St. Patrick’s Day Flower Arrangement With Dried Lentils

Subtle is not an adjective usually paired with St. Patrick’s Day but this St. Patrick’s Day flower arrangement has a more subtle nod to a holiday I absolutely adore.

No leprechauns or pots of gold in sight.

That’s kind of a shame.

I could really use a pot of gold.

The star of this St. Patrick’s Day flower arrangement is not the flowers. Although, they are lovely.

The star of the show is the vase!

The vase finally gets its moment to shine.

The vase is filled with dried lentils to mimic the design of the Irish flag.

I used roughly equal amounts of green split peas, white rice, and red (orange) lentils to create my flag.

Striking resemblance ~~if you squint~~ to the real thing, don’t you think?

Here’s what you need to make this St. Patrick’s Day flower arrangement:

Cut flowers in white, orange, and/or green (I used baby’s breath and orange roses.)
Clear vase with a wide opening (Mine is 8 inches tall.)
Jar to go inside the vase
Dried split peas (I used one bag or 16 oz)
Dry white rice (I used roughly 16 oz)
Dried red lentils (I used one bag or 16 oz)
Press’n Seal or plastic wrap

How many dry ingredients you need depends on how big your vase is and the jar you put inside your vase. I bought two bags each of the split peas and red lentils but only used one of each. I had the rice on hand already.

Tips for making your St. Patrick’s Day flower arrangement:

You can’t pour dried lentils any higher than the top of the jar resting inside the vase. Otherwise, they’ll fall into the water. If your jar isn’t quite tall enough to reach the neck of the vase, you can pour the first layer of lentils in and then nestle your jar on top of that first layer. This should raise your jar an inch or two.

You’re aiming for three equally sized layers of lentils. Use a small scoop or funnel to carefully pour your dried lentils into the vase. Go easy and add a little at a time because no one wants to mess with trying to remove lentils from the vase if you get too many in there.

Press’n Seal or plastic wrap are your friends for this flower arrangement.

You do not want lentils in the jar where the water will be. Cover the top of the jar with Press’n Seal so that when you pour the lentils in, none will get inside the jar. You do have to remove the plastic wrap when you’re done filling the vase with lentils, so don’t press it too far down the sides.

There’s an important thing to consider about adding water to the jar inside the vase. You don’t want to get the lentils wet. We’re making a flower arrangement, not soup.

If you have a steady hand and the luck of the Irish on your side, you can wait until all of your flowers are in the vase and then very carefully hold your arrangement under the sink faucet and fill the jar up with water.

If you want to put your water in first and then arrange your flowers, I’d recommend covering the gap between the jar and the vase with Press’n Seal. See the below photo for how this works. This trick will protect the lentils from getting wet if you’re like me and do a lot of rearranging of the stems. You can remove the Press’n Seal when you’re done if it is visible.

While I kept my arrangement pretty simple, there are so many ways you could customize this St. Patrick’s Day flower arrangement. This is a fun, festive holiday, so have fun with your arrangement!

You could add an Irish flag to the arrangement.

You could add shamrock floral picks or other St. Patrick’s Day floral picks to the arrangement.

You could attach a felt or paper shamrock on the outside of the vase.

We lived in Ireland for a couple of years and it is a time we will never forget. It changed us and our outlook on life on life for the better.

Since we can’t celebrate St. Patrick’s Day in Ireland this year, we’ll have fun creating our own celebration at home with fun, food, and, of course, these flowers.

Do you celebrate St. Patrick’s Day? What do you think of my St. Patrick’s Day floral arrangement? I’d love to know. You can always comment on this blog post, email us here, or reach out via Instagram or Facebook.

Happy St. Patrick’s Day!

P.S. A few years ago I shared a similar idea using Irish flags instead of flowers. You can read about that here.