The great discovery of my recent trip to Israel was the white flower that doesn't require water. It looks a bit like a double narcissus and apparently can last for a month without benefit of liquid. In fact, if you add water to a bunch of these mini-miracles, you tend to kill them off. A friend had a massive bouquet, whose only drawback seemed to be that the flowers really need some sort of ballast to anchor them in the vase. We stopped off at the well-known flower shop in Tel Aviv's Gordon Street and asked for the flowers that don't need water and the owner shrugged knowngly and pointed to the display.
I feel an analogy coming on but I can't quite think what.