The perfect vase
+ how to look after cut flowers so they last for ages
I must quickly tell you about this incredibly useful vase (not the one in the lovely pic above, keep scrolling). I have loads of vases, jugs, old jars and various other receptacles, and often none of them are quite right for my flowers - we’re assuming one large mixed bunch. The flowers are beautiful, the vase is great, but somehow they won’t play nicely together.
It’s almost always because the vases are too tall and narrow. You want the flowers to splay, not stand there stiffly looking like people who come to a party, huddle together for safety and won’t take off their coats. Exhale, you want to say to the people/flowers. Don’t stand there bunched up tightly and looking awkward. RELAX.
And that is impossible if the vase is too tall, which a lot of vases are. Flowers look dreadful - tragic, actually - when only their heads and a couple of inches of stem peer across the top of the vase (people do this a lot. SHORTER VASE, I want to say. The focus should be wholly on the flowers, not the receptacle, and the flowers should look at ease and like they can breathe).
But you also don’t want the flowers to splay too much. This is what happens if the vase is too short and/or if the mouth of the vase is too wide for the amount of stems. In which case the flowers spread out so much that there’s an empty, sad-looking space in the middle of the bunch.
Anyway: perfect vase, £30. Everything looks great in it because the shape and height are just right. Here it is on the kitchen table just now:
