Long life flowers

Find it annoying how quickly fresh flowers wither and perish, but aren’t drawn to faux or dried flowers? Then join the growing band of fans of the preserved flower

Preserved flowers look like the real thing because they are the real thing. They’re treated with a safe bio-chemical liquid that means they look daisy fresh for up to a year

If you grow your own flowers or get them delivered from a nice person nearby who grows them in their allotment then you don’t have an eco dilemma. But many of us buy cheap supermarket flowers; and the bad news is they come with a heavy carbon footprint, derived from the road or air miles needed to get them here. And those very £5 bunches of roses have a human cost, since flower farms in Kenya or Brazil have been found to subject workers to very low pay, exposure to dangerous chemicals and insanitary working conditions. All reasons to think about switching to preserved flowers which last for a good year. Saves money and stops us succumbing to bargain bunches with a hidden cost.

Top left and right: oats bouquet, £16.99 and red preserved hydrangea stem, £19.99 from Dowsing & Reynolds Left, centre: Kaffraria preserved bouquet, £49 at www.limelace.co.uk Bottom left: pink diosmia bouquet, £18.99 at www.dowsingandreynolds.com Far left, centre: Kara deluxe preserved bouquet £195 from www.etherealblooms.com