Living Centerpiece

Happy Tuesday! I thought I’d share one of my favorite projects (and by far the easiest!). I’m a huge fan of Candice Olson’s show Divine Design on HGTV- she’s got some great ides. On a recent show, Candice incorporated a very unique centerpiece- a large globe vase with flowers planted inside (yes, planted, not cut flowers). How cool? I’d been hoping to find a similar vase for a while, but wasn’t coming across anything big enough. A couple of weeks ago I ran across a huge fishbowl at a garage sale for $2.50. It was EXACTLY what I was looking for! Here’s what I came up with:

It’s so easy to make! Here’s what you need:

• A large globe vase or fishbowl (mine is just under one foot tall by one foot wide)
• Potting soil
• Flowers (something tropical works best since there’s no drainage and it can be humid inside the vase)
• Glass beads, rocks, etc.

I bought some clear glass rocks from Michael’s and layered them in the bottom of the vase. This helps with water drainage. Next, I covered the glass with a couple of inches of potting soil. Then in go the flowers. I chose to have mine completely encompassed within the vase, but I’ve seen this done with bulbs or an orchid which comes out the top. That’s it! Here’s a close up:

The flowers I used are begonias. I’ll be honest, the Bachman’s garden expert told me they wouldn’t do very well in this set up and to choose a tropical plant, but I loved their coloring and bought them anyway. The plant isn’t doing all that wonderfully at the moment, so if it dies I’ll take my own advise and update it with a tropical plant.

There you have it- a much longer lasting centerpiece than cut flowers. I must say it looks pretty awesome on our dining room table!