upworthy

flowers

Friendship

8 friends rally around nervous college student, helping her get ready for her first date

He picked her up with flowers.

erinv.log/Instagram

College girlfriends help friend Avery get ready for first date.

There are few things more nerve-wracking than going on a first date. But when you have a big group of supportive girlfriends who are there to help you pick out your outfit and do your hair and makeup, you know everything is gonna be okay.

And that was just the case for Auburn University student Avery (@averyy_ayers), who was featured in her friend Erin's (@erinv.logerinv.log) sweet video that captured her girl squad rallying around her to put her at ease and make her feel beautiful for her first date.

In the video, Erin documents how 8 girls crammed into a tiny dorm room to help Avery prep. "first date YAY!!!", she captioned the post.

The video begins with Avery trying on a number of different outfits for her friends, who all offer their opinions on if it is 'the one' or not. After trying on at least 5 different outfits (that got the 'thumbs up' or 'thumbs down' from the group), there is a clear winner: a colorful, floral smocked dress that she paired with sandals.

The girls are having a blast together, dancing and playing games while Avery continues to get ready. The fun and relaxed atmosphere helped put her nerves at ease. Next, one of her girlfriends has Avery sit in a chair to do her makeup. Then another friend does her hair using a curling wand to give her pretty waves. Once her look is complete, she gives her friends a twirl and they all clap for her.

glamGetting Ready Canadian GIF by Shay MitchellGiphy

The camera follows Avery as she leaves the dorm room and goes into the stairwell to make her way downstairs to meet her date, her nerves clearly ramping up. She meets her date outside, who is sitting on a bench waiting for her with flowers. He also put some effort into his outfit to look nice, rocking a white short sleeve button down and khakis. When he sees her, he stands up and goes to give her a hug. Of course, her girl squad is watching from the dorm, and she turns around and waves to them, showing the flowers with a big smile.


floweGive I Love You GIF by Jimmy ArcaGiphy

And viewers are loving the support of Avery's friends and her date's sweet efforts, too. "The vibes of a freshman college student living in the dorm rooms with all her best friends are immaculate! This is perfect!" one wrote. Another commented, "FLOWERS ON THE FIRST DATE? YESS SIR 🔥🔥🔥." Another wrote, "And he put effort into his outfit / looks so put together too!" And another viewer shared, "this is so girlhood ❤️😭 i can tell by her smile that she is just the BEST person to be around!! hope it went well! :)"

Thankfully, Avery did not leave viewers hanging. She gave multiples responses when asked in the comment section how the date went. Spoiler alert: it was a total success. When one viewer commented, "We need an update", she responded, "date was 10/10". And when another commented, "She has such joy. It is beautiful. How did this work out for her?", she also replied, "it went great!!"

From Your Site Articles
first date
Community

Wondering what method keeps your Valentine's flowers lasting longer? One guy tried them all.

Some definitely worked better than others.

Representative image from Canva

Because who doesn't want to preserve the natural beauty of a bouquet for as long as possible?

With Valentine’s having just passed, many of us might be looking at beautiful bouquets bestowed by our sweethearts and wondering how to keep them fresh for as long as possible (the flowers, that is, but maybe your beau as well).

If the thought of experimenting with a ton of home remedies found online sounds exhausting, you’re in luck! Someone decided to test a whole handful of them to see which worked best for perfectly preserved petals.

In a 7-minute clip posted to TikTok, life-hack enthusiast and former circus clown “The Gooch” made his own little science project using multiple roses placed in vases of water, each with a different variable: a blend of sugar and bleach, Red Bull, pennies, popcorn kernels, 7 Up, alkaline batteries, denture tablets, aspirin and, naturally, the florist-provided flower food packet, which itself contains some kind of sugar, citric acid and biocide, such as bleach.

Some of these ingredients, like the sugar bleach, came at the recommendation of The Gooch’s “florist friend.” Others, like the alkaline batteries, were simply pulled from the almighty internet.

The Gooch let the roses sit for 7 days, each flower covered by a cylinder made of colored construction paper, before he gave the big reveal.

The results of the first couple of roses—the ones given Aspirin and 7 Up—wasn’t anything to write home about. In fact, The Gooch remarked that the 7 Up rose looked “sad.”

From there, the experiment had both unexpected losers, like the expert recommended sugar-bleach solution, and some surprising winners, like the denture tab solution which actually proved to be “ pretty amazing.”

One of the biggest surprises of all came from the alkaline batteries, which did keep the rose remarkably fresh, even if it made the water look like it came from a sewer.

In the end, the best result came from tablets, popcorn kernels, batteries, flower food and pennies, with the latter two being the best solutions overall.

@the_gooch Tasting what keeps flowers fresh longer #flowers #experiment #valentines #valentinesday #valentine #roses #fyp #foryou #foryourpage #longervideos #longvideo #longvideos #tipsandtricks ♬ original sound - The Gooch

After The Gooch’s video went viral, amassing nearly 22 million views, others began offering their own flower preserving tips.

“I do flower food, copper pennies (b4 1983) and ice cubes in the water. Replace water weekly. Flowers will last for 3-4 weeks,” one person wrote.

Another added, “when I was in school we were taught to cut our roses under water so that an air bubble isn’t created in the stem.”

Still, one florist noted that the real key is far more simple.

“The most impactful thing is to change the water every day (I’m a florist) — flower food has food (sugar) and a little bleach too to try and minimize bacteria, but clean water is the most helpful!” they wrote.

Adding onto that, the website Green Fresh Florals recommends to continue trimming the bouquets’ stems every few days, removing any leaves that would sit below the water line and not only changing of the water every couple of days, but putting the stems in warm water than slowly transitioning to cool water to prolong vibrancy.

Or you could follow this viewer's advice, who joked, “[The] ultimate trick is to leave them on the rose bushes, it’s hands down the best method.”

From Your Site Articles
human interest
Culture

An entire town lined up to take photos with a rare corpse flower at an abandoned gas station

Rhododendrites/Bg2655, Wikimedia Commons

When you have a flower that only blooms once a decade or so, you probably want to share it with the world when it does.

Nursery owner Solomon Leyva decided to wheel his rare corpse flower out to an abandoned gas station in Alameda, California on May 18 to share the joy—and the stank—of it in bloom. The corpse flower is so named because of its rotting smell when it's in full bloom. (The smell has been described as "worse than a thousand pukes," which may also explain why Leyva brought it out into a wide open space during its flowering phase. Even though it only blooms for a day or two, it's probably not too pleasant to have that smell indoors, even in a greenhouse.)

The first bloom of a corpse flower takes around seven to 10 years. After that, it's anyone's guess how often it will bloom. For some, it's every few years, for others it can be several decades between blooms.

Corpse flowers are huge, growing up to 10 feet in height, and most of the time they sit with their "petals" (actually a singular frilly leaf called the spathe) wrapped up around their towering centers (called the spadix). When in bloom, the spadix actually creates heat, and a combination of chemicals put off a mix of smells described as cheesy and garlicky, sweaty feet-ish, and rotting fishy.

In other words, the rare blooming corpse flower is a feast for both the eyes and the nose.

Leyva told the San Francisco Chronicle that he shares his extremely rare plants on Instagram, and when he saw people showing interest in his corpse flower, he decided to bring it out for the public to enjoy.

"I grabbed my wagon, went down to my greenhouse, put it in with the help of a friend of mine, dragged it down here to this abandoned building and people just started showing up," Leyva said.

Leyva sat near the flower in a folding chair and answered people's questions. He didn't set any rules for viewing, but as more and more people arrived, they formed an orderly line on their own, sometimes stretching down the block. By late afternoon, Leyva estimated that at least 1,200 residents had visited the flower.

"Everyone is commenting to me that the last time they've seen this was in San Francisco, and there was a barrier, and they had to wait for hours, and they weren't allowed to get near it," he said. "I think everyone's tripping out that they can walk up and wiggle it and smell it."

The combination of the bloom being a rare event as well as a putrid curiosity is likely what brought so many people out to an abandoned gas station to see a single flower. But the flood of visitors may also have been because Leyva's instinct to share something special with the public in such an unlikely place, expecting nothing in return, created a sense of community that we've all been craving during the pandemic. No cost, no fuss, no hassle, just "Hey, I've got this big ass flower that only blooms every ten years or so and it's blooming now so come take a look! And by the way, it reeks!" And the people came.

Thank you, Solomon Leyva, for sharing your cool, rank flower and reminding us that sometimes people will do something awesome for people just because it's an awesome thing to do for people.

From Your Site Articles
Related Articles Around the Web
nature
Most Shared

What to plant in your garden to attract the prettiest birds.

Certain Disney princesses have a way with birds. Singing to them. Having them land on her finger. But you want to know the secret?

Check out the background.

[rebelmouse-image 19528901 dam="1" original_size="400x282" caption="GIF from "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs."" expand=1]GIF from "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs."

Snow White's secret to getting up close and personal with her winged friends might be the plants around her. Plants, be they bushes, trees, or flowers, provide food and shelter to birds and other critters. Unfortunately, the world today is pretty different from what it was in Snow White's time. A lot of that natural habitat is now gone.

The Audubon Society has a charming, simple-as-heck fix for the problem.

Nestled in their website is a database of birds, plants, and geographic data. Put in your zip code and — voilà! — you'll get a list of beautiful, native, non-invasive plants you can add to your windowsill, rooftop, or garden that will help support local bird populations.

For example, let's say you were in zip code 10001, right in the heart of New York City. Do you have a roof planter? Orioles just love butterfly milkweed.

‌Wow! Photo via U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service — Midwest/Flickr.‌

Milkweed is easy to grow and attracts butterflies and other insects (which birds like to eat). Orioles use its fibers in their nests. Planting it means more food, shelter, and habitat for all kinds of birds. This kind of support is important because some birds are struggling due to man-made changes like urbanization, habitat loss, and climate change.

"A number of bird species are in trouble," says John Rowden, Audubon's director of community conservation. Luckily, he says, anyone can help out — "even a container on a balcony, patio, or fire escape can help."

Here are more examples of what you can find in the Audubon database to help the birds near you:

A windowsill full of bluebell-of-Scotland will attract hummingbirds, even all the way up in Juneau, Alaska.

Photo by Cerlin Ng/Audubon Society.‌

Alaska too cold for you? Los Angeles hummingbirds would love the flowers of the chalk liveforever succulent.

Chicago suburb? Plant a plum tree; get some lovely little finches.

‌Photo from Homer Edward Price/Flickr.‌

A purple passionflower would look lovely in Austin, Texas, and might attract some cardinals too.

‌A common passionflower in Bermuda. Looks a little freaky, doesn't it? Photo from Captain-tucker/Wikimedia Commons.‌

Want something larger, and a little less flashy, for a garden in Philly? Mockingbirds love to eat American holly berries.

‌Photo from Kehl Mack/Pixabay.‌

Planter box in Seattle? Bright orange honeysuckle flowers could bring in waxwings.

‌Plus, I mean, look at them. Fireworks!‌ Photo from Walter Siegmund/Wikimedia Commons.

This works, even in the desert. Got a little space outside your window in Las Vegas? Golden currant could bring in wrens.

[rebelmouse-image 19528908 dam="1" original_size="750x500" caption="Image from Sten Porse/Wikimedia Commons." expand=1]Image from Sten Porse/Wikimedia Commons.

Anyone can do this, and it really does help. The birds will thank you.

Western tanager and Douglas fir. Photo from Timothy Lenahan/Audubon Photography Awards.

If you're on a budget, many of these plants can be found as cheap seeds too. The Audubon database also points people to their local Audubon chapter, where they can get detailed advice about plant and bird care.

So whether you're looking for a fun summer project to beautify your home, a way to help out native birds, or you just want to up your chances of finally fulfilling your Disney princess dream, head on over to their website and check it out.

From Your Site Articles
Trending Stories