July  3,  1902. 
JOURNAL  OF  HORTICULTURE  AND  COTTAGE  GARDENER. 
11 
Gadding  and  Gathering. 
“Here  awa’,  There  awa’.” 
Floral  Designs. 
Frequently  the  most  simple  selections  of  colour  ancl  arrange¬ 
ment  of  forms  in  flowers  and  plants,  produce  an  exceptionally 
beautiful  result.  Such  was  at  once  apparent  in  the  case  of  a 
floral  cross  seen  in  Gerards,  of  Regent  Street,  London,  last  week, 
where  the  only  flowers  employed  were  bright  purple  Violas  with 
a  yellow  eye,  without  any  greenery  whatever,  and  only  a 
relieving  bunch  of  Caladium  argyrites’  leaves.  The  flowers  were 
and  ought  to  be),  and  consisted  of  Lilium  longiflorum,  wired, 
with  sprays  of  Odontoglossum  crispum  and  long,  graceful  fronds 
of  Nephrolepis  shooting  out  beyond  all.  Supporting  the  bouquet 
I  noticed  handsome  and  typical  leaves  of  Ficus  elastica  variegata, 
whose  colour  harmonised  with  that  of  the  yellow-spotted  Aucuba. 
A  second  wreath  consisted  of  white  Pinks  on  the  frame,  with 
no  fringe  of  greenery.  This  is  a  point  worth  noticing.  None  of 
the  wreaths  have  any  fringe  whatever,  and  they  are  not  generally 
one-sided  articles — for  the  flowers  form  a  complete  covering  on 
all  parts  of  the  frame.  A  finished  wreath  then  is  like  a  life-belt, 
only  that  it  is  not  flat-sided.  In  this  wreath  the  bouquet 
attached  to  it  was  composed  first  of  Stephanotis  flowers,  each 
separately  wired,  some  made  to  protrude  outwardly  from  the 
Holland  House 
all  wired,  the  stalks  being  inserted  among  the  moss  binding  of 
the  framework.  Thus  their  faces  were  flat  and  turned  outward 
to  the  gaze  of  the  many  admiring  pedestrians.  The  whole  sur¬ 
face  of  the  frame  was  covered  with  rows  of  the  Violas  all  evenly 
woven  in.  The  wired  argyrites  leaves  were  bunched  at  the 
intersecting  point  of  the  cross-piece,  and  each  was  held  out 
over  the  Violas.  In  height  the  cross  may  have  been  3fft  and 
lift  broad. 
Another  beautiful  feature,, in  the  same  window  was  a  large  , 
wreath,  the  frame  being  hidden  by  finely  spotted  Aucuba  leaves  ! 
most  effectively  arranged.  The  edges  of  the  leaves  had  been  | 
folded  inwardly,  and  were  thus  fluted.  Each  had  then  been 
evenly  disposed  against  its  neighbour,  and  formed  a  circle  of 
unerring  exactness,  the  fluted  leaves  following  and  fitting  one 
another  like  the  scales  of  a  fish.  The  bunch  of  flowers  placed  on 
the  wreath  in  this  case  was  loosely  oomposed  (as  they  always  are 
from  the  West. 
centre  of  the  bouquet,  others  kept  back.  Then  at  the  lower 
half  of  the  arrangement  were  beautiful  sprays  of  Lily  of  the 
Valley,  and  above  all,  though  so  ably  disposed  that  their  size 
did  not  detract  as  they  would  have  done  by  clumsy  manipulation, 
were  flowers  of  Lilium  speciosum  album. 
Lastly,  there  was  a  basket  formed  of  plaited  straw  and  thin 
bamboos'  and  coloured  light  “  sharnie-green.”  The  sides  were 
not  deep;  they  were  straight,  and  the  bottom  flat.  The  pre¬ 
vailing  colour  was  yellow  in  the  arrangement.  Thus  yellow 
Richardias  were  used  along  with  yellow  English  Irises,  yellow¬ 
leaved  Crotons,  and  a  great  and  loosely  set  bunch  of  William 
Allan  Richardson  Roses  at  the  right-hand  front  corner.  Tower¬ 
ing  up  at  the  back,  and  giving  balance  to  the  whole,  was 
Hydrangea  panioulata,  dense  in  structure,  and  beautifully  white. 
A  huge  bow  of  golden-orange  coloured  satin  ribbon,  half  a  foot 
in  breadth,  was  fastened  by  some  means  toward  the  centre  of  the 
