SLEEPING BEAUTY ROSES

How can you make supermarket roses look as full as garden roses? In my book "Flowers that Wow," I reveal the florist secret of spreading out the rose petals by hand. But I still had trouble with this technique because the petals would tear if they were too stiff. So I tried something more drastic. I "killed" the roses first by leaving them out of water for 24 hours. The stem might become droopy, but the petals are buttery soft and easily spread apart. Given a fresh cut and placed back in water, they revive with the petals beautifully spread out. That’s why I call these Sleeping Beauty Roses. They’re not dead, just sleeping. It’s kind of like the movie "Flatlliners," only with flowers instead of Julia Roberts.

1. Buy some roses from the supermarket and leave them out of water for about 24 hours. If your home is warm, it may not take as long for the roses to start wilting, so check them after 18 hours. If your home is cool, it may take even longer than 24 hours for the petals to get malleable.

2. When the petals become buttery soft, spread them out by hand. Start from the outside, and continue peeling back the petals. Sometimes the inner petals remain stiff so that you can’t peel them back. That’s all right, as long as the outer petals have been spread out.

3. Give the stem a fresh cut and place the rose back in water. If you have a floral food packet that came with the roses, use that in the water as well.The roses will revive with the petals spread out. Fluff the petals to adjust them, if needed.