To help your flowers drink water and stay beautiful for longer, carry out these handy tips;

Ensure that your flowers’ vases are as clean as possible. Flowers prefer clean water and will last longer to show their appreciation. So the more frequently the water is changed and the vase is cleaned, the longer your flowers will last.

Top the vase up regularly with clean cool water. if you have flower food add this to the vase in line with the instructions.

Before placing your flowers in water cut about 2cm off the stems at a sharp angle - this will help the flowers drink as much water as possible.

If the stems are woody, like roses and hydrangea, make a small vertical cut up the stem, so it’s effectively split into two. Again this help your flowers to drink more water. In addition, remove unwanted or damaged leaves from the flowers. Plants expel water from their leaves, so more leaves mean that the flowers will lose water and dehydrate more quickly.

Remove any leaves from the lower part of the stem, so no leaves are underwater - this will help the water stay cleaner for longer.

Ideally place the flowers away from drafts and out of direct sunlight. Choose somewhere cool and away from fruit, but do place them somewhere you can see and enjoy them.

Soft stem flowers will benefit from shallow water in the vase, as their stems will rot more easily. Keep the water level lower and top up more frequently. Woody stemmed flowers will drink more water, so the water can be deeper for these.

As flowers die remove them from the arrangement to help the other flowers last as long as possible.

Roses – if a rose wilts before it should, remove the rose out of the arrangement, cut the stem as before and plunge into boiling water - being careful to keep the flower head out of the steam. This will remove any air bubbles in the stem and help the rose drink water again.

Daffodils – These can shorten the life of other flowers when they’re cut and placed in a vase. There are a couple of options to help with this;

- Cut the daffodil and place in cool water overnight before placing in the vase with other flowers, don’t recut the daffodil stems as advised above.

- Change the water in the vase each day to prevent the build up of the toxins.

- Daffodils as a cut flower can however extend the life of Iris, so if you want to enjoy daffodils with another flower choose Iris – what’s more the yellow and purple will look stunning together.

Lilies – These need special attention for two reasons, they’re poisonous to cats and the pollen can stain.

- Please don’t buy lilies if you have a cat, as the leaves, flowers and pollen are toxic to cats, just a small amount can cause kidney failure.

- Lily pollen can stain fabric, to avoid this remove the anthers from the lily as the flower opens, wear rubber gloves if you don’t want to stain your fingers. If the pollen does fall on to fabric try gently removing it with sticky tape.

As with lilies and cats there are many flowers that are poisonous to dogs, so place your flowers where your dog won’t be able to chew them. If your dog does manage to eat some, please take them to the vet as soon as possible along with the stems they’ve eaten.

Sunflowers – have woody stems and large flowers, as a result of this they drink a lot of water, so remember to check the water levels frequently and top up when necessary