My Granddaughters & I take
flowers to people that we know, who are shut-in at home or in hospitals/nursing homes, & I didn't feel good about asking sick people to save my vases for me (they have more important things to focus on), but I was forever running out of vases last year (& so were the thrift stores)! Necessity being the mother of invention, I came up with a solution to my problem & started saving all our vitamin & over-the-counter medicine bottles!
On rainy days when my Grandgirls are here, we sit & cut out big circles of pretty gift wrap to cover the medicine bottles with, & tie ribbon at the mouth of the bottle to hold it in place. (cellophane or plastic gift wrap works better than paper, of course, as they do get wet.)
![[Linked Image]](http://i75.photobucket.com/albums/i309/gottahavegraphics/Misc/DispoVase.jpg)
They look nice, & it doesn't matter if they get thrown away, because they cost nothing to make & there are always more where those came from!
Medicine bottles come in all sizes, so there is always an appropriate sized "vase" to fit the
flowers we choose. (We're also able to color coordinate our vases to the colors of our bouquets!) If the blossoms are top-heavy for the light weight vases, a few small rocks in the bottles keep them from tipping over.
Since my husband accuses me of never throwing anything away, I hate to disappoint him, so besides hanging onto empty medicine bottles, I save used ribbon from birthday & Christmas gifts, cellophane gift wrap & even solid colored plastic bags that you get from stores occasionally. All the materials are collected in a big box, ready for our rainy-day craft project... that way, we always have a vase handy for when we hear that someone might appreciate a visit & a few
flowers to cheer them up!
Yes, the roses are real... 
the first ones from that bush, this season! I used this opportunity to show them off, although they ARE a bit large for the biggest of the bottles we decorate! (Actually, that one is a plastic mayo jar!) The little blue flowers are my favorite, Nigella damascena (AKA love-in-a-mist, devil in the bush, Jack in the green, ragged lady & fennel flower.) 
