Cold Storage for Flowers: Keeping a Bouquet Fresh Until the Big Day
Cold storage for flowers means keeping cut stems at about 2-5 C in clean water and humid air, which slows their breathing and opening so a bouquet stays fresh for longer. Roses, tulips, chrysanthemums, carnations and alstroemeria tolerate this well and can be held for a night or two before an event. Orchids, anthuriums and other tropical flowers should never go below about 10-12 C, or their petals darken.
In our Saint Petersburg shops, customers ask about cold storage mostly in three situations: they bought flowers the evening before a birthday or a wedding, a bouquet is opening faster than they would like, or flowers have just come in from a frosty street. Each case needs a slightly different approach. Below is what we do with our own stock and what we recommend to customers at home.
Holding a bouquet overnight before an occasion
The most common request is simple: the bouquet has to look perfect tomorrow morning. Recut each stem by 1-2 cm with a sharp knife at an angle, remove any leaves that would sit in water, and put the bouquet in a clean vase or bucket with cool water. If the bouquet came with a packet of flower food, dissolve it in the water. Then put it in the coolest place you have, ideally 4-8 C: a glazed balcony in autumn or spring, an unheated porch or a room with the heating turned down.
A domestic fridge can work for a single night, but only for hardy flowers and only if there is no fruit inside. Apples, bananas, pears and tomatoes release ethylene, a gas that makes petals drop and buds fail to open. Use the middle or door shelf rather than the back wall, where water may freeze, and do not press the heads against other food. Wrapped bouquets can stay in their paper, which protects the petals from drying air.
In the morning, take the bouquet out about an hour before you need it and let it stand at room temperature. Condensation on the petals will dry, and the flowers will open slightly and look more natural. Present the bouquet without fresh droplets on the petals, because water left on roses and gerberas in a warm room can lead to brown spots.
Which flowers like the cold and which do not
Flowers from temperate climates are happy at 1-5 C. Roses, spray roses, tulips, peonies, carnations, chrysanthemums, alstroemeria, ranunculus, freesias, lisianthus and most greenery fall into this group. Peonies and tulips are particularly grateful for cold: a tight peony bud kept cold opens much more slowly, and tulips in cold water stay firm and upright instead of drooping. Our article on keeping tulips from drooping explains the tulip method in detail.
Tropical flowers need warmth. Phalaenopsis and cymbidium orchids, anthuriums, birds of paradise, ginger and heliconias suffer from chilling injury below about 10-12 C. The damage is not always visible at once: petals may turn glassy, grey or brown a day after the flowers leave the cold. Hydrangeas are somewhere in between; they prefer cool rather than cold air and need plenty of water, since their heads wilt quickly if the stem cannot drink.
Mixed bouquets are a compromise. If a bouquet contains both roses and an orchid branch, keep it cool rather than cold, around 8-10 C, and only for a short time. When in doubt, a cool room is safer than a fridge for any arrangement with tropical flowers.
Bouquets we can deliver
Using cold to slow flowers that open too fast
In a warm flat in winter, with radiators on full, roses and peonies can go from bud to fully open in a day or two. Customers often bring us this complaint, and the fix is usually temperature, not a special product. Moving the vase away from radiators and sunny windows to a cooler spot, and putting it somewhere cool overnight, can add several days to the life of a bouquet.
Cold water helps as well. For most bouquet flowers, change the water every two days, recut the stems each time and use water from the cold tap. Warm water speeds up drinking and opening, which is useful when you want tight buds to open for an event, and counterproductive when you want the bouquet to last. Our guide on slowing down flowers that open too fast covers storage and timing step by step.
Professional coolers keep flowers at 2-5 C and around 90 percent humidity, which is why stems from a florist's cooler are firm and the buds are still closed. At home you cannot reproduce that exactly, but a cool room, clean water and the absence of fruit nearby get you a good part of the way.
When flowers have been in the frost
Cold storage and frost are different things. At temperatures below zero, water in the cells of petals freezes and destroys them; after thawing such petals become dark, soft and translucent and cannot be revived. In a Saint Petersburg winter, an unwrapped bouquet can be damaged in a few minutes outdoors, especially in wind, so flowers should always be carried in a thick wrap and kept in a warm car rather than on a balcony.
If a bouquet has come in from the cold, do not unwrap it immediately and do not put it next to a radiator. Let it stand in its packaging in a cool hallway for 20-30 minutes so the temperature evens out, then unwrap it, recut the stems and put it in water at room temperature. A sudden jump from minus ten to plus twenty-five is a shock even for healthy flowers.
Our couriers deliver bouquets in protective wrapping, and in winter we pay particular attention to this. You can read how flowers are handled on the way in the article on how couriers handle flowers in cold Russian weather.
Getting a fresh bouquet delivered instead of storing it
The simplest way to avoid storing flowers is to have them delivered at the moment they are needed. We deliver flowers across Russia, and in large cities you can choose express delivery 1-2 hours after the order is confirmed, an exact time with a margin of plus or minus 30 minutes, or a time window of 09-12, 12-15, 15-18 or 18-21. You can also pre-order 1-30 days ahead. In Saint Petersburg delivery is around the clock, which helps when the occasion starts very early or late.
City delivery costs 500 RUB; for remote districts and suburbs the operator confirms the price when confirming the order. The courier calls the recipient about 15 minutes before arrival, so the flowers do not wait on a cold landing. If the recipient is not there, we agree a second delivery the same day or, with the sender's consent, leave the bouquet with a neighbour or concierge. Delivery is anonymous by default and a card with your text is free.
You can pay online by bank card, SBP or Yandex Pay; foreign bank cards are accepted through Robokassa. Browse the bouquets catalogue, and if you have questions about which flowers suit the season, call us on 8 (812) 507-67-05.
Frequently asked questions
What temperature is best for storing cut flowers?
Most bouquet flowers keep best at 2-5 C in clean water and humid air. Tropical flowers such as orchids and anthuriums need at least 10-12 C.
Can I put a bouquet in the fridge overnight?
Yes for roses, tulips, chrysanthemums and similar flowers, if there is no fruit in the fridge and the stems are in water or the heads are wrapped. Take it out about an hour before presenting it.
Why do flowers turn brown after the fridge?
Either the flowers were tropical and suffered chill damage, or the petals froze near the back wall of the fridge. Ethylene from fruit can also cause wilting and petal drop.
How do I revive flowers that came in from the frost?
Let them warm up in their wrapping in a cool room for 20-30 minutes, then recut the stems and put them in water. Petals that actually froze cannot be saved, but chilled flowers usually recover.
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