Tips for keeping your hydrangea bouquets from wilting

While brides-to-be are often attracted to the rainbow selection of colours and large blooms of hydrangeas, they must be prepared for the flowers to inevitably wilt.

• Beautiful, colourful, delicate—hydrangeas are a favourite flower of brides and grooms everywhere, showing up in wedding bouquets and reception centrepieces.
• They even appear, in sugar form, as decorative flourishes on wedding cakes.
• They can come in a rainbow of watercolour shades, sometimes mixed in a single bloom. The whole colour palette for a wedding can find their origin in the hues of hydrangea (though couples should be aware that these flowers can change colours as the wedding day progresses).
• The gorgeous blooms are at their height in late spring and throughout the summer, making the timing perfect for the season of nuptials.

Timing is everything

• Hydrangeas are delicate and despite your best efforts and those of your florist, you might get some wilted blooms in your bouquets.
• In many cases, hydrangeas can even look good as they begin to wilt, but the problem can become acute if you have an outdoor wedding and the flowers are exposed to excessive sunshine and heat.

Hedge your bets

• To obtain hydrangea bouquets you can grow them yourself or purchase flowers from a florist and design your own arrangements.
• Or you can purchase someone else’s gorgeous designs from a flower shop.
• Whatever route you go, the challenge is to keep the flower’s beauty from fading. Once you have the bouquets in hand—not long before the wedding, we hope—hydration is the key.
• Dip the flower heads in tepid water for three or four minutes and gently shake them to dry. Recut the stems at an angle and then place them in water.

If you have to store the flowers for a while, do so in a cool high-humid environment with little blowing air, as from a fan or opening door. Mist the flowers if necessary.

Rainbow coalition

• Once you address the fragility of hydrangea bouquets, then you have a rainbow of colours to work with. An all-white bridal bouquet might be composed of lacecap and mophead blooms.
• Boutonnieres for the groom and groomsmen can employ a medley of colours. For bridesmaids, why not go for the simplicity of a single-flower hydrangea arrangement, perhaps in a subtle green and white, or a delicate pink?