I love my potted plants but I often wish that I could have flowers mixed with the greenery. Easy enough to do with outdoor potted plants, or those that can get sun indoors, and yes, there are some low-light flowering plants that do well indoors, but I have almost no sun and very little light indoors. I have enough for all those wonderful indoor plants like pothos and peace lilies, but for the most part, not enough for flowering plants.



I do, however, have a lot of beautiful flowers growing outside. Yes, they look great in vases, but I really wanted to have them integrated into those thriving, green plants. Well, I used to work for a florist, soooo....

I went to my local florist and asked if I could buy some of those little water tubes they use in arrangements to prolong the lives of cut flowers. They were happy to sell me as many as I wanted for about 10 cents each. They're available online too, but seem to be more expensive:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00W5RH7B6/

I inserted them into several planters leaving the top off, filled them with water and then inserted cut flowers.





Cut flowers can be thirsty so what is the most convenient way to keep these vials full? One is to use plastic syringes. You can get these at any pharmacy (no needles needed). In Massachusetts, they're required by law to give them to anyone who requests them at no charge (yes, I explained that I'm using them for flowers and offered to pay, but they refused). I don't know about other locations.

Another easy way is to use a small watering can that has a small-diameter spout. No worries if water spills out, it just goes into the potting medium.

Love the idea Joanna I too like to have blooms in the house. I will order some of those little water tubes or try to get some from a florist.

Frenchy21 said:Love the idea Joanna I too like to have blooms in the house. I will order some of those little water tubes or try to get some from a florist.

I found them to be so much less expensive from the florist! Maybe a floral supply house would be low priced too. But even online, they're not that expensive.

So glad you found the idea useful!

I inquired at our local shopping mall at a store that sells orchids. They had some of the water picks in the back room and no longer used them. They gave me 20 for free!

If you research online use the search words water picks and/or water tubes to get the best results.

Joanna, what a fantastic idea; I love how it enables one to pretty up their houseplants!

I recently threw a bunch of those water tubes in the recycle bin. I was cleaning out drawers of my gardening stuff and packing because we're getting ready to move. I was saving the tubes, thinking that I'd use them in flower arrangements at some point but like a lot of other stuff, they just got stowed away and forgotten about. Dang, I wish I'd seen this great garden idea a few weeks ago ... from now on when I come across those things I will keep them. I really love this idea!

Thanks everyone! I forgot to mention that I just leave those tubes in my plants when the flowers are spent. I just remove the flowers and then refill the tubes with both flowers and water! During winter, they're just there. Because they're either green or clear, I don't see them at all. If you accidentally get water in them when watering your plants, it will evaporate.

Thanks for the great idea, Joanna. I have an office full of green vines & plants and a perennial garden full of flowers. I think I'll marry them together !

katesflowers said:Thanks for the great idea, Joanna. I have an office full of green vines & plants and a perennial garden full of flowers. I think I'll marry them together !

Ah, sounds lovely! Offices can be dry so just remember to refill the tubes, probably daily. The syringes work really well for that.