I 



EPTEMBEB 8, 1904. 



The Weekly Florists^ Review* 



753 



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BEGINNINGS 



I 



IN DESIGN... 



TABLE CENTER-PIECES. 



Seek Simplicity. 



A table center-piece may be the most 

 free and easy in arrangement of any 

 floral design. It is the one which people 

 look at longest and study the most. It 

 follows that it should be of the best 

 possible quality and arrangement, as near 

 perfect as possible, A funeral design, 

 upon which you may spend hours of 

 painstaking labor, is passed over with a 

 glance, and even an elaborate wedding or 

 reception decoration must share attention 

 with the excitement of a minute or two. 

 But when the guests reach the dining- 

 room, they are ready to sit down and 

 look at something, so here is your chance 

 to transport a bit of the woods or the 

 garden and be sure of attention and ap- 

 preciation. Have before you a simple 

 ideal. Simplicity as applied to design 

 means precisely what it does in other 

 spheres, unaffected, not complicated, neat, 

 sweet, plain. 



The tables you will ordinarily be called 

 upon to decorate will be those for lunch- 

 eons, dinners, receptions and banquets. 

 Of aU these perhaps the leception is the 

 easiest, for it is likely to be a square 

 or round table, where only those who 

 pour are seated. The others, for any 

 . number of guests, are likely to be either 

 a number of small tables, with very little 

 space to be had for decoration, or long 

 tables upon which the decoration neec£ 

 to be stretched out to be enjoyed in the 

 same degree by all the guests. 



Never Obscure the View. 



About the first thing in table decora- 

 tions that any experienced florist will call 

 your attention to would be to regulate 

 the height of your decorative scheme to 

 suit the convenience of the guests. 

 Never obscure the view across the table. 

 It would be awkward to make the guests 

 look up to see the decoiations; so the 

 low basket and plaque decorations have 

 come into vogue. The one exception to 

 this rule is in the case of the reception 

 table. Theie the guests are seated or 

 stand around the dining-room, and the 

 table center-piece should be rather tall 

 for their benefit. The only objection 

 you will meet to a tall reception table 

 center-piece will be that those who pour 

 at the opposite sides may have difficulty 

 to converse across the table. This may 

 be remedied by making the center-piece 

 airy and not at all solid, which is a de- 

 sirable quality anyhow. By no means 

 allow the reception center-piece to be so 

 low as to appear insignificant between 

 the tall urns. 



The Low Center-piece. 



But to our low center-piece, which is 

 the topic for discussion today. The one 

 before us is of blue cornflowers and 

 Euphorbia corollata, touched with a 

 bunch of foxtail grass. The receptacle 

 is a low wicker basket of a shade of 

 blue blending with that of the flowers. 

 This color scheme is most suitable for a 

 daylight decoration. Line the basket 



with tinfoil. Fill with sphagnum two 

 inches higher than the edge on one side, 

 and an inch or two below the edge of 

 the basket on the opposite side. Be 

 especially careful to guard against any 

 dripping from the moss. There is no 

 need of tying the moss in the basket, 

 nor covering it v/ith the green, for the 

 flower stems and the foliage will be 

 thick enough in the completed piece to 

 cover the sphagnum. , 



Stem three or four flowers together on 

 one three-quarters pick, as per general 

 directions for stemming given hereto- 

 fore. Leave the buds and foliage on. 

 Chit the flowers from six to twelve inches 

 long, keeping the majority under eight 

 inches. Have only a few as long as 

 twelve inches, and let these be the ones 

 most inclined to droop. Fill from the 

 center outward. The heaviest parts are 

 at the back right corner and the back of 

 the piece proper. Here the cluster of 

 cornflowers is set in with the stem ends 

 close together and the tops spreading. 

 The two heavy groups spoken of just 



sent a clump cut off one end of a patch 

 of cornflowers, as seen growing in the 

 garden. The opposite side of the piece, 

 of course, will present a different ap- 

 pearance, which is all the better. Sprinkle 

 the piece when complete, but not liberally 

 enough to drip from the edges. Place 

 on the table at the last possible mo- 

 ment. This color scheme is especially 

 good to use with delft blue china. Oc- 

 casionally you will have a call for odd 

 coloring like this. Other colors might be 

 used for the basket with these same flow- 

 ers, or white. Before stemming the 

 flowers let them stand in water two or 

 three hours, if possible. 



This style of arrangement might be 

 used with equally good effect with mar- 

 guerites, mignonette, peas and other 

 small, slender-stemmed flowers. Have the 

 foliage, flowers, basket and materials 

 scrupulously clean. A spot on the linen 

 cannot be removed at the last moment. 

 No embroidered center-piece is neces- 

 sary with this style of flower center- 

 piece. Gertrude Blair. 



THE READERS' CORNER. 



Conventions and Trade. 



Eeferring to the Pacific coast notice 

 in the Review under date of August 25, 

 wherein your correspondent belittles the 

 practice of entertaining conventions, I 

 must say that the article to me seems so 

 narrow and so short-sighted that I can 

 not imagine any business man in any 

 community would sanction it. Least of 



A Simple Arrangement as a Table Center-Piece. 



above have their flowers from what ap- 

 pear to be points common to themselves. 

 Clustering flowers connect the groups and 

 follow the remaining outlines of the 

 basket. The euphorbia is cut in um- 

 brella-like clusters and stemmed one to 

 a pick. It is not used as a filler, al- 

 though inserted in the lighter parts and 

 the edges. Foxtail grass both lightens 

 the upper outline of the piece and com- 

 pletes the symmetry of the top. The 

 longer-stemmed small groups of cornflow- 

 ers make the balancing points on the 

 sides and break the solid side outlines 

 of the piece. 



The whole piece is intended to repre- 



all would it be expected from a member 

 of our noble craft. Your correspondent 

 dwells particularly on the fact that it 

 does not benefit the florists, when every 

 reasonable, thinking person must admit 

 that no matter for what the money is 

 spent, so long as it is spent in a given 

 city, it must benefit all in that commu- 

 nity. Your correspondent particularizes 

 the Knights Templar, and I know for 

 a fact that the Knights Templar as 

 a rule leave more money per capita 

 in cities they visit than any other 

 organization. "We well remember, when 

 they visited our city in 1889, what 

 a magnificent sum of money they left. 



