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Flower arranging made simple with flea market finds

Looking for an easy way to enjoy your garden flowers indoors? Head to the nearest flea market.

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Courtesy of Helen Yoest
Individual flowers are placed in small glass bottles that are inserted in a metal carrier. It's a simple flower arrangement for using summer flowers. Flea markets often sell inexpensive items that are perfect for displaying flowers.
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Courtesy of Helen Yoest
Little bottles hold a bounty of blooms from the summer garden. This would be a nice centerpiece indoors or on a picnic table.
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Courtesy of Helen Yoest
Bulbous bottles that once contained Orangina now hold stems of black-eyed Susan. It's an inexpensive and easy way to display the flowers
  • By Helen Yoest

Summertime is the time of year to enjoy the garden you’ve so lovingly nurtured. Sitting on the back porch, sipping tea, watching the wildlife skip from flower to flower is your just reward.

But do you bring your rewards indoors? With a few snips in your garden, you can build a simple and beautiful flower arrangement that is also a conversation piece for visiting friends.

An idea from the past

When touring Elizabeth Lawrence’s garden in Charlotte, N.C., I learned that she kept an array of little glass bottles on her dining room table and filled each one with a single blossom of what was in flower that day. She did so when guests were coming to provide a tabletop centerpiece, one that invariable became the topic of conversation.

It was so charming, I decided to carry on Miss Lawrence’s tradition in my own home.

A great place to shop for little bottles is a quick visit to the flea market or a trip to the thrift store. For very little money, little bottles can line your table to be filled with summer’s bounty.

Be creative; it’s really an anything-goes kind of design. The bottles can be clustered in groups or lined up the length of the table, mixed or matched, it’s really up to you.

Creativity and simplicity are keys

I’ve even experimented with a single flower of the same species, creating a smashing display.

So sit back and keep summer simple. Fill your table with flowers and welcome the conversation.

Editor's Note: To see two more ideas using inexpensive flea-market finds to display summer flowers, click on the arrow at the right base of the first photo. That will take you to the second and third pictures.

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Helen Yoest lives in North Carolina and writes about Gardening With Confidence. She's a garden writer, speaker, and garden coach. She's also a field editor for Better Homes and Gardens and Country Gardens magazines and serves on the board of advisors for the JC Raulston Arboretum. You can follow Helen on Twitter and Facebook. To read more by Helen here at Diggin' It, click here.

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