Indulging in Flowers

Flowers are an inexpensive luxury to add to your surroundings. If you have a garden, you can pick a stem of flower or leaf that interests you and put it where you can enjoy it more closely than in the garden. I urge you to support your local flower vendors, as they support the growers who make it possible for us to enjoy blossoms more often or out of season. If you establish a relationship with a flower shop that sells by the stem, it is easy to have a fresh flower on your desk.

If you have friends who love flowers, you can take turns buying a grocery store bunch and splitting it with each other to all have fresh flowers to enjoy more often. Think creatively about ways to have more flowers in your life. (Besides, they are an indulgence that doesn't add pounds!)

The style you prefer is very personal. The same few flowers appear very different depending on the container. Of course, you can add another element or two to the vase of flowers, but it is not necessary. These examples all used the same 3 stems of Siberian Iris from my garden. The first example is in a fancy vinegar bottle, embellished with a ribbon. The second example is an inexpensive vase from a chain store. The third was made by a ceramic artist and has a pin frog in the water well which makes arranging the flowers much easier, though I find that they do not last as long this way.

I have always grown flowers and have often painted them so I have a very eclectic collection of containers to display blossoms. Others, knowing my passion for flowers' beauty, have given me flowers in interesting containers that I add to the collection. I have a shelf that has most of the containers on it so that I can easily see them and select one that fits the mood of the flower.

Of course, over the years, I have accumulated a lot of vases, jars, bottles and pitchers. Now I must take the advice of my friend Carol. She is keeping only what she truly loves and passing on the rest to friends or charity.

This is my new criteria. Do I truly love this, or has my taste changed or my decor changed such that I can send it on to a new caretaker with no regrets?

Those pieces I truly love, I vow to store where they are easily retrieved for use and rotated for appreciation.