How to Choose a Vase for Flowers

Start with the flowers, then find the vessel

A vase does two jobs: it holds water and it sets the proportion of everything above it. A useful rule is height. Flowers generally look right when they stand about one and a half to two times the height of the vase, so a tall vessel suits long stems and branches, while a low, wide bowl suits garden roses and hydrangea cut short and packed close.

Shape comes next. A narrow neck holds a few stems upright on its own, which is why a single orchid stem or three calla lilies look composed in a slim bottle. A wide mouth needs more stems, or a hand-tied bouquet whose binding keeps it together. Round, bellied forms soften a room; straight cylinders and ribbed glass read cleaner and more architectural.

Glass, ceramic or enamel

Clear glass shows the stems and the water line, so it rewards clean stems and fresh water. A piece like Crystal Oracle, with its twisted ribbing, turns that visibility into part of the design. Opaque ceramic and enamel hide the stems and let colour and texture do the work, which is forgiving for mixed arrangements and dried stems. Two pieces in our range take their names from classical Greek vessels: the krater, a wide bowl for mixing wine and water, and the hydria, a jar for carrying water, and both keep that generous, full-bodied shape.

Care that keeps both looking right

Wash the vase with warm soapy water between arrangements, because bacteria left in the glass shorten the life of the next flowers more than anything else. Change the water every two days, remove leaves below the water line, and keep glass out of direct sun, where the water warms quickly.

When you have a shape in mind, browse the Amicis vase collection, or choose flowers that arrive already styled in vase arrangements.