Tulips

It's Easter week in New York City but the weather has not been very cooperative; cold, grey, windy, raining. Today when I was on my bicycle it was actually snowing. This is the point when I have really had it with cold weather. But. Flowers. They always help. We can "force" spring with some spring flowers.

Tulips are a quintessential spring flower. I love how they bloom. Other flowers crumble inwards and die but tulips open up and stretch out and fall apart petal by petal; they put on a show all week. Also I like the pale green of the stem and leaf combined with a pastel flower head -- very pretty spring colors.

We got a pot of tulips and some cut tulips. Bunches of cut tulips are all over the place now, at the farmer's market and the corner delis. The plastic pot of tulips came from the farmer's market. It cost the same as a bunch, $6. I put the plastic pot in a terra cotta pot for a garden touch.


A pot of tulips has a romantic Dutch feeling too.


A bunch of cut tulips can be separated into individual vases. I cut the stem to fit the vase and group it with other objects and candles. Simple to do. Always trim the bottom of the stems so the flowers last longer.


I don't really like tight bunches of flowers, I like them to be airy and loose. I think you can see the shape of the flower and the leaves better when they are not bunched up tight. If there is a candle nearby you get nice shadows on the wall. It's more of a relaxed, casual, country feeling. When you separate them each room can get a flower


including the bathroom.