Flowers can add a pop of colour to any room in the house, but sometimes they’ll drop and appear like they’re on their way out. Plant expert and florists have shared a nifty trick to help your tulips stop drooping, making sure your colourful flowers last for longer periods of time. 

The team at Floristy Market, a UK based wholesaler, revealed that you don’t have to throw away your tulips once they’ve started drooping - and that they’re definitely not dead yet. Kerrie from The Flower House in Aylesbury shared her ingenious trick for getting tulips back on their feet. All you’ll need is a pin.

How to stop tulips drooping

Kerrie said: “When you see tulips drooping over, it means they have an air lock in their stem, which means that there’s no water getting into the head. So they’ll naturally start to dehydrate and fall over.”

The florist then takes a pearl head pin and pieces the tulip’s stem right at the top near to the flower head. This will help release any air in the stem that’s preventing the flower from taking on water. 

Kerrie continued: “Lock in the stem and your tulips will just up.”

Floristry Market’s Greg asked: “Just by doing that at the top it will release air wherever it is?”

Kerrie replied: “Yes absolutely, and then it can drink and it will get hydrated at the top.”

Tulips can develop an air lock if their stems are cut in a certain way and the way they are placed in water. When a tulip stem is cut, it can create a seal, preventing water from traveling up the stem and into the flower head, causing the tulip to droop. 

This air lock forms because the cut surface of the stem forms a seal against the water, trapping air inside. If the stem is not cleaned before being placed in water immediately after cutting the stem, this is what creates the seal.

To prevent this, you can recut the stems at a sharp angle under water, before it’s submerged in the vase. Flower sellers at London’s Columbia Road Market recommended dropping a two pence piece into the vase before filling it with water, reported Good Housekeeping.

The idea behind the coin trick is that copper coins naturally contain antimicrobial properties that help prevent the growth of bacteria in the vase water.