You already know there isn't a way to be ready. Not in the way you're asking.

[There's prepared, which he believes they are or will be, and then there's ready. Experience has taught him that you can be as prepared as you like for something you know is coming and still be blindsided when it happens. There is no "ready," there is only "as prepared as I thought was necessary."

Which, knowing Lauren, will be something like overprepared. That's not a bad thing, in a case like this - though the flowers are a bit confusing. He doesn't see why they'd need to be stockpiled - he didn't even think they could be.]

Can those be kept? I assumed they wouldn't work if they weren't fresh.