Here's an entirely different sort of holiday tree: an oak sapling sprouted from a foraged acorn.
We spotted the clever idea via Swedish stylist Marie Delice Karlsson's blog Min Lilla Veranda, where a tiny tabletop forest grows in tall glass bottles.
Read on for step-by-step DIY instructions and a few of our favorite vases for acorns:
Above: Photograph via Min Lilla Veranda.
Tall, narrow-necked bottles make ideal vases to support the acorns and to allow growth of oak saplings' long taproots.
Above: Photograph via Trackers Earth.
Early December is the best time to collect hardy acorns that fall in late autumn. Inspect acorns and discard any that have worm holes, are soft, or have moldy caps. Remove caps from the rest and submerge acorns in a bowl of water to check viability. Discard floaters because they won't sprout.
Above: Photograph via Sotsur.
To encourage acorns to sprout, keep them moist or in a bowl of water. After three to six weeks, they will start to sprout and can be placed in a bottle or vase of water with the root submerged.
Above: Mimicking the shape of an acorn, a round Acorn Vase by designer Estrid Ericson is 160 SEK.
Above: Inspired by Ericson, designer Michael Anastassiades has created a Floating Forest Series of vases specially for acorns. Components include a polished brass Cone and Disk (£40 apiece) designed to suspend an acorn above the surface of the water in a vase.
For more of our favorite vases, see:
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