Beakers and Blossoms

Now that Lovely Daughter #2 is home from college, dirty dishes are migrating out of her open cartons and into the kitchen. (Never scraped and into the dishwasher, mind you, but at least they're not lingering in her bedroom, attracting who-knows-what.)

A few days ago, this squatty little beaker, begrimed with some unspeakable sludge at the bottom, appeared on my kitchen counter.

A quick wash, and its decorative possibilities become apparent. Votive holder? Mini-terrarium for one of those eensy micro-succulents or micro-African Violets that garden shops sell?

Could be, for another time. For now, I just added some water....

...and popped in a single rosebud.

Overnight, it opened up nicely, and I trimmed a bit of the stem so it would sit more squarely in the chubby little vase:

The advantages of this type of flower arranging?

1. You hardly need to "arrange" at all. Even the most artistically challenged among us can clip a blossom very short and plop it in a two-inch-high container.

2. The glass containers can be very modest: a mini-beaker (like this), a shot glass, or even an individual-serving jelly jar (often served with pastries at tea shops and bakeries).

3. This is a good way to salvage flowers that have broken off too short to use in a standard bud vase or other display vessel.

4. It costs very little or nothing at all to collect a bunch of bitty beakers, shot glasses, or mini jam jars.

5. With 8-12 of these, one flower per glass, you can run them down the length of a dinner table or group them in threes or fives (odd numbers always look best when clustering things). You'll have a wonderful flower arrangement for very little money. One bouquet of grocery-store roses, or a dozen buds picked from your garden, and you're done!

The mini-beakers can be found at any science-supply house. Google "science supplies," plus your city's name, to find a trove of places--both online and brick-and-mortar--that sell the beakers in a variety of shapes and sizes. I recommend visiting an actual science-supply house. They are great fun to wander around in and look for design ideas.

Happy beaker-hunting!