How to keep your flowers from drooping with 1 simple trick

How to keep your flowers from wilting. Image via Jessica Gordon Ryan

The trick to keeping your flowers from drooping couldn't be more simple. And while it's something that I've heard about for many years, I never believed it could actually work. I mean things that seem too good or too easy to be true usually are, aren't they? Well, this might be the exception to that rule.

Once a week I treat myself to flowers. I generally don't do anything terribly extravagant. The floral department is the first thing that greets me when I walk into my grocery store. The cheerful colors of all the flowers always makes me smile. A recent conversation with a friend led us to talking about the power of a penny to prevent freshly cut flowers from drooping. I'd heard this old wive's tale before, many times, and each time I smiled, and dismissed the idea. On Wednesday (long overdue for groceries and flowers) I decided to test out this little theory. I trimmed the tulips, filled the vase, added the copper penny and then placed the flowers into the water. Much to my surprise this little trick seemed to work!  Below are three images of the same flowers that were taken on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday. 

Fresh flowers, Day 1. Property of The Entertaining House

Fresh Flowers, Day 2. They seem to be more upright than they were on Day 1. Image via The Entertaining House

Fresh Flowers Day 3. They seem to be even more upright than they were on days 1 and 2! Image via The Entertaining House.

And so, well, I'm no longer a skeptic. I don't really expect the penny to lengthen the lifetime of these flowers but they'll look better while they're in the water. The theory of the penny is that copper is a natural antibacterial agent which will keep the algae at bay. Others suggest adding a few drops of vodka to their water, but I'd much prefer to stick with the penny and save my Belvedere for my Martini!