Glass Vases

There are two kinds of vase

A vase either disappears behind the flowers, or it is part of the arrangement. We make both, and it is genuinely worth knowing which one you are buying.

The large clear vases are the first kind, taken seriously: blown by hand, with a base heavy enough to hold a lopsided armful of branches without slowly creeping toward the edge of the table. They are deliberately plain. The only thing they do is bend the light, and they do it well.

The small colour sets are the second kind. Pressed so that they genuinely match, and sized so a single stem looks intentional rather than lonely. Line them down a long table, or put one on each windowsill and forget about them.

Getting the proportion right

The rule most florists work to: the arrangement should stand roughly one and a half times the height of the vase. Much taller and it looks precarious; much shorter and the vase quietly takes over.

So a tall clear vase wants long stems — delphinium, branches, tall eucalyptus. A wide, low one is a completely different instrument: it wants mass rather than height, which means foliage, hydrangea, or a dozen tulips allowed to flop outward as they open over the week.

Check the height on the listing and multiply by 1.5. That is the whole calculation.

Keeping clear glass clear

Clear glass shows everything, including the chalky ring left by last week’s water. That ring is limescale, and scrubbing it just scratches the glass, which makes the next ring worse.

Do this instead: fill with warm water, add a spoonful of uncooked rice and a splash of white vinegar, cover the top and swirl for thirty seconds. The rice gets into the inside curve where no brush reaches, and the vinegar dissolves the scale. Rinse well. It sounds like a kitchen myth. It works every time.