Tips: flower arranging in a tulip vase

Tips for flower arranging in a tulip vase. None other than lifestyle queen Martha Stewart has discovered Heinen Delfts Blauw's tulip vases and she is such a fan of them that she made an atmospheric instructional video that includes tips & tricks on how to fill tulip vases with flowers. We have summarized her instructions for you in this blog so you can put a beautifully decorated tulip vase á la Martha Stewart on the table yourself!

Tips for your tulip vase by Martha Stewart 

Clean vase: It all starts with the tulip vase. Make sure your tulip vase is spotless inside. Wash the vase with soap and water and rinse the soap residue well too. Dirty vases promote the growth of bacteria which affects the tulips. With a clean vase, your tulips will stay fresh and beautiful longer.

Cold water: The same goes for the water you fill the tulip vase with. Use clean water. Some people swear by grandmother's tricks to add to the water, such as bleach or a copper coin, but all you need to do, according to Martha, is make sure the water is clean. Don't add anything else to it, just perhaps a little special flower food from the florist, but even that is not necessary. Clean water and above all cold water. Tulips love really cold water and it is a very thirsty flower, so make sure there is always plenty of cold water in the tulip vase.

Right spot: Once you have cleaned and filled your tulip vase with plenty of cold water, pick the best spot to put the tulip vase. The temperature of the spot in the room and also the amount of light, will help determine how long your tulips will stay beautiful. So don't put your tulip vase in full sun and keep it away from heat sources such as heating elements and air conditioning they are not fond of either.

Preparing tulips according to Martha Stewart 

Just opened: If you want to enjoy your filled tulip vase as long as possible, it is important to choose the right tulips. Some tulips wilt after only a day, while others stay beautiful for a full week. According to Martha Stewart, it is best to choose tulips that are just coming out of bud. Do not touch the petals, as they are very fragile and a bruised petal will fall off much faster.

Pierce a hole: If you have found a beautiful bouquet of tulips that are still in the bud, take a needle or a pin and poke it horizontally through the stem. Just below the flower bud. Then take the pin out again. This small hole will allow the trapped oxygen to flow out of the stem, and this will prevent the stem from growing further and bending the tulip. This keeps your tulip firmly upright.

Cut stem: Measure the tulip on the outside of the tulip vase to see how far you need to cut the stem. For a fuller look, leave one green leaf per tulip on the stalk. Cut the stem at an angle so the thirsty tulip can absorb as much water as possible.

Flower arranging with tulips according to Martha Stewart 

Many spouts: Choose a tulip vase with several spouts to give the delicate flower stems the support they need. This way, your tulips will stay beautiful longer. Depending on the type of tulip, you can put one or up to two tulips per spout. Double tulips or parrot tulips are larger and need more space to open properly, so use one flower per spout from those types of tulips.

Use contrast: Alternate large and small tulip varieties for a fascinating bouquet. Use plain smooth tulips and alternate them with tulips with serrated petals. Choose single-colored tulips that you combine with tulips with a flamed center. Martha herself prefers a color combination of yellow, orange and black tulips, which are actually a deep purple color rather than being truly black. One of her favorite tulips is the Princess Irene tulip. An orange tulip with a flamed, brown center that stays very nice in vases and pairs well with other colors and varieties. 

Big to small: Depending on the type of tulip vase, also look at the size of the tulip. In a pyramid vase, you put the biggest eye catcher all the way into the spout on top that is upright. In the layer below that, you also put large tulips. In the layers after that, you stick tulips from small to large, with the largest tulips sitting at the very bottom, in the widest water container.