Not Really Flower Arrangements

Having fresh flowers at home is a luxury that I'm guilty of enjoying when I get the chance to, that is to say when I happen to be in the area of a decent flower market. Although I'm not one to make big, dramatic arrangements (partially due to limited skills though mainly due to my current taste), and have a limited stash of vases and odd vessels, I still quite relish looking at flowers and shopping for the little that I need, and sort of arranging them when I get home. It doesn't really take much (money, time nor effort) to dress my dining table or powder room up. All it takes is a little imagination and playfulness, as I really don't think there should be rules for personal flower arranging anyway, and in the end I'm rewarded with pretty things to look at for at least a week.

Here were  my sort-of-flower-arrangements last week. I say that because I didn't use traditional cut flowers and besides, hardly did anything to these guys...just a trim here and there to adjust heights and the practice of some discipline to know when to stop stuffing a vase. I had a string of dinners at home and so bought more than I normally would and so for all of this I spent PhP 850. Not bad, considering a single phaleonopsis orchid can cost close to the same amount in Manila.

The succulent above which is planted in soil and can live beyond my table setting was, if I remember right, less than PhP 100. If you have pretty little bowls or silver vessels, you can make a clustered arrangement of succulents! Cuuuuute! I added those red berry-like flowers to mine since the mouth of my bowl was too wide for the bloom. It was my first time to use this flower and so the name escapes me right now. 

I CAN identify the others though. In the vases above you will find iris leaves, tuberoses, cattails and philodedron leaves. Below you'll find the same iris leaves, tuberoses and oops! Another unidentifiable filler, much akin to baby's breath except that it's green. In my world of budget flower arranging, even a lowly filler can hold it's own if placed in the right vase.

 

And these berry-like flowers below, most likely a filler as well, I've admitted I didn't know. But they're rather cute in these votives aren't they? These were paired with the succulent above and placed on my dining table.

Perhaps one day I'll graduate onto bigger and bolder flower arrangements (most likely when I graduate onto bigger and bolder hairdos as well), but for now this less is more philosophy is working for my home.