Almost everyone buys a few flowers for outside in the springtime. A side effect to spring fever, i think. We plant them in beds and in pots. But few flowers come with a long stem for our standard size vases. So those who leave their flowers outside, enjoy them for a few seconds as they pass by. Not long enough for me.

I think most of us have heard, “Mother Nature laughs in flowers” Since most of my time is spent inside my house, i want to bring the laughter inside.

All of these roses came from one rose bush…it is a climbing, beautiful beast called Joseph’s Coat roses (awesome choice b/c each rose can be a different color, hence the name). Very unlike the roses that are sold in stores. Long stem roses pop to mind when we first think of roses.  Very few buy & plant long stemmed roses, i don’t think i’ve ever seen them sold in stores, are they? I did see one growing in someone’s yard once AND i was shocked! It was an ugly, thorny stick, with one stunning single rose far above my head (i stand at a whooping 5’2″). Oooh, so that is why roses are sold in bush form, because this thing looked like it belonged in the Munster’s yard. But when roses grow on a bush, they tend to have lots of buds, with one or two flowers that are open, stuck in the middle. I do want to leave the buds to open later, i cut the (just opened) rose in the morning (best time to cut flowers) with its super short stem.

Short stems= small vases. The blue bottles i found at a funky nursery once, a rare find. I have found pretty shot glasses, tiny glass containers at craft stores to use as well.

BUT, MY FAVORITE, that ANYONE AND EVERYONE CAN BUY?! The teeny, tiny SALT & PEPPER SHAKERS used for fancy parties (the kind i never have). The kind made for one place setting. When filled with water, they look like rare, square ice cubes.

as you can see. These can be used for all our tiny flowers that we buy in springtime. planted for people to see when they walk into our homes. These purple African Daisies grow in a small rounded mound, so their stems are very short. Small zinnia, tiny petunias, phlox, and a gazillion more tiny flowers (i’ve even put forget-me-knots i found growing in my lawn this spring) can be brought inside. Place these tiny vases EVERYWHERE and you can have Mother Nature’s laughter inside.

AND we all know that laughter can be contagious.

~amy

P.S. i ALWAYS leave a lot of flowers behind for the bees