In brief: the first gestures
1. Set out two or three clean vases in different sizes — a tall one for the main room, a shorter one for the kitchen or bedroom, perhaps a single-stem vessel for one rose.
2. Fill them with fresh water and add the Chrysal sachet at the dose printed on the packet. Split it across vases proportionally to the water in each.
3. Take the brassée out of its wrapping, holding it by the base — never by the heads. Lay it flat on the work surface.
4. With secateurs, recut every stem on the diagonal, 2–3 cm. This is the single most important gesture on arrival.
5. Strip any leaves that would sit below the waterline in your chosen vase.
6. Sort the brassée by height and variety, then divide the stems between the vases — by your light, your mood, your rooms.
7. Check that every stem reaches the water; adjust heights if needed.
8. After 2–3 days, wash the vases, change the water entirely, and recut the stems very slightly (0.5–1 cm).
9. Keep the flowers away from direct sun, radiators, the cooker, candles, fruit and draughts.
In detail
Why a brassée asks for a different gesture
A pre-tied bouquet arrives ready to set down: bound, balanced, sometimes shipped with a water reservoir. A brassée travels dry — protected, hydrated the day before at the workshop, but without an aqua pack. That's what lets us move many stems in little volume, keep the form open, and leave the final gesture in your hands. The trade-off: the return to clean water has to be quick and clean. The shorter the gap between unwrapping and water, the longer the brassée will live with you.
First, the vases
When a brassée arrives, the first real act of care is to prepare clean water — in several vessels.
Pull out two or three vases before you touch the wrapping. A brassée isn't a single bouquet; it's material to distribute. A tall vase in the living room. A shorter one in the kitchen. A bud vase for a single stem worth standing alone. Mind the proportions — too narrow and the vase squeezes the stems; too wide and the composition opens too freely and loses its form.
The vase has to be properly clean. If it's been sitting on a shelf, wash it with a little dish soap and rinse thoroughly. Clean water always starts with a clean vase — that detail does as much work as the freshness of the flowers themselves.
Add the Chrysal
We slip a Chrysal sachet in with every brassée. A small gesture, but a useful one.
The solution keeps the water clearer, helps the stems hydrate and supports a more even opening of the flowers. Follow the dose printed on the sachet rather than guessing by eye. Too little and the effect fades. Too concentrated and stems can suffer. If the brassée goes into several vases, split the sachet in proportion to the water in each.
What's better left out of the water
You'll sometimes read that you should add aspirin, vinegar, vodka, bleach, sugar or other household recipes. We don't recommend it.
These methods are unpredictable; their effect varies with water hardness, the variety of flower, the season. For cut flowers, it's safer to use a solution designed for them, with a clear dose and a stable result.
How to unwrap a brassée
Prepare the vases and water first; only then take the brassée out of its packaging.
Hold it gently at the base, never by the heads. The paper, film and ribbon can come off completely. If the brassée is held by a transport tie, cut it — here, you compose, not the florist. Lay the stems flat on a clean surface, or straight in the sink if you prefer. Spread them out so you can see what's arrived. Often this is the moment the brassée starts to speak — through colour, height, family.
Recut the stems, immediately
This is where a brassée differs most from a bouquet shipped with an aqua pack: recutting isn't optional — it's the first vital gesture. During transport, the tip of each stem closes slightly. A clean cut reopens the vessels and lets the flower drink again.
Use secateurs, not kitchen scissors — the cut is cleaner and doesn't crush the tissue. Cut on the bias, 2–3 cm, and put the stem straight into water (air drawn into open vessels slows hydration). For woody stems — lilac, some spring branches, hydrangeas — you can add a short vertical split of a few millimetres at the very base, so the surface that drinks is larger.
Hydrangeas, lilac, peonies that haven't yet opened, and certain spring branches are especially sensitive to dehydration. The faster you move from unwrapping to water, the better they hold.
Composing it yourself: the right moment
A brassée isn't a bouquet to copy stem for stem. It's material to distribute.
Sort the stems by height and variety. Decide which flower goes where — by the room, the light, what you'll like seeing in the morning as you pass. A long branch in the living room near the north window. Three open roses in the kitchen. A single spiraea on the bedside table. You can mix varieties or, on the contrary, keep them apart so each flower has its own moment. What you end up with exists nowhere else. That's no longer flower delivery — it's a private gesture, and it shifts a home more deeply than any pre-tied bouquet on a console.
As you slide the stems into the vase, strip every leaf that would sit below the waterline. A submerged leaf rots in a couple of days and clouds the water for the whole composition.
The water, every two or three days
After two or three days, the water begins to tire. Pour it out, wash the vase, refill with fresh water — with any remaining Chrysal or simply clean. Recut the stems a touch — 0.5–1 cm is enough. Secateurs still beat dull scissors.
It's a short ritual — five minutes per vase — that adds a good week to the life of the brassée.
Why coolness matters more than you'd thinkIn the garden, flowers love the light. In a vase, they mostly want to avoid heat.
Direct sun, warm air and proximity to heat sources accelerate the opening — and then the ageing — of cut flowers. In a cooler spot they evolve more slowly and stay beautiful longer. Ideally, place each vase well away from radiators, the cooker, lit candles and very sunny windows. A north-facing corner, a mid-height shelf, an entrance hall — often these are the best places.
Some people move flowers to a cool room (an unheated space, a sheltered terrace) overnight. Not essential, but for peonies or summer tulips it changes the timeline noticeably.
Why fruit and flowers don't get along
A brassée next to a fruit bowl looks lovely in a photo, but it's poor company for the flowers.
Many fruits release ethylene, a natural gas that accelerates the ripening — and ageing — of plants. For cut flowers that means quicker wilting, petals dropping, a shorter life in the vase. Apples, bananas, pears, peaches and tomatoes are the worst offenders. If the kitchen is where you want to see flowers, keep the vase at the far end of the counter.
When some flowers are already open and others not yet
A brassée deliberately arrives at different stages. Peonies in tight buds, ranunculus barely cracked, tulips still graphic — alongside roses already wide and spiraea in full sweep. That's intentional: the brassée is composed to live several scenes in your home, not a single perfect photo on arrival.
To speed things up, place the flowers in a slightly warmer, brighter room and change the water more often. To slow things down, do the opposite — cool, soft shade, clean water.
One last thing
Flowers are beautiful precisely because they're alive. And like everything alive, they respond to their surroundings.Even a very fresh brassée can hold less long if it stays out of water, travels in heat, sits in direct sun, or spends time in an overheated room. That doesn't mean something's wrong with the brassée. It simply means cut flowers, too, have their conditions of comfort.
The fairest care, in the end, is very simple:
Several clean vases, fresh water, the Chrysal sachet, a clean cut on arrival, a little coolness in the room, and light attention every two or three days.
Most of the time, that's all it takes for a brassée to live a long life at home — and to keep changing the room, day after day.
