II. Cucumbers make

Leaves. With a vegetable peeler, remove the green skin of the cucumber in wide strips. Place a strip on a cutting board and with a sharp knife cut into ¼-inch-wide strips, then cut diagonally into diamond-shaped pieces. Use these diamonds as leaves or put two together on the end of a stem and let them hold a piece of red radish and thus create a rosebud. Or, using a sharp knife, cut out leaf shapes and place up a stem.

Stems. From a strip of cucumber skin, cut a very thin strip, less than ¹/₂₅ inch thick, and then taper these at the top to nothing so that they are fine and delicate. Use cucumber stems for lilies-of-the-valley. In general I think green-onion and leek tops make better stems and they are easier to shape than the stiff cucumber peel, but you may have a cucumber on hand and not a green onion.