Just realized my hydrangeas perk up SO fast with a hot water trick

I had a delivery of 50 hydrangeas last Tuesday that looked totally limp by the time they arrived. I remembered reading somewhere that plunging the stems in boiling water for 30 seconds can help. I did that, then put them in deep buckets of cool water for 2 hours. Honestly I thought it was junk advice but the flowers went from droopy to standing tall like nothing happened. Now I use this every time I get sad looking hydrangea stock from my wholesaler. Has anyone else tried this and had it work on other wilting flowers like tulips?

3 comments

3 Comments

scott.jana23d ago

Felt that pain with droopy hydrangeas more times than I can count. Good to know the hot water trick actually works, I'll have to remember that.

veraj5323d ago

And it's weird how that translates to other stuff too. Like I've noticed the same thing with wilted lettuce - a quick soak in cold water perks it right back up. Half the problems with plants or even people just need a little temperature change to reset things. It makes me wonder how often we overcomplicate fixes when the simplest solution is right there. Your hydrangeas are basically teaching you the same lesson my basil did last summer.

skylerrobinson15d ago

@scott.jana you've been there too huh? I've had good luck with the hot water trick but just gotta make sure it's not boiling, I almost learned that one the hard way.