I love love love fresh flowers. If I was fabulously wealthy or lived in a temperate climate, I would have fresh flowers in my house at all times, but alas, neither of those are the case. During the summer it’s easy to clomp a few blooms from your yard or pick up a freshly picked bouquet at the farmers market, but what’s a girl to do during the winter?
The answer: winter bulbs! Paperwhites, amaryllis, hyacinths and freesia all make lovely substitutes for a vase of flowers.
Sandy over at The Reluctant Entertainer has a great step-by-step about how to get paperwhites started and the same concept would apply to other winter bulbs. Be sure to locate your bulbs in a well-lit, fairly warm area of your house and keep the soil mixture damp but not soaking wet, especially if your planter has minimal or no drainage. Because you get to watch them slowly grow and bloom, the visual candy lasts much longer than cut flowers.
What I also love is how bulbs lend themselves to creative choices of planters. This year for Christmas my in-laws gave me paperwhites planted in a beautiful Spode Blue Italian china cachepot. Bulbs in any pretty container make excellent birthday or hostess gifts…or just a pretty pick-me-up for yourself!
You could use:
any deep decorative bowl
a pretty ice bucket or wine cooler
a vintage urn
a galvanized bucket
a hurricane vase or apothecary jar
a kitchen utensil jar
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