Burlap Wrapped Bouquet Care

Our signature burlap-wrapped bouquets are the daily arrangements of blooms, bits, and greens we’ve been making since our beginnings back in 2010! Whether you went with the Fun Size, Just Right, Big Love, or Fancy Pants, this short list of care tips hits on everything from unboxing to taking a great pic of your arrangement. Keep reading!

From box to tabletop

Our signature burlap-wrapped bouquets ship designed so you can go from box to table top in two shakes! All you'll need is a small work area (we like something that's easily cleaned like a kitchen counter or craft table), a pair of scissors or garden shears, a clean vase, and some fresh, cool water. Let's go!

Unwrapped

As much as we love wrapping your bouquet in burlap and pretty tissue paper and tying it with a ribbon, everything but the twine or tape holding your bouquet's design in place has gotta go once you've popped the box and snipped the zip tie.

What to do with all those trimmings and trappings? The burlap is 100% compostable (hint, hint) but we've seen creative customers upcycle it into everything from pillow covers to gift wrap. As for the tissue paper, sponge, and the rest, we recommend recyling and reusing as much as you can before turning to your trash can.

Why burlap? When our founder and CEO started Farmgirl she wanted to find an alternative to plastic for finishing her daily arrangements. She settled on burlap not only because it’s compostable but because the number of coffee roasters here in the Bay Area means a lot of empty burlap coffee sacks keep us in steady supply!

Extra, Extra

We carefully make, wrap, and ship each each and every arrangement but sometimes, flowers are flowers! See a broken stem? Not to worry! We always ship one to a few extra stems (it depends on the arrangement) for these “just in case” situations. 

Vase Basics

If you didn't order a vase with your arrangement, it's time to find one from your personal collection. Don't have just the thing you're looking for on hand? Get creative! We love to repurpose glass jars, glassware, pitchers, and other common kitchen items. Whatever you decide to use, it's important to choose something that's (1) clean, (2) where the flowers can sit more or less upright in the vase without toppling over the edge and (3) large enough to give your arrangement has some room to bloom. As far as sizing goes, here are some (hopefully helpful) general guidelines:

  • Fun Size – 2.5-3” opening

  • Just Right – 3-3.5” opening

  • Big Love - 4-4.5” opening

  • Fancy Pants – 5”+ opening

Chop, Chop

We ship your stems on the longer side to help keep them stay healthy during transit, but they need a quick trim for a two important reasons: (1) So they can hydrate and (2) so they’ll fit nicely in a vase. So once you’ve unboxed and unwrapped your bouqet, grab your pair of scissors or garden shears and give your stems a quick trim. How much should you remove? Trim so that the lowest flower in your arrangement sits 1/2" above the lip of your vase.

Pro tip: Even if you like the height of your flowers out of the box, we still recommend trimming at least ½” off of the ends. This helps ensure your flowers can hydrate efficiently! Wanna go for gold? Trim your stems at an angle (45˚ is perfect!) to ensure that the stems don’t sit flush with the bottom of the vase, which can prevent the flowers from absorbing water they need to stay fresh and beautiful.

H2-WHOA!

Post trim your bouquet needs H2O stat so fill your vase 1/2 - 3/4 full with cool tap water and drop your arrangement in. Psst – don't forget to release the tape or twine holding your arrangement together. Although it did a great job of making sure your bouquet arrived designed (it's like a hair elastic for a snatched high pony!), leaving it in place longer might prevent your arrangement from getting all the water it needs to bloom beautifully.

Let it breathe

What's the last (but certainly not least) ingredient for a beautiful burlap wrapped bouquet? Air! So make like a hair dresser tousling freshly coiffed hair for that ultra desirable lived in look and gently run your fingers between the bits and blooms to give each element some breathing (and blooming) room.

Patience is the key

Just how you aren’t the brightest and most bushy-eyed version of yourself fresh off a flight, your bouquet isn’t going to be its most beautiful self right out of the box. A little time and the aforementioned TLC is all it needs to look it's best. Trust us, it's worth the wait!

#vaselife

Although the vase life of individual elements will vary (e.g. anemones are shorter lived than most modern roses), the following tips will help your arrangement stay fresher for longer:

  • Change the water daily or as often as you can possibly remember. This helps reduce the growth of bacteria in the vase water which will help you to get the best vase life from your bouquet.

  • Avoid excess heat and light. Unlike flowers in the field, cut flowers detest direct sunlight and extreme heat. That means sunny windowsills, kitchen countertops next to hot stoves, tabletops underneath heating vents, and generally anywhere outdoors is off limits if you want your arrangement to last.

  • Avoid overcrowding. We send many varieties unbloomed or under bloomed so you can witness every moment of their blossoming beauty. However, as your arrangement opens it might outgrow your vase. If this happens, don't be afraid to rehome a flower or two to a bud vase make sure everyone has enough room to bloom.

  • Remove dead or dying flowers. Just like changing the vase water, this will help prevent excessive bacteria build up and extend the life of the rest of the flowers in the arrangement!

Shop Our Signature Burlap-Wrapped Bouquets