How to force cut roses to open

• Choose good quality roses with large heads for best results.

• Begin by gently pulling back the outer petals, removing any that are damaged.

• Start at the top. Working in a circular pattern, gently peel petals away from the center.

• Trim the stem with a sharp angled cut.

• Arrange as usual. The big benefit here is that the roses you force open will last as long as if they had opened naturally!

 

Hi, I'm floral designer Rebecca Cole for howdini.com, and we just received gorgeous roses and they look like this. Absolutely beautiful. But, I’ve got a dinner party tonight and I want them to be open and fantastic and magnificent and I just don’t have the time to wait. So, I’m going to give you a little tip. You can actually open a rose without hurting it just by sticking your fingers in between the petals and pushing down, gently opening. You’ll notice that the rose petals wrap around in a circle. So just keep putting your fingers in there, pushing it open, and before long you have a nice, beautifully opened rose and you didn’t have to wait the four or five days. Look at that. Absolutely gorgeous.

Now before we put it in water, you want to make a nice, fresh cut. Take any of the leaves that might be in the water off the stem, and that’s going to make quite an impression for dinner tonight. I’m Rebecca Cole from howdini.com.