Most gardeners would  toss out pruning residues from their garden  or add them to the compost heap. However, pseudostems (false stems formed of rolled leaf bases that surround the growing point) from spiral gingers and heliconias cut from existing clumps in the garden, or leftover stalks after the flowering stalks had been cut to the desired length can be given a second lease of life.

One creative option is to cut them to length and pack them into a clear glass container, where stalks of your favourite flowers and foliage can then be inserted and arranged into a pleasing display suitable for a table centrepiece.

This innovative arrangement not only holds up the flowers and foliage without the need of floral foam, it also helps to disguise their stems.

Materials that you need:

• Desired clear glass container (shown: rectangular container 25cm x 6cm x 15 cm)

• Pruning residue of spiral gingers or heliconia

• Flowers of your choice. In this case, I used Peacock Flower (Caesalpinia pulcherrima) harvested from my work at HortPark; and Eustoma and Wax Flower (Chamelaucium) bought from the florist.

Peacock Flower (Caesalpinia pulcherrima)

Eustoma

Wax Flower (Chamelaucium)

Step by step

1. Remove all leaves from garden pruning residues (in this case, I used pseudostems of the spiral ginger), and cut each stem into shorter stalks (each approximately 15 cm long).

2. Pack the spiral ginger pseudostems neatly into the rectangular glass vase.

3. Fill up the vase with water close to the brim:

4. Start inserting a few stalks of the Peacock Flower (stalk length should be approximately 2.5 times the height of the glass vase) into the cut-pseudostem base:

5. Prepare Eustoma stalks - length should be around two times the height of the glass vase) into the base around the Peacock Flower.

6. Finally, add short stalks of the Wax Flower close to the base of the arrangement.

7. The final product.

Do top up the display container with water to  keep the floral materials hydrated at all times.

By Pearl Ho