A quick, informal poll among my friends resulted in most thinking pineapples grow from trees. Pineapples do grow from the ground, like a flower, and in fact have stems. And so these 'baby pineapples' were truly fascinating when they appeared at the florist. Feeling the end of summer drawing near I decided to take some home to savor a bit of the tropics.
We're sending a shout-out to all of you who bring home flowers to brighten up your home. Do YOU have some Sat. morning flowers to share? Let me know! You can drop a line with a small description and some pics at matt at apartment therapy dot com
They are a perfect way to extend the feeling of summer right when we all could use a few more days of it. These guys are top-heavy and the stems are thick (1/2 - 3/4"). My mistake was using a low rounded vase that let the stems go at too much of an angle. Hard to arrange and easily tipped. The easiest way to control these is to use a slender vase with a flat bottom and a neck that supports the pineapples closer to the base of the fruit.
I bought pink Lisianthus to bring out the pink in the pineapples, and yellow Freesia as a contrast - all in all a cheerful bunch. Next time a slimmer vase, though!
matt at apartment therapy dot com
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Comments (8)
certainly dramatic -- and eye catching -- at least my eye when I first saw it five or so years ago. Brilliant in the right space, but don't think it would work for me.
the first photo is beautiful, elegant...
K T G:
i have a friend who grows them in his backyard, and there was no fragrance until i left the fruit on my counter to ripen.
Pineapples are bromeliads so they are very easy to grow and thrive with absolutely no attention. But most of the year you just have a 2-3 ft wide spiky bush about 2 ft high.
http://wierdling.longboys.net/images/pineapples/pineapples/pineappleRipe1.jpg
Please avoid the ones with spikes along the leaf, although those are the prettiest when there is no fruit. All those thorns end up a half-inch long and stiff. If you go with the spiny ones, make sure you have an out of the way place to plant them and no kids or pets play in your yard. They aren't very dense, so make sure you have a weed barrier. You don't want to pull weeds near them. They are very painful.
Signed, "Voice of Experience."
Hey! I was going to eat that.
The graphic designer my company does a lot of business with sent us a Flower of the Month Club gift for Christmas. They send some very hardy, non-traditional arrangements that survive being shipped by UPS. Just last month we got a bouquet of these little suckers! They dry out perfectly when you snap them off the stems. They're now keeping out potted plants company around the office.
KTG,
I know that the pineapples I had didn't smell at all, which was a little disappointing. If you look back at the photos, these are so small that they're just about all spines and no fruit.
I'd rather eat a pineapple than look at one. It does look kind of cool, though.
Hey, those take a long time to grow! (2-3 years)
I'd rather let it grow, even if it's really cute.