Instagram lifestyle influence and gardener Brandi Rondinelli has shared how a quick trip to Tesco could help you keep your plants alive for a year
A lifestyle influencer has shared her tips to keep your flowers fresh throughout the year… and you won’t believe how cheap and easy it is.
As we head into gloomier weather, with darker evenings, rain, wind and whatever other weather can be thrown at us, many green-fingered people will be becoming concerned about how to keep their beloved plants alive and well during winter. But now a new “hack” from Instagram gardener Brandi Rondinelli will have people popping down to their local shop as soon as possible.
The “homesteading mama” boasts 570,000 Instagram followers and took to social media to share her tip for keeping fresh flowers – leaving many people wondering how sustainable it is. The mum, who documents her homemaking, gardening and homeschooling on the popular app has said one common parent item can do wonders.
Johnson’s Baby Oil can cost as little as £1.50 for a 200ml bottle at Tesco – which I’m sure most will agree is a cracking price to keep those plants alive as long as possible. For bigger bottles or different brands, prices can shoot up to as much as £14.75. Brandi believes baby oil is the key to long-lasting flowers you’ve bought during the summer and want to keep perky through the colder weather. Detailing the hack to her followers, she said: “I LOVE fresh flowers in the house but they die too fast. This trick gives you fresh flowers to enjoy for a YEAR!!”
She added: “[You] can use baby oil, mineral oil, or paraffin oil. Yes, it’s as simple as filling a glass bottle with only baby oil, putting flowers in, and putting the cap on.” Brandi shared the picture of the finished product on her autumnal and spring-vibed profile, which also shows her growing her own vegetables, raising animals and looking after her home-schooled son, to show exactly what you should be looking for when trying this yourself. Brandi actually ran out of oil and for the purposes of completing her project, and had to fill it with normal cooking oil.
Some people haven’t been convinced of the “hack”, however, even questioning the method and exactly how long flowers could possibly last submerged in any oil. One person who wasn’t so sure wrote: “I’m terrified that this would become the [nastiest] bottle of goo known to man in a few months.”
Another skeptic wrote: “If you mix oil, water, and fresh flowers, [then] these will 100% mold in my experience! If [you] really wanna do this, [then] try drying some flowers like baby’s breath, strawflower, roses. This looks beautiful but as an herbalist, [it] looks like a recipe for a moldy bottle. The water content of fresh flowers will introduce bacteria and mold/not smell good,” another person chimed in. “If the idea is to preserve the look [of] the flowers, [then] it’s not likely it will last long either way…” Despite some reservations, several others seemed excited to try out the tips and see if they can keep their flowers, which they’ve spent many hours going over this summer, in tip-top condition.
