September, 25 1884. ] 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
277 
i 
7 - 
COMING EVENTS 
25 
Th 
Protheroe & Morris’s Bulb Sale. 
26 
P 
27 
s 
28 
SUN 
IGth Sunday after Trinity. 
29 
M 
80 
Tu 
I 
W 
Stevens’s Bulb Sale. 
FLOWERS FOR VASES. . 
HE liigliest philosophy leads to simplicity. What 
a time elapses before we recognise that fact ! 
All Nature is essentially simple, and gardeners, 
as waiters on Nature and fellow workers with 
her, ought to study simplicity above all things. 
In nothing is this so true as in the arrangement 
of flowers. A dozen years ago we entered a 
cycle of vulgarity and ugliness in the floral de¬ 
coration of dining tables. It is true that flowers, 
no matter how barbarously treated, always retain their in¬ 
dividual beauty. That we cannot destroy, but we can and 
often do mar it, and at the time named we certainly did 
reach the lowest level of decorative floral art, while the labour 
and time spent in filling and refilling receptacles of tin or other 
material was just so much time wasted. Happily, we have 
attained to a period when Nature is more left to speak for 
herself. Without doubt we shall always have those who con¬ 
sider the labour and ingenuity spent on arranging flowers as 
some measure of their beauty, but a freer and a healthier 
tone prevails generally. In fashionable bouquets for the 
hand this is especially noticeable, for while a large amount 
of artificiality is retained it is an artificiality of a more 
generous nature, individual blossoms being less crushed to¬ 
gether, and the rarer ones brought so prominently forward 
as to show their beauty on every side. 
Bouquet-making, however, is comparatively limited in 
extent, and does not appear to be growing as a feature of 
garden work. Room-decoration with flowers, on the other 
hand, is spreading to an “ alarming ” extent, using that ex¬ 
pression from a gardener’s point of view, for the market 
grower and the middleman who disposes of his goods must 
look with lively satisfaction on the spreading downward 
tendency of this innocent and pleasure-giving taste, while all 
must cordially view the increasing love for flowers with ap¬ 
preciation. But from the gardener’s look-out it becomes a 
question of much importance, as the prevailing tendency 
with all extra demands is to expect them to be met without 
any corresponding addition to the means for doing so. So it 
is in this case; summer and winter, spring and autumn, 
flowers are wanted, and the gardener is left to find them 
as best he may. I am afraid too many gardeners at the 
present day must think of the doings of Pharaoh the hard¬ 
hearted when he ordered his Hebrew subjects to gather their 
own straw without lessening their tale of bricks, and apply 
the case to themselves. Certainly it now-a-days requires 
much ingenuity to make ends meet. 
I must return to my opening sentences and reiterate the 
fitness of simplicity. Too often very much more material is 
employed in vase-decoration than is required. To be ortho¬ 
dox -we must have a border of Ferns and a complicated 
arrangement of blossom and greenery firmly packed so as to 
cover every particle of the space inside this Fern border. 
This is merely stereotyped conventionality, and it is wasteful. 
I see no reason why a vase may not be so arranged occa- 
No. 222.—VoL. IX., Third Series. 
sionally, or always if you like; but to fill half a dozen or a 
dozen glasses in one room in this fashion, and further to 
carry the same arrangement out in every occupied room in a 
house, is beyond good taste to say the very least. When we 
call to mind that these flower receptacles may be of all sizes 
and shapes—tall trumpets and flat wide-mouthed dishes, 
dainty little vessels with narrow openings, or classical pieces 
of various shapes—the system above condemned becomes so 
much the worse. The vases gardeners are oftentimes called 
on to decorate are unsuitable, and so far it is difficult to 
carry out simple arrangements. I am also aware that the 
taste of their owners has to be studied, but outside these 
particular instances lies a vast field for many gardeners to 
work in with effect. 
Considering the matter in a practical manner I have at 
once to concede that no strict rule can be laid down to be 
followed with advantage. But I may be allowed to offer 
some hints, which I trust may be found not altogether un¬ 
worthy of consideration. The first hint I would give is to 
consider that flowers do not grow in bunches. A bunch of 
flowers tied together is a reasonable mode of carrying these 
in the hand, but not necessarily the best way of showing off 
or enjoying their individual beauty. This brings us to hint 
that the shape and size of the receptacle should be studied. 
A large trumpet-shaped glass, and a low, wide, and open 
dish require widely different treatment. The latter might 
at present be effectively and simply filled with flowering 
shoots of Pansies or Violas ; or Sweet Peas, Horse Gowans, 
and Mignonette make a charming mixture; or, going to 
more refined (?) material, we may employ double Ivyleaf 
Pelargoniums, sprays of Heaths, Begonias, Lapagerias, or 
Stephanotis, in each case using sufficient foliage of Pelar¬ 
gonium or Begonia or Sweet Peas for a setting without 
having to add Ferns. The idea is to have flowers charming 
in themselves, and so arranged as to show their beauty 
easily. Then if we take the tall trumpet we must decide on 
bold flowers at once, and, as in the case of the flat dish, a 
certain flatness of arrangement is called for, so in our tall 
glass any approach to flatness must be avoided. If you 
use single Dahlias, cut shoots with leaves, buds, and open 
blossom, and arrange as freely as the plant itself grows. If 
Gladiolus be selected, cut with foliage attached and let the 
spikes be fresh, young, and bold. And so on with any other 
flower chosen, let them always be massive if possible, and 
stand free of each other. For medium-sized glasses a certain 
degree of airiness should prevail. Roses are not particularly 
“ airy,” but by cutting with long stems, keeping the foliage 
intact, and adding sprays of Jasmine or the common Cle¬ 
matis lumpiness is easily avoided. Very suitable for such 
glasses just now are the Japanese "Windflowers, which may 
either be used by themselves or intermixed with Marguerites, 
Oxeye Daisies, and Sweet Peas. The most charming of all 
flowers just now are Picotees and Carnations. These are 
much better arranged in smallish vases, first inserting in the 
water four or five healthy cuttings (foliage), and then adding 
a few long-stemmed shoots cut off just as they grow. For 
small glasses I think, as a rule, that fine single blooms are 
much the best—an Eucharis backed with a spray of Maiden¬ 
hair Fern, an open Gloire de Dijon with foliage and bud, a 
truss of double Ivy-leaf Pelargoniums with its own foliage, 
are examples of what I mean. 
These are all flowers common at present that are men¬ 
tioned, but the same remarks are applicable to flowers at all 
seasons. Notwithstanding the great variety of flowers we 
have to choose from, gardeners have restricted themselves to 
a few well-known kinds, and, unfortunately, have treated 
them all very much alike, no matter whether a flower grows 
in lowly fashion like a Pansy or on tall shoots like a Chrys¬ 
anthemum, the blossom itself is snipped off with an almost 
unvarying length of stalk. This should not prevail. Colours 
of flowers are often badly selected for effect. Take the 
Chrysanthemum as an instance, and we have a great variety 
No. 1878 .—VoL. Lxxr., Old Series. 
