Whether they're from your garden or the market, or you received them as a gift, you can persuade cut flowers to remain beautiful for at least a week — maybe two weeks or even longer, if you carefully follow a few fabulous flower secrets.

The two enemies of cut flowers are bacteria and drought. Defeat both and your flowers will last and last. You will be amazed!

START WITH A CLEAN VASE. Scrub it with soap and hot water, rinse well and fill with tap water. Next, add 1/4 teaspoon of liquid bleach for each quart of water. This will retard the growth of bacteria and fungus in the water but not harm the flowers.

REMOVE ANY LEAVES BELOW THE WATERLINE. Submerged leaves will rot and promote bacteria and algae growth.

CONDITION THE STEMS. Flowers can die of thirst even when standing in water if the stems have not been conditioned to draw that water all the way to the blooms. That's because when cut, a flower stem quickly seals its wound. That can prevent it from drawing water. Just before plunging the stems into the vase of water, cut stems at a forty-five-degree angle to allow for the greatest amount of water to be absorbed.

CHANGE THE WATER EVERY DAY. The moment that water turns cloudy, you know bacteria are present.

Some flowers, such as lilacs, dogwood, crab apple, azalea, camellia and forsythia, have "woody" stems. They appear to be more like branches than stems, and require a specific treatment to help them draw water. Split the last two inches of the stem with a sharp knife. Pound that part of the woody stem with a hammer until it is well frayed. Now the stem will allow water to draw all the way to the blooms.

Certain types of flowers require specific stem treatments. For example, when cutting carnations and similar flowers, make your cut between the nodes of the stalks, so that they can more easily draw the water they need.

Lilies, particularly the stargazer variety, have orange pollen that will leave a permanent stain on anything they touch, especially clothing and table linens. Remove the stamens with manicure scissors before proceeding to condition the stems for placement in the vase.

When you purchase roses from a florist, the thorns have most likely been removed. When you purchase flowers in bulk from a flower mart or other bulk source (sometimes called a "grower's bunch") or cut them from your own garden, you will need to remove the thorns from the stems with a sharp knife, working from the top down to put less stress on the stem.

There's nothing quite so lovely as a bouquet of beautiful flowers. Follow these simple tips and you'll be able to display them with confidence for longer than just a few days.

Mary invites questions, comments and tips at [email protected], or c/o Everyday Cheapskate, 12340 Seal Beach Blvd., Suite B-416, Seal Beach, CA 90740. This column will answer questions of general interest, but letters cannot be answered individually. Mary Hunt is the founder of www.DebtProofLiving.com, a personal finance member website and the author of "Debt-Proof Living," released in 2014. To find out more about Mary and read her past columns, please visit the Creators Syndicate Web page at www.creators.com.