ASSOCIATING FOLIAGE 107 



is no doubt that this improvement will continue until the 

 decorations form a really important feature. Usually, the 

 exhibitors in the classes in which taste in arrangement 

 is the chief test of merit are allowed to associate with the 

 Dahlias any foliage they may consider suitable. There is 

 an advantage in allowing exhibitors to exercise their taste in 

 this matter, but it is not always exercised wisely. In most 

 instances, the blooms are quite satisfactory, but many are 

 so crowded by grasses and other foliage as to lose much of 

 their beauty. The most tasteful effects, whether in baskets, 

 pergnes, or vases, are produced by employing blooms of one 

 variety, or of two or three varieties that harmonise in colour, 

 and arranged in association with a few sprays of the same 

 kind of foliage. For example, for arranging with the 

 various shades of orange, deep red, and crimson, a few 

 sprays of some purple-leaved shrub or tree, as Prunus 

 Pissardii, will be far better than a mixture of foliage of 

 diverse forms and colours. For associating with some of 

 the lighter coloured varieties, a few sprays of Dahlia 

 foliage are preferable to any other greenery, but the sprays 

 must be small, and obtained from plants that are growing 

 in poor soil, because the foliage of plants growing in rich 

 soil is too large for the purpose, too dark in tint, and so 

 soft that it quickly collapses when cut from the plant. It 

 is essential in the competition for prizes offered for baskets, 

 epergnes, and vases arranged for effect, that the receptacles 

 be properly dressed on all sides, and not "faced," under 

 the mistaken belief that the judges only look at the side of 

 the arrangements next to them. 



In the selection of the blooms of all the sections for 

 exhibition, care should be taken to see that they are as 



