There are two types of people in this world that I am suspicious of. People who wearing black hoodies while breaking into cars and people who don't like flowers.
People who like the taste of Tonic Water are also on my watch list.
There aren't many rooms that don't look better with some sort of flower or at least plant in them. It adds life to a room. A living and breathing thing. Like a decorating pet.
One of my favourite flowers has always been the hydrangea because a) it's really great looking and b) just a few flowers fill up a LOT of space. Roses are great and all but you need about three billion of them to make a vase look full even if you add in filler.
Hydrangeas are just charming.
They're also evil, neurotic, easily offended and have an astonishing ability to play dead. They're the opossum of the flower world.
You know it. You've been there. You're in the grocery store or florist and you see the hydrangeas all big, and white and huge and bouncy like a rare albino afro. You know you shouldn't go for the afro. It's too much work. It'll be a mess within a day.
But you give in. You relent. You buy the big white afro flower.
And within one day it's a goner.
For years I avoided buying my favourite flower because of this but about a decade ago I learned a trick that will bring back even the most wilted of hydrangeas.
Boiling. Hot. Water.
Just recut the end of the hydrangea, stick it in a cup of boiling water, and let it sit in that cup overnight (or until the water cools). Within a few hours you'll notice it starting to perk up and within 5 hours it'll be back to its old bouncy self.
This method always works. 100% of the time this method works. Always. The only time it wouldn't work is if your hydrangea has already lived out its full life and isn't just playing dead, but actually is dead.
So when reader emailed me and told me she had the same luck with using Alum to revive her hydrangeas I had to try it out.
One sure fire remedy is good. Two is even better.
So when the spring flowers I bought started to keel over I whipped out the Alum and gave it a shot.
Just recut the hydrangea stem (preferably under water) and dip it in about ½" of alum. Then stick the flower straight back in the vase. No waiting, no screwing around, no nothin'.
Take a look at the difference. This is what my hydrangea looked 3 hours after using the Alum treatment.
Yes indeed, it was twice as wilted as it was before.
I've read that other people have really good luck using this Alum method too, but I tried it three times and it didn't work for me.
I'm sure it does work for some people some of the time, but the boiling hot water method works always. Always.
So I took my double wilted hydrangeas and did what I always do.
- Recut the stems.
- Put them in a glass filled with boiling (not just hot) water.
- Protected the blooms from the steam by wrapping them in a paper towel.
- Leave them alone for several hours.
And back they came, as perfect as they were before the wilting.
You can see a couple of areas on the leaves and stem where it got scorched by the steam but it's just cosmetic, the flower was protected and the flower did just fine.
I first wrote about this tip years ago, but with wedding season coming up I thought it was a good idea to mention it again. I've had more than a dozen emails over the years from brides, wedding planners and frantic family members thanking me for saving their wedding with this tip.
The hot water method will only save a wedding. Not a marriage. But you can decrease your chances of a bad marriage by asking 3 important questions before you get hitched.
- Do you drink Tonic Water?
- Do you like flowers?
- Do you own a black hoodie?
I thought this was so well written and funny...but actually had something that was useful. I tried your 100% always works, never fails remedy for wilted and sad hydrangeas and I have to tell you, Ms. Karen. You were absolutely right! It worked and I am doing the happy dance as I type this.
I guess I better settle down...lol Anyway, thank you sincerely for posting this. It saved my arrangement and it now looks fresh and lovely. I might even say it looks better than when I first got them. Kudos to you.
That's great Melissa! I know I'm taking a chance by saying it works 100% of the time, lol. But it really does, unless the hydrangea really has just reached the end of its life. :) ~ karen!
Have hydrangeas growing and I believe they like acidic soil (Coffee grounds, egg shells? oh, they are breakfast eaters) I really like them and I am sad when they do not bring forth lots of beautiful flowers. (My MN Poppies are already showing-what a mild winter)
Anyways a niece did a family experiment on who likes tonic and it is hereditary, if you do not like tonic, you probs do not like grapefruit either. That is NOT a reason for getting on my No-fly list.
Do you know why the hot water works?
LoVe the 3 Q's ...will have to recommend this to my younger, marriable-type friends!
I love the arrangement on the counter. Any idea where I could buy a pitchur like that?
Lindsay
Hi Lindsay - I know exactly where you can get that pitcher. At Ikea. :) ~ karen!
I was hoping this would be about reviving hydrangea plants. I have a limelight hydrangea that I planted last year that is looking mighty sad and leafless so far this Spring (and Spring has sprung here in Texas). Any tips?
Black Hoodie... Shhhhhh
Never heard of the boiling water trick!! I used to work for a florist, and our trick to revive hydrangeas was to remember that they like a LOT of water and they take water in through the head (the petals)... unlike other flowers. If one started to look a little wilty, we would just spray the heads generously with water from a spray bottle. If it really looked sad, we would take a clean bucket of water, turn the stem upside down and put the head of the hydrangea in the water for 2-3 hours. Then we would gently shake it out, recut the stem and put it back into water (right side up this time), and let it dry out. Good as new and worked every time!
That is so cool…Great tip on reviving hydrangeas! Wonderful post! Thanks for your efforts .
I love your commenters Karen! Most fun group of people around the web. I can't wait to try this on my ever so wilt-y hydrangeas from my garden. If I don't cut them at 8am, in the south it's a big old wilt-fest straightaway! I don't want to be on the watch list, but I have to admit that a cold Pellegrino with a drop of grapefruit essential oil in it is my favorite summertime beverage. That's mineral water, just a cousin to tonic...right....right??????
I LOVE Pellegrino. (don't like flavoured sparkling waters like lemon,lime or grapefruit tho) But that's beside the point. Pellegrino is NOT tonic (blech) water. ~ karen!
Whew-I feel better. I don't like the pre-flavored Pellegrino's either, just my concoction. :-)
I have a lovely blue hydrangea, and it was cramped in a location, so I moved it. The next year it exploded HUGE and the coolest thing was that I had blue, pink & white blooms all on the same shrub! Some of the blooms were even marled all three colors! Never did it again, and I wish I knew what I did so I could do it again, but it was waayyy cool.
The color of hydrangeas is determined by the pH of the soil. If it's acidic, you get blue. If it's alkaline, you get pink. If you bought a blue-flowered one and live in a place with alkaline soil and don't add acid to the soil, you get disgusting browny-purple the next year before it goes to pink.
Since you moved yours from one area to another, it was probably working with two types of soil that first year. Thus, the Sybil-esque display. Alas, it was probably just a one-time thing.
Great post !!! I too am in love with Hydrangeas. i am lucky to have a bed of white ones that vertually look after themselves but sometimes after cutting the younger ones limp right away so I may try the alum treatment to save them.
This post made me laugh out loud by the way !!!
Thanks for your efforts .
I am originally from Ancaster but transplanted to California.
Trish :)
Karen, do you grow them? If you do, is there a trick? Hydrangeas are one of my favorites but I can't grow them to save my life. I don't get it. Maybe because it's such a sturdy flower growing from a sturdy bush that I feel like growing them should be no big deal. I kill them every time. Got anything up your sleeve?
I do grow them Cindy but I don't do anything special to them unless I'm looking to change their colour. I just ... let them grow. :/ ~ karen!
Dang it! It's me then.
Not sure what you've tried, but they are a shade plant so that matters. Also, maybe they aren't good for your region. There are some native hydrangeas in the US. Check if any are native to your area and look for some at native plant sales. Native plants are always much easier to grow as they are already adapted to your conditions.
For the past several years, on Mother's Day, my son takes me to lunch, a movie, and then to Home Depot to buy a hydrangea. The hydrangea part of this lovely afternoon has become a running joke now. They do grow in Oklahoma but I will check to see if HD is selling natives. I may to to a local nursery instead this year. Thanks Traci!
As a florist, and loving hydrangea, I always cringed when I put hydrangea in anything and crossed my finger they would look great days later. Then a Charming Little Old Lady came into the shop with her daughter, who was a great customer, and told me the secret to hydrangeas. The advise she gave me was was just as you described but she recommended removing more of the leaves and only cutting between the joints of the stem. This step is soooo important even before you have to revive them. And of course a sharp angled cut. That was ten years ago, thank heavens for Charming Little Old Ladies.
Cheers!
So after you revive the hydrangeas with boiling water, how long does the bloom last? And can you do it again and again?