One time, in the earliest years of our marriage, I told Andrew to stop buying me flowers unless he was going to cut, water and arrange them! Believe it or not, I don’t regret saying this. He got the easy job of buying them and handing them off and then I got the horrid job of then taking them out of the plastic, pouring the plant food and water into a vase, cutting each of those stems and placing them in said vase. It was more work than was worth it!

Fast forward 7 years and I am a new women. I love receiving flowers! I used to think that you could only use that bouquet for one display in a vase but now when I have a bouquet of flowers in my hands, I play a game to see how many little bouquets I can make out of it to then distribute around the house to various locations so that they will be seen and enjoyed by us and visitors. Guest (and your) bedside tables, coffee tables, dining room tables, entry tables, above the toilet tank… the possibilities are endless if there is a flat surface.

The key to making as many bouquets as you can is to put them in jars and fill in extra space with greenery from your yard. I won’t pretend to be a professional when it comes to flower arranging but this trick I do know and it has served me well.

During season, I love to buy my flowers at the farmers’ market. I bring my own rag to dunk in water and wrap around the base of the bouquet and then place that into a cloth produce bag. That way, it is zero waste. When I get home, I put the flowers in a jar while I go outside and clip some foliage from my yard to serve as a backdrop. You would be surprised what greenery you can find hanging around your yard that can serve as green filling. After that, it is only a matter of arranging as many little jars as I can with flowers and greenery and finding surfaces to place them where they will be enjoyed by people in my home.

Buying flowers is a luxury so if you are able to do it, make sure you can enjoy it all around your home and by as many people as possible.

A big thank you to the ladies at Urban Buds: City Grown Flowers for growing such beautiful flowers for us to enjoy in St. Louis. So thankful for you both and for your sacrifice of giving up your Saturdays as a family to come sell us flowers.