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Notes on a kitchen vase

Notes on a kitchen vase

The dining room gets the credit, but the kitchen is the room flowers actually live in. It's where the morning happens, where the kettle runs, where the dog gets fed. It's also the room where you'll see the bouquet most.

A few things worth knowing. Direct kitchen sun is hotter than living-room sun — most cut stems lose three days off their shelf-life if they sit on a north-facing windowsill in February. Move them to the counter opposite. Kitchen humidity is your friend; the steam from a kettle is closer to a flower's natural environment than any climate-controlled showroom.

For vase shape: the deeper the better. A heavy ceramic that goes down narrow at the base does most of the work for you — the stems group themselves, you're not rearranging every morning. Terracotta is nicer than glass for an everyday bouquet because you don't have to clean the water line.

This Sunday's drop includes one arrangement designed exactly for this — short stems, dense head, fits a 12cm-wide opening. We call it Kitchen.