Bruno Geyer, a passionate florist from the quaint village of Rougemont Le Chateau , in the Franche-Comté region of France, has been decorating his flower shop with water cans for the last 15 years. He currently has around 800 of them hanging from the walls and roof of his shop, and even covering a nearby hillside.
It’s hard to miss Bruno Geyer’s unique shop when passing through Rougemont Le Chateau. If the colorful flowers and climbing plants outside don’t give it away, the hundreds of hanging water cans definitely will. They are virtually everywhere and make the place look like it came out of an Alice in Wonderland illustrated book. And with new additions being installed every few days, you could say it’s a work in progress.
Photo: Bruno Geyer/Facebook
It all started 15 years ago, when Bruno’s sister gave him a water can as a Christmas present. It got him thinking about the importance of water as a life source for plants, and the water can seemed like the perfect symbol of that. He bought himself another one, then another, and before he knew it he was hooked. He would buy them wherever he could find them, in home&garden shops, at flea markets, on eBay, and as word of his growing water can collection spread around the village, people started bringing him their old water cans as well. The shop became known as ‘L’arroisoir’ (The Water Can).
Soon the walls and roof of Bruno’s flower shop were covered with water cans, not to mention the ones placed on display inside, but he wasn’t going to let lack of space stop him from expanding his collection. The small hill next to his garden provided all the extra display space he needed, and today it is also decorated with hundreds of dangling water cans. Who knows what his next target will be when he runs out of space again.
But to Bruno Geyer, it’s not just about gathering as many water cans as he can. The process of setting them on display is also critical to him. He will often grab his ladder and place them in several locations around his property, until he is satisfied with the way they look.
Bruno’s fascination with flowers began at a very young age. When he was five years old, him mother gave him a couple of sunflower seeds to plant, and seeing them grow into beautiful flowers made quite an impact on him. He decided plants, and flowers especially, were fabulous and grew up learning their secrets. He worked in horticulture before opening his flower shop in 1988, and has since then been making people’s lives happier, one colorful flower at a time. “I love people and tell them that with my flowers,” he says.
Bruno Geyer’s unique water can flower shop reminds me of this bicycle shop in Germany adorned with over 100 bikes.
Sources: MonJardin&MaMaison, ZoominTV
