Flowers and Charcoal...Does it help?

I received an email about a Pinterest list of uses for charcoal from my daughter, who knows I love to test things to see if they work. One idea was to drop a charcoal briquette in the vase with flowers to keep the water fresh. I need to try that and see how it works…

First I had to find somebody who uses charcoal so I could get a lump! My friend Nicole came through with that…but added that her husband, Andrew, thought aquarium charcoal would work much better. Wish I’d though of that….so, I bought some and set up a little experiment to see what would happen.

These photos were taken in the morning on 7/12. By the evening on 7/13 this is what we had:

This morning, after only four days, the hydrangea in the charcoal briquette vase is a goner! I’ll keep an eye on the others to see if the aquarium charcoal makes the blossom last longer than plain water….In the meantime I’d keep your charcoal briquettes outside for the BBQ!

Update: 7/20/13 four days more…the BBQ charcoal flower is crispy it’s so dead! the other two are exactly the same…still looking good!