The Squeeze Test Can Ensure You're Picking Up Long-Lasting Flowers From The Grocery Store

Fresh flowers offer an instant mood boost in addition to the beautiful color and texture they add to your decor. It's easier to keep your cut flowers fresh longer by starting with the newest flowers possible. One way to check the freshness of certain types of flowers, particularly roses, is by squeezing the bloom gently to see how firm it is. You can also squeeze the stem gently to check for freshness.

Start with a visual inspection to eliminate older, rotting bunches with petals that are browning, drooping, wilting, transparent, or fading. Check the leaves and stems for yellowing, wilting, fraying, sliminess, or bending that indicates they're older or weak. When you find roses that look good, squeeze each flower gently at the base of the bloom where it connects to the stem. Don't squeeze too hard or you can bruise or crush the bloom. Just apply light pressure to feel for firmness. If the roses are really squishy, they're likely older, which means you won't have much time left before they start to wilt and look bad. You can also check for a firm, sturdy rose by wiggling the flower gently while holding the stem just below the bloom to make sure it doesn't flop.

Give each stem a gentle squeeze, just enough to tell if it's firm. Squeezing too hard could crush the stems. Choose blooms that are on firm stems. The stems may feel slightly different based on the flower type. Healthy carnation stems should have a slight spring to them, for instance. However, overly soft or mushy stems that squish easily on any type of flower typically indicate older blooms.

Not everyone has the luxury of having a cut flower garden at home. Picking up cut flowers from the grocery store gives you an affordable option to sprinkle fresh blooms throughout your house. You typically get between five and seven days out of a bouquet you buy at the store. Since many supermarkets don't get shipments of fresh flowers daily, they could be selling flowers that are already several days old and won't hold up well at home. 

Choosing the freshest bunch available helps you maximize the amount of time you get to enjoy the flowers before they wilt and droop. However, you can't always tell the age of flowers by looks. Refrigerating flowers can make them last for 2 to 3 weeks. When older flowers come out of refrigeration, they might droop some, but water helps them stand upright again. They're still older flowers, though, and they might not last long.

When choosing bouquets, you want newer flowers that aren't fully opened yet if the goal is keeping fresh flowers in your home that last as long as possible. Tighter buds that haven't bloomed much yet will feel firmer than those whose petals are starting to spread out. You also want flowers with firm stems, so giving them a gentle squeeze also helps you select the best flowers. Healthy, fresh stems are firm and sturdy — they haven't started to deteriorate and weaken with age. Soft and discolored stems could also indicate the presence of bacteria, which can affect the flower blooms.