Cutting and Caring for
Your Sunflowers and Bouquets

Here’s a little video with tips and tricks for cutting your sunflower.

How to Care for Your Bouquet

When you get home, recut the stem(s) at an angle. If you can hold the stem end under water while making the cut, so much the better for hydration.
Display your sunflowers—and all cut flowers—in a CLEAN vase. (Would you drink out of that vase? If not, your flowers don’t want to, either.)
Remove any leaves/foliage that are below the water line in your vase to help prevent bacteria from growing. Ever seen a bouquet suffering in a vase of nasty, smelly water? Bacteria are responsible for that funk.
Keep your flowers looking fabulous. Completely change the water in your vase every day or every other day. Recut stems every 3-4 days. Both actions help reduce bacteria.
A little squirt of hairspray on the center of the bloom will prevent pollen or seeds from shedding.
The best insurance for long vase life for any type of cut flower is sparkling clean vases and water.
Depending on the stage of harvest and conditions in the field/on the trip home/in your vase, you’ll be able to enjoy your sunflower for about 5 days. Other flowers have variable vase lives—anywhere from 3 days (looking at you dahlias, when it’s still hot out!) to up to 14 for lisianthus (we sell that at the farmers markets in July and early August).