Pansies and columbine

Here is a sweet, simple way to arrange flowers if you don’t have a lot of space, or a lot of know-how. It’s also handy for those who don’t have a big cutting garden, or who (like me) would rather leave everything outside because that’s where you spend more of your time.

These are actually shot glasses I bought as a set from T.J. Maxx. You could also use bud vases, but my windowsill isn’t deep enough to acommodate most glassware made for that purpose. A rack of test tubes would be interesting, too, in a small window.

I’ve used large and small flowers, sometimes just a single stem per glass. Specimens that look the best to me are ones you might find embroidered on a handkerchief. My favorite right now is the one above, with two pansies and a columbine. In summer, scabiosa and pinks are nice. In the fall, I like asters. Last Christmas, when nothing was in bloom, I did an entire row of holly with red berries. Sometimes I’ll use only greenery, including sprigs of herbs.

Here are close-ups of the others on my windowsill right now:

Grape hyacinth and mint

Violas

Pansies

There are six glasses in all, lined up across my kitchen window.