I have a question for you guys today – do you prefer narrow necked or wide necked vases? This is a toughie, and rather hard to choose as I love both. I’m a little obsessed with flowers (have you noticed?) and have made it a real mission to seek out vases that will complement our beautiful collection of fauxs. Every stem needs the perfect vessel to show it off, which is why there’s a place in my pad/store/heart for all sorts of different shaped vases.
Narrow necked vessels are quite often overlooked, but they’re about to become your new best friends. They’re so sculptural and elegant and fab for enlivening small tables, mantles… anywhere. What’s more they are definitely the vessel to reach for if you’re a novice. All you need is a simple arrangement of a couple of matching stems – I love oversized foliage here because it feels fresher and cooler – and voila! It will instantly be beautiful and artfully arranged, making you look like a pro.
NARROW NECKED
Wide necked vessels take a bit more work with the flower arranging, but I am a big fan. They give you that lush loose display with things flopping all over the place. Super laid back and beautiful, and with fat-headed blooms like hydrangeas and peonies they will always look amazing. If you not a super doper flower arranger (me) just what I do and cluster the same bloom together rather than mixing in other stems. Mixing works if you know what you’re doing, but if you don’t it can quickly become a hot mess. My go tos are always something big and leafy like ferns or our evergreen foliage (or faux-liage as someone fantastically commented to us last week!), or my all-time favourite of a large cluster of floppy hydrangea. Done.
WIDE VESSELS
When it comes to arranging blooms, here are further tricks of the trade that I’ve picked up from Gem over the years. Most flowers should have their stems hidden in the vessel so their heads just topple over, and all the stems are hidden away. Anything like ranunculus, roses, hydrangea, peonies, sweat peas are far far sweeter if you can’t clock the stems. Having said that some flowers, like our new toppling lilac, or a twiggy long legged cosmos are just much about the stem as the flower. This is where a narrow neck and tall vase will really show off that height better than anything.
And lastly you don’t have to actually always fill your vases. All of our vessels are selected to look just as beautiful empty! So which camp do you fall into? Wide or narrow? Also if you’ve got any flower arrangements of your own that you’re particularly chuffed with please share on instagram, using the hashtag #areyoufauxreal. Can’t wait to see your creations!