How to Upgrade Your Basic Bodega Rose

One of my favorite things to have in the house are fresh flowers. Just a few blooms go such a long way to buoy my spirits. When I don’t have the opportunity to stop by the Flower District in NYC (would anyone like to see a post on this perhaps?), I usually stop by the corner bodega to buy a few varieties to assemble into my own arrangements at home.

However, if you’ve been following me on Instagram, you’d know that this week, I’m back in Seattle again with my family. However, while they’re short on bodegas in Seattle, they’re ample in grocery stores. I picked up a dozen of these sunny yellow hybrid tea roses at Trader Joe’s to show you guys a quick trick on how to take your basic blossom from zero to 100 (real quick).

This trick takes just a quick extra five minutes and stretches your roses further — quite literally. You might not even end up needing the full dozen, or you could potentially create not one but two arrangements using just one bunch. And the final effect is a gorgeous, full bouquet that makes one dozen roses look incredibly full and lush.

What you’ll need:

A vase filled up two-thirds with lukewarm water
Flower food
Gardening shears
Your roses, of course

Step one: Prep your flower

Remove all the thorns, leaves, shanks, and sepals from your flower. In case you don’t want the sepals are, they’re the green, leaf-like part of the blooms that enclose the flowers.

Step two: Begin folding out the petals

Start from the outermost petals and using your thumb and forefinger, gently turn the petals inside out. I find that the roses with the bigger petals are better at holding this out-turned shape, so I usually try to select those. Also, don’t worry if you lose some petals in the process.

Step three: Keep folding out your petals until you’re satisfied

I usually leave just a little bud in the center. You may have to go back and redo some of the more stubborn petals. Be gentle while you fold them, and don’t fight them too much if they don’t want to fold out. Some petals are just more pliable than others. Repeat steps one through three on all of your roses.

Step four: Arrange and trim your flowers

I like to arrange my flowers as they’ll fit into the vase in my hand first. After I get them into the shape I want them, I trim the length of the stems down to size. I like my blooms to sit pretty close to the vase, so I leave only about an inch or so. Important: always cut your stems at 45-degree angle. This maximizes the area on the stem for your flower to soak up water.

And voilà! A super simple hack to achieve maximum rose real estate. Also, since you’ve folded out the petals, you bloom is about two to three times the size it was before, so you might not need as many flowers to fill a vase as before. In fact, the best way to help your roses retain this new shape is to not crowd them.

Just change out the water daily, and your roses should last just as long as usual, only much fuller. Comment below if you try out this hack!

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