give a penny, take a penny

i love using old-fashioned soda bottles for vases. especially orangina soda bottles. our friend zoran gave us a beatiful bunch of pale-pink tulips for our anniversary, and he gave us a tip. he said to put a penny in the vase, that that was what he had heard, that it keeps the stems straight. a penny? is it a chemical reaction to copper? well, i tried it, and wouldn't you know: it worked! for two weeks, they didn't droop once, even once they were dead. they were dead and straight. so then i thought i would try the penny trick with my other bunches of flowers i've been getting from trader joes, as advertised, to "brighten your day!" (which they do. splashes of color all over the apartment, in soda bottle vases.) even the giant gerber daisies, which have always had the hardest time holding their heads up, are standing tall and straight, with the loyal penny at their feet. and it's been five days and counting...

today at the grocery store, i noticed the woman behind me in the check-out line had a bunch of pale-pink tulips, practically wilting as we stood. i thought: if only she knew about the penny trick. why not? i'll pass it along. so i told her, and she was really excited. she beamed and said she was going to try it out as soon as she got home. who knows? maybe she'll tell someone else...