01 Apr A New Way to Do Office Flowers

Bud vases should be in every plant lover’s arsenal because: (1) they show off the lovely peculiarities of each stem and (2) they let you maximize the mileage of your bouquets.

When someone (cough, cough, cough) gives or sends flowers to C, she prefers to distribute them here and there in teensy bottles rather than restrict them to a single bunch in a single corner. So RB designed and crafted this beautiful LED Test Tube Window Planter that runs the length of the window. The installation consists of a long box constructed of buffed and lacquered steel; running across the top is a panel of acrylic with holes at regular intervals. LEDs behind the acrylic illuminate upward to give each flower a glow and downward to cast light on the attached corkboard.

The corkboard is also warmly illuminated.

Our test-tubes-turned-bud-vases fit snugly into the holes. When a delectable bunch of blossoms comes in, we just fill each test tube with water, snip and strip the stems and wah-lah, we have ourselves a happy office space.

Abundantly in season right now, ranunculus didn’t really work in our bud vases (too curly), so we dropped them into a water pitcher we got from CB2. Here, postcards by Darcel Disappoints keep an eye on our workflow.

Chrysanthemums are ideal thanks to their straight, sturdy stems and comparatively wide and expansive flowers. (And for variety this week, we slotted in spider mums the size of tea saucers.) In the past we’ve also used tulips, asters and pinches of chamomile flowers when in season. EBay is a goldmine for bud vases; these milk-white vintage pieces were Jonathan Adler before Jonathan Adler was Jonathan Adler. And the glass vases by Vitreum are quiet thrillers.

Back to work!

Flowers are a bright spot in a world full of deadlines and unpredictable bosses. Plus, you’ll look more competent when you’ve got a row of crisp daffodils watching over your spreadsheets.