4 Tips on how to Arrange Short-stemmed Flowers in a Tall Vase
Summer is filled with an abundance of fresh flowers. They’re fragrant and colourful and there’s nothing better than bringing some of those stems from the outside, in. But sometimes these flowers have short stems. So what do you do when you have a vase that is too tall for your short-stemmed flowers? Here are four suggestions:
Tape a grid: Take some scotch tape and tape a criss-cross grid along the top of your vase. Make sure the holes you create are quite small. You want the stem of a flower to fit through the opening, but not slip all the way down. If the stems are very thin, you could put a few together into the same space. Make sure you keep the water level topped up using this technique as the stems won’t be reaching very far down into the vase.
Rule of thirds with a flower arrangement: In floral arranging, there’s the ‘rule of thirds’; the vase or container should be ⅓ of the total height of the arrangement and the flowers should be ⅔’s. This will create a balanced look. But, you can also do a ‘reversed rule of thirds’, so the flowers are ⅓ of the total height of the arrangement and the vase is ⅔’s. This is definitely a different look and may take you a bit of getting used to, but it will create a balanced looking arrangement.
Attach to a long-stemmed flower or piece of foliage: A little trick you can do is take some floral tape, or a piece of twine, and attach your short-stemmed flower, to the longer stem of a flower or piece of foliage. The longer stem will go to the bottom of the vase while giving the flower some height. With this technique, once again you need to keep your vase filled almost to the brim with water, to make sure the tip of the short-stemmed flower is always in water.
The upside-down container: Find a container in your kitchen that’s a bit narrower than your vase and about ½ to ⅔ the height. Turn it upside down in the vase and then fill the vase with water. The bottom of the container makes a false bottom in the vase. Your short stems will be able to rest on it giving them the needed height.
I hope these tips help. Let me know if you try any and how they work for you. And if you have any other tips, please share with us in the comments below.
