[Reflection] When Someone is Celebrating: Giving a Vase Instead of Flowers Might Make Them Say "That Helped!"

2019.08.24 published

A Little Reflection on Recent Events...

Recently, Keiko from Marry went on maternity leave, and we all gave her a bouquet to say "Thank you for your hard work."

At that moment, I had a little reflection or thought, so I will write about it in this article.

**

Regarding the bouquet we presented...

Actually, this bouquet was this big....!

It was about the same size as my son, who is approximately 90 centimeters tall.

There were a lot of flowers, around 50 stems or so, I believe.

It looked vibrant and cute, but it was just so big that it was hard for her to take it home....!!!

(She brought it back by car)

After bringing it home, she apparently had to buy a large vase just to display this many flowers because she didn't have one that could hold them... I felt kind of sorry about that...

I wanted to write a message on the wrapping paper, and when I did, there were so many messages that...

"In order to show the part of the wrapping paper with the message without hiding it, we needed a bouquet this size."

☑︎ Difficult to take home

☑︎ No vase to display it in

☑︎ Worst case, she couldn’t take it home that day

I realized that while we had prepared this bouquet, there were probably some people who felt burdened by it....

The flowers might have wanted to be moved to a vase sooner, too....

【Lesson Learned】

So, from now on, I would like to do the following.

① When giving a bouquet, make sure its size is moderate....!!

② If possible, also give a vase

There seem to be many homes without vases.

Regarding the size of the bouquet, this time it unexpectedly turned out to be quite large, so I think next time I can make it a more manageable size, which is good. However, I want to be conscious about the 【vase】.

Don’t you think that many homes don’t have vases??

(Do you all have one?)

Especially a large vase!!

Until not too long ago, I only had a cheap, small vase I bought for a few hundred yen that could hold about five flowers...

(So I always cut the flowers short and displayed them separately.)

This is an extreme example, but I had a friend who "didn't have a vase, so she stored the flowers she received in a sink filled with water overnight"...

So, I want to gift vases.

I think there are surprisingly many people who struggle with where and how to display flowers even when they receive them as a celebration gift... So from now on, when choosing a gift for someone who has had a celebratory event, I’ll include vases as an option!

I believe a suitable vase when receiving a bouquet would have:

☑︎ A height of 20 centimeters or more

☑︎ A mouth that is reasonably wide (but not too large)

Something that is tall and slightly wider at the mouth should be easy to use, as you can just drop in the flowers without having to trim the stems too much, allowing for a lively and beautiful display.

(It is said that for the length of the flowers you place in the vase, a ratio of "1:1.5" is good.)

Brands where you can buy great vases for gifts include:

☑︎ Iittala

☑︎ Kähler

☑︎ Sugahara

☑︎ Michael Aram

☑︎ Nachtmann

☑︎ Rosenthal

These are representative examples.

It's safest to visit a department store or an interior shop and see them in person.

Moving forward, I want to avoid overwhelming others by suddenly giving them a ton of flowers.

I’ll consider what happens after they take the flowers home, thinking about how they can "enjoy displaying the flowers," and aim to choose gifts accordingly...!!!

For wedding gifts and more, I might choose a vase from now on.

Or, I learned that perhaps a floral arrangement that doesn’t require a vase is a better option...!