Blooms Inside the Vase

As Gladioli are still cheap and easily available I bought them again this week, but wanted to do something different with them.  Instead of arranging them so the focus is above the top of the vase, I made the vase itself part of the design, by having some of the blooms inside the vase with extra interest of mini shells and pebbles.  By arranging flowers inside a vase – the vase acts as a magnifying glass forcing your eye to focus on the individual blooms.  I chose soft colours of peach and green that would suit the colours of my pebbles and shells but of course you could make this more dramatic with strong purple and red gladioli and darker pebbles.  Any stones, gravels, glass can be used in the vase, but make sure they are clean.  I loved the feel of looking into a cool pool on a hot summers day.

How to create

I chose a vase that would be wide enough for my gladioli, leaving space for the flowers to open.  I started with a layer of pebbles in the bottoms of the vase.  I cut the gladioli a couple of inches below the bottom flower and pushed each stem into the pebbles, turning each stem so the bottom blooms could be seen through the glass.  The stems maybe still fall over a bit at this stage, but don’t worry.  Once all your flowers are in add more pebbles or in my case the shells.  If some stems needed more support, I dropped in more pebbles around their base while holding them upright.  I then mixed the flower food with a litre of water and poured into just below the bottom blooms.