Right vase makes the difference
It’s easy to get swept up in the beauty of spring flowers, but once you’ve got them home, the vase can be just as important as the blossoms.
“If you have the perfect vase, a couple of yellow dandelions actually look more incredible than a cheap vase with a white orchid,” said Lewis Miller, an event and floral designer in New York, with clients like Firmdale Hotels and the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
For that reason, Mr. Miller prefers distinctive vases to the generic glass cylinders sold in flower shops. At home, he said, “I have containers that look great even if they don’t have flowers. They’re accessories that are always part of the room, not things that come out just when flowers arrive.”
He also doesn’t hesitate to use unconventional containers. He and his staff have been known to stuff empty trash bins with monumental arrangements of leftover blossoms to create lavish “flower flashes” around Manhattan.
“It’s fun and it’s free,” he said. “You stand back and hear people say, ‘Only in New York.’”
• How many vases do you need for a dinner party?
“I almost always use multiples,” Mr. Miller said. “A single thing in the middle of a dining table just feels so heavy.”
• How often are you willing to change the water?
Mr. Miller generally prefers an opaque or translucent vase, he said, “so after a couple of days it doesn’t show that dirty flower water.”
• Do you need more than one size?
“I like different scales,” Mr. Miller said. That way, “you have taller pieces to hold some flowering branches and then smaller pieces for a couple of stems in the bathroom.”
Louise vases
Cylindrical brass or copper vases with colored enamel, in three sizes. $35-$95 each at Hawkins New York, hawkinsnewyork.com
Nimbus wide vase
Handmade porcelain vase adorned with cloud-like spheres. $1,260 at Klein Reid, kleinreid.com
Collect vases
Set of four ceramic vases coated in rubber paint that can be nested or used separately. $139 at Design Public, designpublic.com
Troll vases
Colored glass vases designed by Anderssen & Voll. $50-$75 each at Menu, store.menudesignshop.com
Stellar vase
Hand-cast multicolored, marbleized porcelain vases. $220-$450 at Sarah Cihat, sarahcihat.com