The low down on vases

I’m a little obsessed with flowers and have had the hardest job in finding vases to complement our beautiful collection of fauxs,  until now that is. Vases are the ultimate 5-minute facelift giving a room an instant lift, a focal point, blending into your scheme or standing out creating drama. I’m all for mixing shapes, colours and sizes on a shelf – it adds instant panache. Do I always fill them?  Nope – empty they can look just as magical as full ones. I guess the only thing I’m not so keen on are the plain glass cylinders and fish bowls – it’s down to having a florist as a sister, I’m getting a little snooty in my old age! The reason being seeing all their stems distracts from the star,  the flower head, it kind of  throws the eye off. It’s an easy experiment to try if you’re not convinced. Put a small bunch in a jam jar, and do the same in a container where you don’t see through to the stems. See! When it comes to arranging blooms some further tricks of the trade. Most flowers should have their stems hidden in the vessel so their heads just topple over – anything like ranunculus, roses, hydrangea, peonies, sweat peas are far far sweeter if you don’t clock the stems. Having said that not all flowers should have their stems hidden – think gelda, lilac the twiggy long legged types, as these flowers are as much about the stem as the flower.  Anything else should pretty much just topple over. If you not a super doper flower arranger like my sister do what I do and cluster the same bloom together rather than mixing in other stems. Mixing works if you know what you're doing if you don't it can look a little sad. With real flowers cut off any leaves below the water line  (flowers last longer) and with real make sure you cut the base of every stem. Soft stems, ie tulips, hyacinths etc need a neat clean cut - woody stems like lilac  bash the stems with a hammer or split the stem with scissors to increase the drinking area. Viola Some of our new vessels below more can be seen here We are actually thinking of running  a master class on flower arranging as we have a wait list for one, its just my schedule is a little bonkers, but something like half a day in my pad should work, its on the To Do list which is getting longer by the day. Shall keep you posted if we can fit it in