Vase for pampas grass: the size-by-size guide
Narrow neck, wide base, stems cut to twice the vase height: the complete guide for a balanced pampas bouquet, with our 18 and 23 cm vases, the right colours, and a very local reason to prefer it dried in a vase rather than planted in the garden.
By L'atelier RE3DLINE
For a pampas grass bouquet, choose a vase with a narrow neck and wide base, and cut your stems to approximately twice its height: with our 18 and 23 cm vases, this gives plumes between 35 and 50 cm, the most reliable balance. Here is the size-by-size guide, and a few workshop tips to keep the whole arrangement for years.
Why pampas grass needs a particular vase
Pampas grass is not a bouquet like any other. Its plumes are light but voluminous, carried by long and rigid stems: all the visual weight is at the top, all the actual weight is concentrated on a few stems. A vase that is too flared lets them spread out in a disorderly fan; a vase that is too light tips over at the first slamming door.
Two things are therefore needed: a narrow neck that gathers the stems and imposes a silhouette, and a wide base weighted by its shape that lowers the centre of gravity. This is exactly the morphology of our bottle vases, with their marked shoulder and their full-width base.
One last advantage, and not the least: pampas grass keeps dry, without water. No need to worry about waterproofing or maintenance, a subject we covered in detail in our article on water in a 3D-printed vase. A well-arranged pampas bouquet will keep for several years as is.
The size-by-size guide
The florist's rule is simple: a bouquet is balanced when the visible part of the stems is 1.5 to 2 times the height of the vase. With pampas grass, where the plume alone takes up 30 to 50 cm, we think more in terms of total height: aim for an overall arrangement of around 2.5 to 3 times the vase height, no more.
18 cm vase: the compact version. Cut your stems for a total height of 45 to 55 cm. This is the console format for an entrance, shelf or sofa end: three to five plumes are enough, the narrow neck does the rest. On a low piece of furniture, the whole arrangement stays below eye level and blocks nothing.
23 cm vase: the floor or large table piece. Count a total height of 60 to 70 cm, with five to seven plumes for a generous volume. This is the format that dresses up a corner of a room, a sideboard or a buffet. Beyond 70 cm total height, reduce the number of stems rather than lengthening: stability always comes before excess.
In both cases, cut the stems at an angle to the desired length before installing them: you always cut too short once, never twice. And if your plumes seem to be losing their fibres, a light spray of hairspray from 30 cm away will fix them permanently, it's the most effective trick we know.
Which models from our collection to choose?
In our vase collection, four models exist in two heights, 18 and 23 cm, all made to order in our Guérande workshop:
The Hikari and the Kage, our two bottle silhouettes with fine vertical fluting, are the natural candidates: their neck gathers the stems and their widened shoulder handles the overhang of the plumes. The Shizu and the Tayo complete the family to vary the lines if you are composing a mismatched pair.
Colour-wise, pampas grass lives in beiges and blondes: it naturally matches our Beige, Ivory White, Wood or Marble Sandstone shades for a soft palette, or plays contrast against a Khaki Green or Dark Blue that cuts the plume like backlighting. The full colour palette includes around twenty colours, with no extra cost or lead time: each piece goes into printing at the colour of your choice and arrives at your home in 5 to 7 days. To go further on vase and flower matching, our guide how to choose a vase according to your flowers covers all other cases.
Pampas grass in a bouquet, yes. In the garden, no.
A point that few decorating guides bother to mention, and which concerns us directly here, on the Guérande peninsula. Pampas grass (Cortaderia selloana) is classified as an invasive exotic species by the French Biodiversity Office: escaped from gardens, it colonises the Atlantic coast to the detriment of local flora, and a European control programme is underway from Portugal to France.
The right way to love pampas grass is therefore as a dried bouquet: plumes bought from a florist, cut before dispersal, which keep for years without a single seed blowing towards the salt marshes. A lasting bouquet in a vase made to order in France, without stock or overproduction: the object and the flower tell the same story, that of a decoration that costs nothing to the landscape we love, a spirit we detail in our perspective on the peninsula.
Hesitating between two sizes, or have a particular arrangement in mind? Write to us: every vase comes out of our workshop, and we love talking bouquets as much as printing layers.
The RE3DLINE workshop, Guérande
Sources
On the invasive nature of pampas grass and the control programme on the Atlantic arc:
French Biodiversity Office, species sheet "Pampas Grass (Cortaderia selloana)": ofb.gouv.fr
Invasive Exotic Species Resource Centre, LIFE COOP Cortaderia programme on the Atlantic arc: especes-exotiques-envahissantes.fr
Frequently asked questions
- What size vase for pampas grass?
- A vase with a narrow neck of 18 to 23 cm is perfect. The rule: a total height, vase included, of around 2.5 to 3 times the vase height, that is 45 to 55 cm tall with an 18 cm vase and 60 to 70 cm with a 23 cm vase. Cut the stems accordingly rather than looking for an oversized vase: stability always comes first.
- How many pampas grass stems to put in a vase?
- Three to five plumes in an 18 cm vase, five to seven in a 23 cm vase. The narrow neck gathers the stems and gives the bouquet its silhouette; beyond that, you gain volume but lose balance and clarity.
- Should you put water in a vase with pampas grass?
- Never: pampas grass keeps dry and lasts for several years as is. Water would rot the stems. To limit fibre loss from the plumes, spray a light mist of hairspray from about thirty centimetres away.
- Can you plant pampas grass in your garden?
- It is not recommended, particularly on the Atlantic coast: Cortaderia selloana is classified as an invasive exotic species by the French Biodiversity Office, and a European control programme is underway on the Atlantic arc. As a dried bouquet, however, it does not disperse: that is the right way to enjoy it.