowers
If healing of the spiritual variety is the goal, the Asian art of Feng Shui has long guided practitioners in the best ways to arrange their living space for harmony. Unsurprisingly, these guidelines cite flowers as valuable components and encourage users to add certain varieties to their decor.
For Feng Shui enthusiasts with a green thumb, growing a plant such as an orchid for spiritual growth or a white narcissus for work success allows them to pursue balance and beautify their home as well.
If growing plants inside the home isn’t a possibility, ordering chrysanthemum flowers with free delivery is a great way to incorporate these lucky blossoms without the hassle of watering and fertilizing every day.
Keep Flowers Healthy Too
While a bright, fresh bouquet will stimulate the senses, a withered bunch of stems can have the opposite effect. Proper care is essential to keeping healthy flowers around the home, and a few small steps can make all the difference in the longevity of your flowers. If you haphazardly stick your bouquet in a container of water and forget about it, you’ll run the risk of drooping stems and even stagnant water.
When buying flowers online, it’s a fairly safe assumption that the growers and shippers will take great care of your blooms before they arrive. Once they hit the doorstep, it’s your turn to take over care and keeping, which begins with opening the box and carefully unwrapping them.
Remove any cellophane, rubber bands, ribbons or ties until you’re left with only the flowers and greenery. Take a pair of sharp scissors and cut approximately an inch diagonally off the bottoms of the stems; cut longer stem pieces off to fit your vase of choice. Fill your container with lukewarm water and strip off any leaves or buds that fall below the water line to prevent rot.
Change the water in your vase approximately every two days, and trim the bottom of the stems again about as often. With this very easy effort, you’ll enjoy all the vitality your flowers have to offer, and experience their joy-inducing qualities with every glance.
(Patricia Hall works part-time for Serenata Flowers UK an online florist and loves to surround herself with flowers at any given point of time. Even in her free time she loves to involve herself with everything flora and fauna. Her favorite quote is:
‘To me there is nothing more beautiful and global as the language of flowers – it is the easiest to understand all around the world in the same way. That is one reason why I truly admire flowers for what they represent in some ways – unity of all mankind!‘)
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