Small container drainage question

[Josh_A]

Hi folks,

Total plant newbie here A friend gave me a flower arrangement in a tall skinny vase, half filled with pebbles. The flowers died, I washed the vase and rocks, and now I'm wondering...

Even though there are no drainage holes in the bottom (glass vase), could I fill the upper half with potting soil and plant something that would survive in it? Would the drainage from the pebbles be enough?

-Josh

[femlow]

Josh,

Without proper drainage, water in a container needs to be chaged often or it will almost certainly mold and rot the roots. You could force bloom a bulb though (or several depending on the size of the vase) and have some lovely live flowers in your window. Some good species for that are are paperwhites (also called narcissus, which is the family of flowers as a whole too, and includes daffodils), which have many smaller white daffodil shaped flowers, or one of the most commonly used bulbs are hyacinths, which come in a variety of colors including white, pinks, purple, blues and yellow and have a large tightly-clustered group of small flowers, and you can always try other bulbs and see how they work out.

fem

[Josh_A]

Ahh. I was hoping the water would get sucked back up and used as the soil above it dryed out

Guess it'll stay as a vase for cut flowers!

-Josh