Daylight saving time ends in less than two weeks, and the Bay Area feels it right away. At 2:00 a.m. on Sunday, November 1, clocks move back to 1:00 a.m. and we switch from Pacific Daylight Time to Pacific Standard Time. You get an extra hour on Sunday morning. In exchange, the sun goes down about an hour earlier by the clock. In San Francisco, sunset is around 6:10 p.m. on Saturday, October 31, and around 5:10 p.m. on Sunday, November 1.
Most phones and computers change on their own, but the clock on the oven, the car, and the kitchen wall will not. This short guide is about the other things in the house that might like a little attention that morning: the flowers.
🕓 What to Do With the Extra Hour
People like to use the changeover as a reminder to change a smoke-detector battery. It works just as well as a reminder to reset the vases. Cut flowers do best with a regular refresh, and a sleepy Sunday with an extra hour is a good time for it:
- Empty each vase and rinse it. A slimy film on the inside is bacteria, and it shortens the life of the stems.
- Refill with clean, cool water and fresh flower food if you have it.
- Trim about an inch off each stem at an angle, so the stem can drink again.
- Remove any leaves that sit below the waterline, and pull out anything that has wilted.
- Regroup what is left. A bouquet with a few tired stems removed can turn into a smaller, tidier one that looks better than before.
That is about fifteen minutes, which leaves forty-five more for coffee.
🌙 Making an Earlier Evening Feel Warmer
The harder part of fall back is the dark. Dinner is now eaten after sunset, and the walk home from the train or the bus stop happens under streetlights. Flowers do some of their best work in that low, warm light, and we wrote about it in our golden hour bouquet guide. If you want to go further, our post on what flowers do when the sun goes down explains why a bouquet looks so different by lamplight.
A few simple ideas for the earlier dark:
- Put a small bouquet where you will see it at 5 p.m. The kitchen counter, the entry table, or the window you look out of while the kettle boils.
- Pair it with a lamp rather than the overhead light. Warm light makes rust, burgundy, gold, and cream flowers glow.
- Choose long-lasting flowers, such as chrysanthemums and carnations, so the bouquet is still looking good at the end of the week.
💛 For the Person Who Dreads the Early Dark
Some people simply do not like the shorter days, and the first week after the clocks change can be the hardest. A small bouquet delivered on a gray weekday, with a note that says “thinking of you,” is a gentle way to make that week a little brighter for a friend, a parent, or a coworker. You do not need an occasion. We deliver in San Francisco, Oakland, Berkeley, and across the Bay Area.
🌼 A Note About the Same Weekend
November 1 is also the first day of Día de los Muertos. If you are honoring someone this weekend, or helping a friend who is, we wrote a short, respectful guide to the marigolds and flowers of the ofrenda.