Hydrangeas are one of the most impressive flowers in the world. They're also evil, neurotic, easily offended and have an astonishing ability to play dead. They're the opossum of the flower world. Here's how to revive a wilted hydrangea.
This is how it usually goes when I buy hydrangeas:
I'm at the grocery store for the sole purpose of buying 1% milk. I need this milk because I can't go to bed unless I've had my glass of milk and exactly 2 ginger snap cookies, whether I'm hungry or not. This is because I'm probably crazy. I'm not positive, but I'm pretty sure.
I make my way through the flower department without incident until I see the huge bucket of hydrangeas. A great, big, huge bucket overflowing with huge soft heads of hydrangea petals. So of course I buy a couple of bunches.
I do this even though I know within 2 hours of bringing them home, anywhere from one to all of them will wilt and die.
I will then curse my stupidity and throw them out vowing to never, EVER buy hydrangeas again. Never, will I ever buy another hydrangea.
This scenario happened to me about once a month for 10 years.
Then I discovered a solution that actually works. It's a tip I've used over and over for the past decade without one single failure. So if you too have an issue with a wilted, sorry-ass hydrangea follow this advice:
Just cut the stem and stick it in a cup of boiling water. This tip has saved many, many white wedding hydrangeas.
Table of Contents
How to Revive Flowers
1. Get the kettle boiling.
2. Fill a very clean heat resistant container with boiling water. (any dirt in the container can make its way into the stem clogging it even more.
3. Wrap paper around the stem of the hydrangea to protect the flower from the hot steam. This only needs to be done if the stem isn't long enough to keep the flower tipped to the side and away from the steam and heat of the water.
4. Cut about an inch off the end of the stem and immediately plunge the stem into the hot water.
5.Let it sit for as long as it takes for the flower to refresh. Usually around 3 hours but I tend to do this overnight. See that last set of leaves touching the jug? I forgot to remove those immediately and did so right after I took the photo.
** remove extra leaves so they don't hog all the water**
6. When the flower is revived quickly put it into fresh, cool water.
Below is my hydrangea after 3 hours in hot water and then ½ hour in cool water.
Seriously.
What Causes Flowers to Wilt?
If a newly cut flower wilts within a day or two or even by the time you bring it home, it's because it was out of water and air has made its way into the stem. Those air bubbles prevent the stem from sucking up water to the bloom.
THIS is why you always read that you should cut stems under water. So no air gets in the stems.
Roses are prime candidates for this treatment to get rid of their drooping heads. You know; when you bring your roses home and within a day their blooms look like they're on the tail end of a bender and are nodding off? This will help that.
The hot water treatment does a great job of getting rid of air that's made its way into the stem.
What's in Flower Food
Yep. Flower food actually works so don't throw those packets out when you get them.
Flower food normally contains sugar, acid and bleach.
Sugar feeds the flower.
Acid maintains the proper pH balance that the flower likes
Bleach keeps everything clean and helps slow down bacterial growth.
DIY Floral Food
You can make your own floral preservative if you happen to be human with human type things in your cupboards.
Add these ingredients to 4 cups of water and your flowers will be ready to rumble.
FLORAL PRESERVATIVE RECIPE
1 teaspoon sugar
1 teaspoon bleach
2 tsps lime (or lemon) juice
(add to 4 cups of water)
How to Revive a Hydrangea
This hot water treatment will revive a wilted hydrangea in a few hours and if you treat your cutting garden flowers with a 5 second hot water treatment, it will help to prevent them from wilting in the first place.
Works with: anything that has wilted prematurely because they were left out of water, grocery store bouquets etc.
Materials
- Boiling hot water
- Heat proof vessel
- Wilted hydrangea
- paper towel or paper (optional)
Tools
- Kettle
Instructions
- Bring a kettle of water to the boil.
- Fill a heat proof vase or vessel with the boiling water.
- Cut 1" off the bottom of the stem with a sharp knife or good snips.
- Plunge the stem immediately into the water.
- Let sit until revived. Typically 3 hours or so.
Notes
- A sharp knife is better for cutting than kitchen scissors because it will slice through the stem instead of crushing it.
- You'll notice bubbles coming out of the stem as soon as you put it in the water. This is a good thing. It's dispelling air that was preventing water from making it up the stem.
- Remove all the excess leaves that you can. You don't want the leaves hogging the much needed water from the bloom.
It works EVERY time. I mean, obviously if you've had the flowers for 2 weeks and they've lived a good long life you should just allow them to die a dignified death of natural causes. But if you bring them home and they wilt within the first few days, try sitting them in hot water.
You might just find they were only playing dead.
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Erin
Long time reader here! :) I'm trying this now...
One questions (and a possible idea for a "Part 2" blog post for you???): I'm trying to dry store-bought hydrangeas to keep throughout the year. Do you know how to get them to dry without wilting?
HUG!
Alyssa
Amazing!!! They came back! Even better than before a few didn't (I think we had to many in a cup realized it works great with no more than 2 ) but I tried again this morning cut them again and they came out amazing I'm in awe will definitely be sharing!!
Alyssa
I have a wedding That im designing the bouquets for came home from buying them couple hours later and found them wilted and so sorry looking started to freak out and stress out hubby searched online came across your post these baby's are in hot water as we speak! I'm sooooo having faith this will work thank you!!!
Karen
It will! (as long as they've wilted and aren't so old that they haven't actually died) But if you just bought them, they should just be wilted and reviving soon! ~ karen
erica
My husband bought me a potted hydrangea for our anniversary two weeks ago.
Today I went to water it...I only water every 2-3 days and he says "oh I put it on the deck the other dayIt needed more Sun."
Omg.
We are in southern Texas..it's 104 degrees, have you lost your $&_(+= mind! I yelled before running to the backdoor.
I raced to the deck and there it was. Lying on it's side. As Brown as all get out.
The main stems are still green..but the rest is just ugly brown.
My beautiful blooms are fried.
Completely fried.
I soaked the whole plant under cool water and left it sitting in a basin of water.
Everything I read says cut the dead parts off but....
All I will have is three ugly green sticks. EVERYTHING is Brown and dead.
I am so sad I could cry.
Karen
Husbands are stupid. They really are. And I'm afraid you really do have to cut the brown stuff off. :( The problem is it may have become too stressed to recover. Plus it's very difficult for a plant like a hydrangea to flourish inside unless you have the right conditions including a very bright window. But you can give it a shot. Or ... give your husband a shot. ~ karen!
Marlene
I bought hydrangeas from the grocery store after the same scenario you described in your post above. Went in for one thing came out $120 later... I usually buy a bunch of lilies or daisies but this time I want to try something different. Imagine my disappointment when about 1 to 2 hours later they look like I left them in a hot car with no water for four days. I stumbled upon your site and just finished placing them in the hot water.... I can't wait to see what happens!!!
Robin
I bought hydrangeas and came home to the same problem and found this post and it worked! Thanks!
Karen
Excellent! It's a great trick to have since hydrangeas seem to croak pretty much every time you bring them home! ~ karen
Robin
I've told people about this and nobody believes me, oh well.
Karen
LOL. Oh well. Their loss. ~ karen!
Mia
This really works! I couldn't believe it. Try it, don't be scared!
Karen
LOL. Yes, it does indeed. :) ~ karen
Annette
I know this is a very old post but I am a Japanese Floral Design (Ikebana) instructor and there is an even easier way to condition flowers with woody stems. First but the stems at a slant under water three times. (You should do this with all flowers when arranging.) Then dip them in Alum, a pickling spice available at any grocery store. Just a quick, one second dip will do. Arrange in a vase as you like. In less than an hour, badly wilted (not dead) hydrangea will come amazingly back to life. Super easy! No protecting from steam, no boiling water, no long wait.
Karen
I'll give it a shot Annette, thanks! LOVE Ikebana by the way! I've always wanted to take a course. I've had 100% success with this method though so I'm a little apprehensive about abandoning it, lol. I will try. I have alum in the cupboard because I make pickles. I just don't happen to have any wilted hydrangeas at the moment. :) ~ karen
Viry
I had them less than 10hrs I had just bought them that's so weird
Karen
That is weird! I've honestly never had this not work. Just have a read over the instructions again to make sure you did everything right. (really it's only cutting off the bottom of the stems and sticking them in boiling water overnight) Other than that it must have just bee a fluke. Which is gross, because hydrangeas aren't cheap! Sorry! ~ karen
Viry
Mine didn't come back to life I did eaxactly what this said to do :/
Karen
Hi Viry - The only time this trick won't work is when the hydrangeas have genuinely died. My guess is (and this is just a guess) the flowers were just old and ready to die. ~ karen
debbie himmel
Hydrangeas at my first daughter's wedding wilted...so sad.
Hydrangeas at try-out for my second daughter's wedding wilted so we went to plan B which turned out beautiful but they were NOT hydrangeas and there really is no good substitute for their beauty.
I still have one daughter to go and by golly SHE is going to have hydrangeas now that you have showed me they can live once they are one step out of the florist shop!!! thank You!! Debbie
Amanda
Karen,
Last week I lost my grandmother to cancer and the family was sent this beautiful hydrangeas / peace Lilly arrangement. As soon as I saw it I knew it would be coming home with me. It's in a beautiful basket with smaller individual cups inside. From the first night I brought it home the blooms wilted. The Lilly looks fine but I've had to now cut the hydrangea blooms completely off. Is there anything I can do? I would pretty much do anything to salvage this plant.
Thanks,
Amanda
Teresa
Thank you so much Karen! You made me think of things that had not occurred to me before. Your ability to convey this information would make you an amazing teacher.
Teresa
Your blog is amazing! My daughter is getting married and wants me to make her bouquet. It's a family tradition. She wants hydrangea, gerbera, roses, and dusty miller. Can I make this bouquet as early as Wed before the Sat wedding? Also, can I hydrate the hydrangea by dunking the entire bouquet in water or will that cause the roses to rot early?
Karen
Hi Teresa - First let me say thanks! And then I will say NOOOOoooooOOOoooooo. You can't make the floral bouquet as early as Wednesday for the Saturday wedding. I wouldn't make it any earlier than Friday. And then how far along the flowers are will determine whether you should keep that bouquet in a warm or a cool room. Something as close to the temperature of a floral cooler as possible. (2-8 degrees celsius or 36 - 46 fahrenheit) If the flowers are close to being opened, then they should be kept in as cool a room as possible to stop them from opening any more. If they aren't as open as you'd like then they can go in a slightly warmer room. 65-70 degrees. You should great the hydrangeas and their stems separately and be very careful not to allow the steam to touch the petals. It will burn them. And only do this if your hydrangeas begin to wilt. There's no need to do it unless you see them starting to get sad looking. Love the dusty miller in the bouquet. Good luck and congratulatiosn to your daughter! ~ karen
Racquel
Any ideas on how to revive a wilted kale potted plant?
Racquel
Hi thanks for replying to fast!! Do u have a blog? Your a fantastic writer!
Do I have to change the water if it will cool on its own?
Karen
Thanks Racquel. Yes, this is my blog. The Art of Doing Stuff. No need to change the water. ~ karen!
Racquel
Thank you it works but do u transfer to cool water or u leave it in hot water always
Karen
Racquel - Just leave the flowers in the water overnight (or until the water is back down to normal temperature) then put in your regular vase filled with lukewarm water. ~ karen!
Caitlin
Sooo glad I found this BEFORE my wedding day in July! I am doing the flowers myself, buying in bulk and having them FedExed here 3 days before the wedding (it was the latest they could get here due to Independence Day holiday). I bought a "test bouquet" the other day and sure enough, 2 of the 3 heads wilted within a day! I was told to put them in ice water, so I kept plunking ice cubes in there to no avail. Re-cut the stems in case I damaged them with kitchen scissors. No help. I am so going home to do this with my test bouquet! You have given me so much relief from the crazy wedding anxiety I've been having over these stupid flowers. We were told the refrigerate them upon arrival- hello??! Who has a giant fridge in their house for flowers?? I'm going to be doing this the day of/before for sure! How long does this effect last- and can you repeat it with the same results?
Karen
Hi Caitlin - You normally only have to do it once and it lasts for the rest of the bloom's life. If it does happen to do it again, yes you can recut and do the process over again. Good luck with your wedding. And the flowers of course! ~ karen
Judy Paynter Phillips
U r the queen of cool. My friend needed help and she is delighted. U made my day and hers. Feels so good to help three ways. Thank you so much. Went out and bought and planted 3 hydrangea bushes. Im now a very happy camper.
Karen
Excellent! Happy to help. :) ~ karen
Susan
I saw the White House chief gardener interviewed. He said he puts all cut flowers into a vase with boiling water and a couple tablespoons of sugar to keep them fresh.