I!) I 



JOURNAL OK TMK 110 YAL HORTICULTURAL S0C1KTY. 



Another absolute rule should be: Never try, under any circumstances, 

 bo combino hothouse and hardy Mowers ; you may mingle them, hut 

 they refuse utterly to harmonise. Imagine, if you can, Daffodils and 

 Stcphanotis, or Cattloyas and Ox-eyed Daisies. I purposely mention 

 Mowers Hint are beautiful beautiful separately but combined, impossible 



Hear in mind also that as a rule all single and small double Mowers 

 lend themselves best for decorative art. Study colours which will look 

 well by artificial light, unless your designs are for daylight only. Tho 

 seasons, too: each season, as it comes, brings with it the particular 

 Mowers you need. Your field is wide, and the door opens to all lovers 

 of arranging Mowers upon a vast area. Do not rest satisfied with copying 

 Others, but strike out for yourself, and let your arrangements be original. 



Always avoid overcrowding, and in dinner-table (Ulcerations, especially, 

 study lightness, harmony <>f Corm and colour, and " balance," by whioh I 

 mean Hie breaking up of lines. " Pillowing," or Table Centres, if used, 

 must be used with great caution. So many people spoil an otherwise 

 good decoration by introducing table centres with colours entirely out of 



harmony with the Mowers they use, and so spoil the e fleet. All yellows 



ami pinks light up particularly well ■ Daffodils, "whioh ever take the 

 winds of March with beauty"; Cowslips and Irises, single and double; 

 Pinks, Wild Hoses, single or garden Kosos, Sweet Peas, Carnations, and a 

 host of others rise up in our imagination. Mauves and blues, as a rule, 

 urn inofToctive by artificial light. Let the thermometer also guide you 

 somewhat in your selection. On a broiling hot summer's day, do not treat 

 the brain worker and bread winner, when lie conies home to dinner, with 

 scarlet (ieraniunis or bright red Roses, but give him pale and restful 



coloured flowers with mossy greens about, 



The fashion of stands and glasses varies, sometimes taller or shorter, 

 and silver, china, glass, or metal may be used. It is almost, if not quite, 

 impossible to arrange Mowers in bowls and baskets without some means of 

 artificial support, but those means should be rendered as invisible as 

 possible. Unless the schedule distinctly specifics the contrary, you are 

 safe in employing them in exhibition contests, but care must be taken that 

 the stalks of the Mowers reach and dwell in the water or damp sand, as 

 the case may be. In passing let me say, never use sand if water will do 

 as well nor coloured glass vases. There is a modicum of beauty in 

 seeing the stems of the Mowers in the clear glass and sparkling water. The 

 Royal Horticultural Society and the Midland Daffodil Society allow wiro 

 supports, but add this caution to exhibitors " but the less in evidence, 

 the greater the merit of the arrangement." The Japanese used narrow 

 strips of lead to hold their Mowers upright the simplest thing in the 

 world long before we did in fact; they introduced them into England, 

 and these pieces of twisted lead, worth perhaps a halfpenny, were quickly 

 bought up in London at In. each. Another method is to use a lump of 

 (day, which has been properly tempered, at the bottom of your receptacle ; 

 it is easily covered with moss, and you have at once an invaluable support : 

 this will apply to baskets and china bow ls, not to glass vases, of course. 

 Happily glaSfl vases often h:ive thin necks, and in that case you will need 

 QOthing more than pure cryslal water and your own taste in the arrange* 

 nient. Clear and transparent glass harmonises so admirably with the soft 



