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Fresh flowers can bring life, color, and a touch of class to your Houston apartment, whether it’s a simple home on a budget or a luxury apartment with all the extras. Some may think that decorating with flowers is only for the most feminine, girly tastes, but the American Dapper blog makes a case for flowers as a sign of thoughtfulness and class for masculine styles, as well. Would you like to add fresh flowers to your apartment decor? Try one or more of these ideas:

Keep cut flowers healthy and beautiful.

The simplest way to add fresh flowers to your apartment is to buy cut flowers and keep them in a vase. Apartment Therapy’s post, Frugal Flowers: How to Choose Flowers at the Supermarket, tells how to choose the flowers that will last the longest and bring you the most joy. The same tips would work wherever you buy your flowers—whether that’s a supermarket, a florist, or another seller. Once you get them home, look to the Design Mom blog’s tips for decorating with flowers. You’ll learn how to trim stems, choose vases, treat the water, and more to make sure your blooms last as long as possible. For advice on caring for specific types of cut flowers, Teleflora’s web site is quite helpful, too.

Grow flowering houseplants for the long term.

With care, you can keep cut flowers alive and well for days or even a week or two, but for a longer-term floral infusion, try growing flowering plants in pots. What to grow? This slideshow from Better Homes and Gardens shows 24 beautiful flowering plants that do well in containers indoors. Click through until you spot the one that’s most beautiful to you.

Force flower bulbs indoors.

With a slightly more advanced technique, you can grow well-loved springtime garden flowers indoors at any time of year. Flowers that grow from bulbs, like tulips, daffodils, hyacinths, and snowdrops, have a life cycle that’s made for long, cold winters, followed by a spring thaw. They require many weeks of cold temperatures before they can root, grow, and produce flowers. You can still grow them in Houston (which lacks bitterly cold winters) and indoors, though. “Forcing” bulbs is the art of tricking them into growing indoors at any time of year. Just follow these steps laid out by Better Homes and Gardens to properly chill, plant, and tend your flower bulbs in your Houston apartment.

Create a cutting garden on your balcony or patio.

If you have a patio or balcony, decorating with flowers is possible both outside and in. Check out the Life on the Balcony blog’s series of posts on growing cutting gardens in containers and small spaces. With a little planning, you can grow beautiful, fresh flowers in your outdoor space, and have a regular supply of cut flowers to brighten your indoor spaces, too.