How to make a bouquet last ten days

Start with a vase you have scrubbed with hot water. Bacteria in an old vase will kill a bouquet faster than anything else.

Cut every stem at an angle, about two centimetres up, with a knife rather than scissors. Scissors crush the stem and it cannot drink. Strip any leaves that would sit below the water.

Keep it away from the fruit bowl, because ripening fruit gives off a gas that ages flowers, and away from radiators. Change the water every second day and re-cut the stems when you do. Dahlias and cosmos drink a lot, so check them each morning.