ARRANGEMENT OF FLOWERS
THE arrangement of flowers is interesting and means a great deal. It
means that this chapter will tell you what wild flowers look prettiest
on the dinner-table and in bowls and vases in other parts of the house;
what flowers and vines will keep fresh longest, and the kind that do
not need water but are beautiful when dry. It means that you can learn
not to force a tightly packed handful of all sorts of flowers into a
small vase and expect them to look well. Flowers don't like crowding
and are quite particular about their associates.
If you come in hot and tired after your walk, put the flowers you have
gathered into a pail of fresh water and let them stay there until you
have rested and are ready to sort them out and make each kind look its
very best. All flowers do not appear well in stiff, straight vases; all
do not look well in bowls. That is the first thing to learn, and the
next is that while some flowers seem to smile upon and nestle lovingly
up to some others, there are kinds that they seem to draw away from
and frown upon. Only a few examples can be given here. If you love the
flowers you will find out more for yourself.
The Wild Morning-Glory
In your walks through the fields and along the country roadsides have
you ever noticed the wild morning-glory? Of course, you have seen it
and, perhaps, gathered some blossoms, only to find them in a short time
wilted in your hand or turned into little, long bags, puckered at the
top as if drawn up with a string.
[Illustration: Fig.44 - This is the way the Wild Morning Glory looks.]
When I say noticed, I mean have you thought about the flowers while you
looked at them? Have you noticed their shape and beautiful color, and
have you seen the great difference between the green leaf of the wild
morning-glory and that of the cultivated one?
The wild morning-glory leaf (Fig. 44) is more beautiful in shape, the
vine is more graceful, and the blossom just as lovely as the cultivated
morning-glory, and all this beauty need not be left behind when you
gather the wild flowers which are to make the rooms of your home
charming.
While I write this, July 7, there stands on a table in our living-room
a tall glass vase, wide at the top and holding plenty of water. It is
filled with a mass of wild morning-glory-vines, and there are four new,
entirely open, pink and white blossoms while others are just twisting
open.
[Illustration: Fig.45 - The Wild Morning Glory blossomed after it was
gathered.]
Four days ago, when out for a walk in the country, I gathered the vine
by the roadside where it grew in the company of daisies, buttercups,
and wild mustard. Lifting themselves up into the light, where the
warmth of the morning sun could open the buds and where the leaves
could breathe in the fresh air, some of these trailing vines had wound
themselves in masses around tall, strong weed-stalks.
I gathered the vines, weed-stalks and all, breaking them off close to
the ground; and now these stalks hold most of the vines upright in the
vase, while other sprays droop gracefully over the edge and hang down
almost to the table-top. Only one or two flowers were in bloom when I
found the vines, but there were quantities of green buds which I hoped
would open later, and that is just what they are doing. It is like
having wild flowers growing in one's window. And as for decoration,
nothing can be more beautiful (Fig. 45).
Trailing vines always make pretty decorations, and many wild ones keep
fresh a long while when given plenty of water. Some have flowers, some
have not, but in any case they are worth gathering when you have large
vases to fill.
The Wild Balsam-Apple
or as some people call it, the wild cucumber, is very decorative.
That means it has beautiful curves and twists, and its small, white
flowers, prickly, egg-shaped fruit, and long tendrils twisted spirally,
like a steel watch-spring let loose, make us love to look at it. The
leaves are pretty, too, being shaped almost like a five-pointed star.
Sometimes this vine is cultivated and you will find it trained up on
strings to shade the porch, or over the kitchen-door of a farmhouse.
Wherever you find it, it is beautiful. A large jar filled with sprays
of the wild balsam makes a good centrepiece for the table, or a tall
vase holding some upright and some drooping sprays looks very pretty
when placed near a window where the light will fall on it. Do not mix
other flowers with it, its own blossoms are sufficient.
Wild Clematis
The wild clematis is another beautiful vine, and you will find it
clambering over fences and bushes along the country road. Its masses of
white flowers fill the air with a sweet, spicy perfume that delights
you.
You can gather the clematis when it is in blossom, and keep it fresh in
water for some time if you put it in root ends down. This vine does not
wilt as you carry it. Later in the season, when the white flowers have
turned into balls of silvery fringe, the vine is lovely in a different
way. Then you can gather great armfuls and take it home to hang over
mirrors or picture-frames, letting it become quite dry. It is best to
strip the leaves off the sprays at first because they are not beautiful
when dry. In a day or two after hanging up your clematis the balls of
fringe will become a mass of soft down which will cling to the vine for
many weeks. Later, when it becomes dusty, take it down.
Bittersweet
Then there is bittersweet, another wild vine that we gather in the
fall. It covers fences and bushes as the clematis does, but instead
of turning into fringe balls its small, creamy white flowers become
bunches of berries.
The berries are yellow at first; when ripe they split open and curl
back to show the brilliant red seeds inside that look like coral beads.
Gather the bittersweet while the berries are yellow, strip off the
green leaves, and hang the vine up dry or put it in a large vase
without water. Then the berries will open and last all winter.
Snapdragon and Wild Carrot
Both of these are pretty flowers and worth gathering. The snapdragon
(perhaps you call it butter-and-eggs) does not mind at all where
it grows. Field, roadside, or even the village streets may be its
home, but wherever it lives, it makes the spot shine joyously with
its stalks of yellow blossoms. Snapdragons combine well with the wild
carrot, whose other name is Queen Anne's lace, and together they make a
delicate and beautiful bouquet.
If you have a large glass fish-globe fill it with fresh water, and put
in the snapdragon and wild carrot in a loose bouquet. Nothing could be
prettier for the August lunch-table than this.
Wild Roses
look best in a low glass bowl, for they have no stems to speak of.
Short-stemmed flowers do not belong in tall vases. The roses wilt
quickly out of water and should have plenty of it.
Do not put any other kind of flowers in the bowl; the roses won't
like it; neither will you when you see how much better they look by
themselves.
Daisies and Buttercups
so friendly in the fields, look pretty when arranged in a deep jar
together, but I would not mix daisies with any other flowers, unless it
is the lacy wild carrot. Buttercups look well with the carrot, too, and
buttercups look pretty mixed with grasses. You see they all know each
other very well, growing in the fields together.
The Wild Flag, or Iris
whose home is along the banks of ponds and small streams, should be
put into a tall clear glass vase or pitcher, where its stems will show
through, that it may look its best.
There is the yellow iris, the white and the purple, and they are
very beautiful when combined but not crowded. Always put some of the
long-spiked leaves in with the flowers.
Clover Bouquets
Clover bouquets make delightful centrepieces for the table. Arranged
loosely with its own green foliage, the rose-colored clover is
especially beautiful in a clear, green glass bowl of water. The sprays
should be brought over the edges of the bowl, and allowed to droop
down, resting partly on the table.
Yellow clover and its foliage mingled with white clover makes a
charming combination as a bouquet for almost any occasion. The name of
the yellow clover is hop-clover. It is not as common as the other kinds.
Green Bouquets
When there are no flowers to be had you can have bouquets and
centrepieces of green leaves, ferns, and vines, and you will be
surprised to find what pretty ones can be arranged and how much they
will be admired.
Ferns will wither soon unless taken up with the roots and the soil
surrounding them; but if they have the roots and soil they will last
a long while, provided you put them in a bowl or jar and keep them
_always wet_. That does not mean to water them as you would any other
growing plant, but to keep them _standing_ in water _all the time_.
Maidenhair-fern kept in this way makes a delicate and beautiful
centrepiece for the table.
Sometimes you will find varieties of foliage that are full of color. In
early summer the young leaves of the scrub-oak are very brilliant in
reds and yellows, and I have made bouquets of nothing but leaves from
the rose-bushes. These are often tinged with red and purple. Sprays of
the barberry-bush with its rows of dangling red berries are pretty in
a green bowl. Be careful of the thorns when you gather this. Cut the
stems; do not try to break them.
_PART II_
GRASSES