happiee-ness

Bought this last Saturday.




Was happy when I brought it back to my room around noon time after I came back from grocery shopping. It was about 80cm tall, beautifully wrapped by the florist.

But I didn't straight away put it in water. Instead, I left it on my chair for a few hours without unwrapping it.

Then it became like this.





Its proximal stem was turning softer unlike the distal end which is firmer, due to lack of water. And it looked dehydrated too. The petals looked like they were going to fall off any moment. It was actually worse than as shown in the pic as the leaves were curled up as well. I never know sunflowers wither this fast! =(

I then placed the whole stem in a pail with water only enough to cover its base, removing only the lower end of the wrapping paper then left it again for a few more hours because I was rushing out for dinner. I came back around midnight to find the flower 'nodding' down because the stem was getting softer and could no longer support the weight of the flower.

Please don't die so fast, I thought.
Don't wither so fast, you are a sunflower.
You are supposed to shine like the sun! (Does this make sense?)

Anyway, I figured that it wasn't absorbing water very well because of its height - water has to travel long distance to reach the leaves and petals. So I cut off the stem, cut and cut till it fit into my empty bottle of pasta sauce. I filled the bottle with water till it was half full.

The leaves have already withered when I put the sunflower in the bottle. The stem is so so short now, only about 15cm. Please don't die, miss sunflower...


-------------------

One day later.

Miracles do happen.

Woke up in the morning to find that miss sunflower is smiling at me!




Isn't she cute? =D

Wheee! I never know flowers can make me so happy =D
Especially when you have rescued them from withering/dying =P




It has a unique shape =) Look at how broad and strong the petals have grown! And the stem has grown firmer too!

I then realised that flowers really have strong willpower =)
You made it, little sunflower! ^_^

Is it just because of water?
The weather these few days have been cloudy and rainy with little sunshine.
How did it grow so well?
Is it because of you?




*happiness*