Bachelor Pad: Fresh Cut Flowers
March 19, 2008 by Greg
I was 21 years old when I stole my dad’s copy of Andrew Weil’s holistic health book, 8 Weeks to Optimum Health. Somewhere between spending time in parks and eating flax seeds, the book recommends buying fresh flowers on a weekly basis to brighten the home with this natural example of beauty.
This practice is not to be exercised without caution. When I first experimented with this, I was with a girlfriend of two years at my side. The day I started to bring home flowers she greeted me with discontent. She wondered why that after 2 years of dating, the first time she sees me with flowers, I had bought them for myself and not her.
Fresh cut flowers may be simplest, cheapest, and quickest way to soften a space. The delicate smell of fresh plant life will permeate the residence. This offers the option to no longer be just a man with a good looking space, but a man who buys fresh foliage for his home.
Completing this project is really easy and requires little to no instruction. Aside from a few tips about clipping dead leaves and chopping the bottom with a sharp knife, most people know what to do with flowers. Instead of repeating this advice, I’ll just share what I do.
Every 3 weeks or so, while grocery shopping, I pick up a new pack of greenery. Sometimes I’ll buy actual bona fide flowers, but usually I stick with the branches. I think they have a more masculine appearance while still offering the same benefits. Usually buying just one bundle, I’ll split the package putting one half in a vase in my living room and the other half in my entrance way.
Here are a few examples to get started. For the holiday season, I picked up some pine branches. After, I moved to bundles of blue eucalyptus branches for January. On my last trip to Whole Foods, I spotted pussy willows tempting me as I was checking out. I think those will be my new spring companions.
chicks dig it.
Hi guys,
I didn’t realize that flowers were either “masculine” or “feminine”. They convey a sense of beauty that is often lacking in our urban environment. Branches convey one type of beauty, and orchids convey another. I brought flowers into my cramped, stuffy office a few months ago, and while the women occasionally commented, the men, for the most part, gave me very “sissy” type comemnts. I usually ignored the idiots, who also make comments whenever I wear a pink shirt! Of course, the guys I work with are for the most part sissies themselves, so I let that slide like sh-t through a goose. The gay guy in the office wondered why I brought in flowers, and when I told him I was turning gay he laughed. Of course, there are few things that bring a sigh and a smile to a woman: diamonds, McMansions, and, naturally, flowers.
Ha ha, you said “willows.”