"I know not which I love the most,
Nor which the comeliest shows;
The timid, bashful violet,
Or the royal-hearted rose;
"The pansy in her purple dress,
The pink with cheek of red,
Or the faint, fair heliotrope who hangs,
Like a bashful maid, her head."
--_Phoebe Cary_
Formerly when the furniture, pictures, and draperies had been
arranged in our rooms, with perhaps a few pieces of bric-à-brac, we
considered their decoration quite complete. But we have learned how
much cheerfulness a few simple flowers, properly arranged, impart to
the same rooms; and so flowers have come to be considered as almost
essential to the complete decoration of the home.
_A Lesson From the Japanese._--If we have learned much from the
Japanese in regard to the arrangement and hanging of pictures, from
them we have learned more about the artistic arrangement of flowers.
They have taught us to value the stem and leaves of the flower as
essential to an artistic arrangement, that flowers of the same kind
should be grouped together, and that harmony and blending of colour are
necessary to secure the most artistic effects.
_Flowers of a Kind Grouped Together._--We may have been in the habit
of putting several different kinds of flowers together and of being
satisfied with such a composition; but the Japanese would tell us that
when several different kinds of flowers are combined in one grouping
the full beauty of each is lost; and after a few experiments we shall
come to see the truth of this. Here is an illustration: At a summer
camp with which I am familiar it was the daily duty of one of the
younger boys to go for the wild flowers we used for keeping the camp
gay. He often brought home snug little bunches of the flower of the
wild convolvulus and the wild rose, to be used together. No pleasing
arrangement could be made from such a handful, so he was asked to bring
long pieces of the vine of the convolvulus and gather branches of the
rose, especially those with the buds. The convolvulus we arranged in a
flat dish at one end of a gray stone mantel, letting the vine hang over
the mantel, and he quickly saw that it "looked prettier--more as though
it were growing." When a few of the stalks of the wild rose were
arranged by themselves in a green glass vase he pronounced them much
"prettier than when mixed up with other flowers."
_The Way of the Garden._--In our gardens we plant the sunshiny
daffodils by themselves, the sweet peas grow in a mass together, and
we have beds of roses. If we follow the same plan in the arrangement
of our flowers indoors we shall realize their decorative qualities to
the utmost. So we may consider it a safe rule to follow in arranging
flowers,--to use only one kind of flower, with its stems and leaves,
arranging them loosely, rather than to have many in a compact grouping.
One single, long-stemmed rose, with its beautiful foliage, in a tall,
slender glass is more decorative and gives us more pleasure than a
dozen roses stripped of their foliage and crowded into a small vase.
_Exceptions._--While the above rule should be generally followed, there
are exceptional instances of the perfectly harmonious arrangement of
flowers of two or more kinds together. Among these we may mention the
combining of field daisies and buttercups, or buttercups with the
grasses among which they grow. So, too, the lacy flower of the wild
carrot may sometimes be effectively combined with some other flower.
The spikes of the cardinal flower, for example, are gorgeous in colour,
but very stiff and difficult to arrange; so the addition of a few
sprays of the wild carrot softens the effect and makes it more pleasing.