Don’t get us wrong – receiving flowers is always lovely, but stopping them from suddenly wilting and dying prematurely is an uphill struggle.
However, thanks to a gran’s decades-old ‘hack’ involving a copper penny, a Glasgow-based company have designed a new vase that keeps your flowers alive for longer.
From as early as the 1600s - when the first British copper currency was put into circulation - those in the know might have been using any spare change to keep their flowers fresh and flourishing. No seriously, ask your gran.
How does it work? Well, copper is a naturally antimicrobial metal, capable of killing bacteria build-up in water - the number one killer of cut stem flowers.
But before you go reaching into your spare change barrel be warned, the ingenious technique is slowly being consigned to history. Only pennies produced before 1992 keep flowers in full bloom as that was the year The Royal Mint changed 1 and 2 pence coins from bronze copper to copper-plated steel.
However, the designer behind the world’s first self-watering origami plant pot has gone back to the future - and a family tradition - by harnessing the spirit of his gran’s old-school trick to create a self-cleansing, flat pack vase that can be sent through your letterbox.
Former Dyson designer Andrew Flynn, who co-founded award-winning POTR pots three years ago, tells HuffPost UK: “When I think back to visiting my gran’s house as a kid I think of colour, because at the centre of every room there was always a big, bright bouquet of flowers.
“I was in the kitchen with her one day when she was preparing a fresh bunch of flowers, cutting the stems, when I noticed she’d flicked a spare 2 pence coin into one of the vases.
“When I asked why she was seemingly throwing away her money, she explained the copper in the coin keeps the flowers alive for longer.”
The material of the vase is made from recycled polypropylene and high-grade silicone rubber, whilst its patent pending design utilises the copper stem - which simply nestles in amongst your flower stems - to act as an antimicrobial rod, actively killing bacterial build-up in the water, the number one killer when it comes to premature flower withering.
You can order the Letterbox Vase and POTR Copper Stem at the POTR website here.