While a beautiful bouquet of flowers wrapped in paper or plastic from a store is a wonderful, thoughtful and inexpensive gift to give to someone you love, sometimes it’s nice to gift them in a container. This way the receiver of the bouquet doesn’t have to worry about arranging the flowers themselves.
Before you think “Well, that’s a great idea, but then I’d have to buy a vase too”… understand this: you don’t have to gift flowers in a vase!
7 Flower Arrangement Alternatives + DIY Floral Styling Tips and Tricks
Photography by Carolyn J. Braden, Graphic by Carolyn J. Braden using Canva
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I love finding vase alternatives for flowers. Strangely enough, I rarely put flowers in a vase. I have a cat that LOVES to knock over vases of any kind, so finding vase alternatives has been an ongoing thing for me. After lots of experimenting over the years, I have come up with seven ideas that work as a great vase alternative and can also be inexpensive or cost nothing.
Read on to learn about some of my ideas plus some flower arrangement tips and tricks!
Vase Alternative 1: A bowl filled with rocks and flowers
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Sometime I pick flowers from my yard which don’t have long stems. This is where a bowl filled with rocks is a great vase alternative. This also works well for flowers that are starting to wilt, but still look pretty enough to display. I either use a bowl from my dinnerware or I will find unique bowls at thrift stores.
Vase Alternative 2: Pumpkin Filled with Flowers
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I love putting flowers in pumpkins! They are inexpensive and are great vase alternatives around the holiday season.
To use a pumpkin, choose a small one, then cut a hole in the area around the stem, scoop out the seeds, then fill with water. Cut the stems to fit in the pumpkin and give as a gift or display on a table as a centerpiece.
Here’s a full tutorial for my pumpkin flower arrangement on my YouTube channel “Carolyn Braden”:
Vase Alternative 3: Basket Filled with Flowers
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This one requires either a vase or a source of water, but it’s worth it. Pick up a small basket from Target, find one one on Amazon, or find one at a thrift store. Arrange your flowers in a vase (one that can’t be seen out the top of the basket) or on a water soaked piece of floral foam and place in the basket.
If you are afraid of some spillage during it’s travel to the recipients location, line the basket with a plastic bag before placing the flowers inside the basket.
Vase Alternative 4: Mason Jar Filled with Flowers
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A mason jar is my go-to every day vase alternative. I like the wide-mouth variety because it holds a lot of flowers and is quite sturdy. I sometimes will just place the flowers in it or I may dress it up with a ribbon, rope or some burlap.
I created the rope and burlap covers on the mason jars (see the above photo) for a wedding, then reused them for a retirement party and they looked fab at both events!
Vase Alternative 5: Ball Pitcher Filled with Flowers
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I have a lot of pitchers for displaying flowers. I especially love a ball pitcher. My ball pitcher is a copy of an original Fire King design. I found the jadeite version at Cracker Barrel years ago, but in a recent eBay search, I see there are plenty of copies and originals still available.
Vase Alternative 6: Teacup Filled with Flowers
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When I volunteered for the Louisville Ballet, I would often be in charge of decorating the tables for the lunch events we held for the dancers. I once used some teacups I inherited from my grandmother to hold a small bunch of flowers and surrounded them with mini pumpkins and other plant elements for a unique table centerpiece during a fall season.
Vase Alternative 7: Soup Can Filled with Flowers
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Lastly, a soup can (or some other empty canned good can) always makes a great vase alternative. You can either gift it plain and full of flowers OR you can use a little bit of hot glue to attach rope, fabric or paper to the outside of the can to jazz it up a little.
The next time you gift flowers for Mother’s Day, Friendship Day or for any occasion, try one of my vase alternatives. If you do, let me know by leaving a comment in the comment section below. Or, leave a tip for others to read about. Sharing is caring!