_Space and Harmonious Surroundings._--To obtain the largest decorative
effect we must have not only artistic grouping and harmonious setting
of flowers, but space and background, just as are needed for the
hanging of pictures. Many a floral composition has lost all decorative
effect from being placed in too small a space and surrounded by
distracting objects. A few days ago I stepped into a room on an errand
and forgot my errand in the pleasure I derived from seeing some
beautiful yellow chrysanthemums, three or four, I think, in a yellowish
brown jar on a large mahogany table, having for a background the
upturned leaf of the table. It stood some little distance from anything
else, a shaft of sunlight lay across the whole, and as I looked at it
I thought: Here is all that constitutes a decorative arrangement of
flowers. It was the feature of the room that held one's attention.
[Illustration: An arrangement for the tall Japanese jar]
_Flowers for the Dining Table._--If we can have flowers in but one
room in the house, it may be difficult to decide which one it shall
be. Since it often happens that the dining-room is the only room where
a busy family comes together for any length of time, flowers should
certainly be introduced here that all may share their beauty and cheer.
Any arrangement for the home table should be moderately low; and there
are many simple flowers that can be used in this way to advantage. For
instance, one can gather a quantity of the innocence or common bluet
(root and all), to be found in any field in the spring, and put them in
a shallow glass dish. Simple and effective decoration for the table is
the result. Flowers with any degree of fragrance should never be used
in the dining-room. The fragrance of some flowers is offensive to many
people, and when combined with the odour of food doubly so.
[Illustration: An arrangement of roses in a small jar]
At a luncheon served by the girls in the model house the floral
decoration for the table was a half dozen single, yellow jonquils
with their foliage, placed in a creamy brown vase made by one of the
girls. Their dishes being in white with a gold edge and the walls and
furniture in browns, nothing could have been more harmonious than these
few simple flowers.
_Expensive Flowers not Necessary._--It is evident that for floral
decoration neither expensive nor lavish displays are necessary, that
simplicity is the thing to strive for, and that a few sprays of wild
flowers in their season are more truly artistic than many expensive
hot-house flowers. In this country we do not, as the Japanese do, make
a festival in honour of certain flowers; but if we rightly appreciate
and utilize the flowers of each season, we may give a touch of
festivity to the life of every day.
In the early spring nothing can be more appropriate than an arrangement
of pussy willows or branches of the alder with its tassels, while the
red maple when in flower gives a touch of colour that will brighten
any room. A clump of blood root in a small jardiniere is as decorative
as the expensive plants one may see in the home of some friend. The
flowers of the field and the garden offer so many possibilities for
decorative results that no one's home need lack the cheery touch which
they can give.
There is a personal element in flowers such as is not found in any
other means of decoration, not even in pictures, with the single
exception of good portraits. They seem to speak to us. We can almost
believe that they feel an interest in all that we have said about them.
If they really could know, would they not approve the principles that
we have laid down? We may fancy that they _would_ approve and that, if
they could really speak and we would listen, they would tell us so in
some such language as the following: