Buy the one honestly
Choose the Sunday stem for its character, which one bloom shows better than twelve: a single ranunculus, one branch of blossom, a sunflower that owns the room. Budget the same as the coffee beside it.
The single stem wants a narrow neck; a bottle, a bud vase, a glass. Depth of water over height of vase, and the stem recut on Sunday itself.
Let the week watch it age
A single bloom, watched daily, teaches the whole anatomy of a flower’s week: the opening, the hold, the letting go. It is a calendar with petals and needs no app.
When it finally drops, the stem goes to the compost and the bottle to the shelf’s ordinary work. Next Sunday chooses again; the choosing, by now, is the ritual, and the flower is its excuse.
Published by the Fiolella journal.