Bruno wrote:
So I bought my wife a dozen roses for her birthday today. The florist
puts these plastic things on the stems to keep them in water. They're
like test tubes (3" long) with plastic tops for the stem to stick
through.

Well, it turns out they work well for holding and protecting smaller
end mills and taps (up to about 3/8" OD and just under 3" long). On
the other hand, my wife is expecting roses more often now.

-Bruno

If you want to forgo the roses, you can get those tubes from a florists'
supply store. They're called "florist's picks" or something like that.

(Of course frequent gifts of roses to your wife are a good idea for
other reasons.) :-)