OCR Text |
Show I ORIGINALITY IS NOW I FASHION IN FLOWERS I ' I t More Freedom Now Permissible and- Individualism is ! '. a Mark of the Best Taste Ik. By ANTOINETTE REHMANN PERRETT 4 jp LOWERS aro not fashion free, but H BT the flower fashion now is free.' r5l' ltB onl dlctum k rlGlnallty and & Individualism This freedom aP- jl plies oven to weddlng3. At a recent 2y fashionable wedding yellow Mimosa, i? white star flowerw and pink roses wore 'S ihe brldesmuldH" biciucts with yellow jJM acacia and pink Japanese plum bios- ilrft j nams for decoration. WA ; TJso what colors and what flowers K ;f you will. Every color combination Is 0a , fashionable. No llowcr Is too small to rip iJ bo unod with eclat. This flower frce- S " dom gives a new 7est to sociability, a ' new freshness to social occasions. It Jf stimulates us all to a greater apprecla- tlon for the arrangement of flowers. Lavlshncas In flowors la never out of place upon social occasions unlcbs wc stoop to artificiality. To have great bowls of roses or to cluster blooming tubs of laurel and rhododendrons Is but a sign and symbol of hospitality But to rope roses and laurel and hang them like btrandu of buads and shells for festoons or poitlercs is llowcr cruelty. There waB a time when it was tho fashion before ontortalnlng to dismantle dis-mantle the mantel, to take down tho hangings and to send tho family chairs and tables attlcward; then to cover up tho disrobed houso with greens and llowors. All that has passed. Now a houso must have an Innate graclousness. Its very quality of homl-ness homl-ness makes It fit for every company occasion. Ono of the greatest surprises of our modern living room, with ts strictly utilitarian furnishings and Its color restfulncas, Is Its decoratlvo pos-sblllity. pos-sblllity. It fairly courts festivities, nnd blossoms forth at tho slightest provocation Tho v:iacs and bowls only need filling to change tho everyday every-day atmosphere to celebration, while tho tubs of blpomlng plants or forns arc so arranged as to give now loveliness love-liness to do architectural values of the room. Flowero for the Decoration of the House for May and June, Take, for Instance a living room In dark brown onk with green burlap on the walls and velour hangings. It would hardly seem a room for onter-tnlnlng, onter-tnlnlng, bocaubo It is simplicity Itself Perhaps, however, that Is tho very reason it takt.l so readily to a fostlvo garb. You din Jmvo n weekly day at homo In such a room and n''vcr repeat your decorations. You can havu a wholn succession of receptions and weddings In the heydays of May nnd Junu and never lack a suitable color scheme Tho second week In May the rooms can bd sweet with applo blossomB and- Yllcts Walls of neutral neu-tral color brjng out every vnrylng touch of color. Tho graylsh-groen wall acorns to have a special geniality for th6 pinkish white of the applo blossoms nnd tho reddish rose of the buds, until the very next week, It shows tho samo genlullly for the faint brownish tinge of tho white dogwood. With the dogwood In high vase3 and gioat bowls, the wild geranium Is a dellcato and gracious flower for tho dining room. Tho receiving party can carry armfuls of lilacs, otaoln now lh tsred hrdl now Is tho A beautiful - wedding decoration is lavender lilacs for tho rooms, tall American beauties for tho bridesmaids brides-maids and white lilacs for tho brldo. In early Juno tho blooming lauiol can bo used with tho maidenhair and small pink roses. Tho crimson rhododendrons rhododen-drons In dark tubs can bo grouped with sword ferns and tho brldesmulda' bouquets bo forget-me-nots. Pink peonies peo-nies can be used luxuriously, and with them for table centerpieces thero can bo the dainty, cnumel-llko blossoms of tho bluets. Rambler roses and pan-sleo pan-sleo nro an Interesting combination, and so aro Rambler roses and violas In using pnnslcs for a tablo piece. It gives them a new charm to uso dainty, long-utemmod flowors like the anemones ane-mones or the grass UowcrB thnt can nod nbovc thorn. A flower hcheme of great dignity Is one of Iris and mar-guerltoa, mar-guerltoa, wlth'inasslngsi of sweet forus. Tho brldo's bouquet of while Iris Is ns rare truly as one of white orchldB. To color shades of the bridesmaids' bouquet bou-quet can be from palo yellow and lavender la-vender to tho richest violet bluo. Flowers Defy tho Rules of Color Combination. Com-bination. Tn mentioning n living loom with a gjuylnh-green wall, wc have not meant to exclude other colors from tho walls. A golden brown has much ortcctlvo-ness ortcctlvo-ness as a background. You must live with a wall color to discover all Its color preferences. A golden brown hai a partiality for pale-pink carnations, for the pink flowering almond, for pink foxgloves, but In early spring you would think It loved nothing so well nH tho Jonquils, and again toward midsummer mid-summer It develops picfercnccs for deep-blue larkspur, for tho cornflowers, cornflow-ers, and Inter on for the palo-bluo wild astors. Flowers havo a color soihcthlng that eludes definition and defies rules anu regulations. You can uso a color touch with fiowers that would be amiss with nny other medium. This alone innlcos the arranging of flowors nn ever-Increasing delight. At 111 st thought, for InsLinco. you would not put lavendor-plnk lavendor-plnk cosmos Into a dark-blue room with a deep-red rug, but If the llowers chance Into tho room, thoy will glvo n unique and absolutely charming color touch. A lovely wedding decoration deco-ration for a bluo room Is pink sweet peas, lilies of tho valley and violets Swvet poas In themselves offer mnny qqlor schemes, Ono of the rpost charming fashions tho past winter was the sending of flOwer baskots with water-tight vc-s-sols. BunchuH of seemingly unrelated flpwers, llko piimrOHeb nnd hcllotropo or primroses nnd plnk heather, woro placed sldo by sldo. Somo of tho biiakutfl wero long nnd narrow, somo morq square, and still others qullo round, but there was nothing artificial artifi-cial In tho placing of tho flowers. Tho lovellost baskets wcro thoso of colored wlckor. Now that our gardens aro In bloom, wo can wend our own llowors grouped Just nB they wero picked from the garden. 1 Tho old-fnshloncd flowers aro all In 1 fashion for bouquets. Ten weeks' stocks In bunches of various pale col-' col-' ors aro a royal gift. One day In Into 1 October, 1909, wc came upon a field of decp-bluo asters. Wo gathered a bouquet and fringed It with some last buttercups and Queen Anno'a lace, so that It looked for all tho world like 1 an old-fashioned ruchlng. Now iho old-fashioned paper ruchlng as a bouquet bou-quet holder has come back Into btylo and can be used with effect In colonial houses. With modern pottery wo must, howover, keep to less attlflcl.il ways. To treat flowors graciously, we must not go too far afield from Nature. That Is. after nil, where tho best llor-IhIb llor-IhIb and decorators learn their lessons. Tho arrangement of fiowers should bo a continuous household occupation, which simply roaches culmination upon thoso occasions of special Joy where wo can best express our ecntl-ments ecntl-ments with lavlshness of grecnu and fiowers. A beautiful and useful family fam-ily custom Is to spend a day or an afternoon In tho fields and woods each week In senrch of plants nnd flowors for the house. Thin provides nn excellent excel-lent cducntlonal ndvantago fdr the children and kocps us all young in our lovo of natural things In the spring wo bring homo tho bluo hcpatl-cas, hcpatl-cas, the plnk-volncd spring beauties, tho woolly saxifrage, tho dalnly Cory-dnllH, Cory-dnllH, tho four-potnlcd bunch berry, or tho fringed Polygala (always, I may add, scrupulously leaving tho roots undlstuibod). They are llow'ors for the ten table or tho writing tabljv full of Hprliigtlmo hopos. But nil through tho summor tho fields can Initiate us Into tho harmonics of Nntuio's floral H docoratlons. H Sometimes our lives aro so engross- H Ing they make us blind to ourenvl- H ronmenl. But ono day last September H I was bitting on a rock on tho river H bank, -with not a ulnglo thought or H desire to detract my attention from H tho sloping bank. Under tho hop horn- H beam tree was a flower fringe. Tho H Joc-pyc weed was a faded lavender In H tho sunlight, nnd a crushed raspberry In tho shade. Tho boneset had tho H same flower softness in white. With H theso delicate masslngs was the con- IH trastlng brightness of tho sunflower! IH and the goldenrod. Whlto anlcrs grow iH under tho trees with the dark green H leaves of tho rhododendrons as a back- H ground. On the shoro were somo IH daisies and wild carrots. Tho trcmu- H Ious blue of tho harobull and tho H chccrlncss of butter and eggs roso out of the rocks. Turtlehend grow horo H and thero llko rare white gentian. Kvon the thistle and bouncing Bot H took part in tho lovely flower medley. Tho only flower that was In uncon- H genial, color-clashing company was tho H brilliant cardinal flower, which showed H a disturbing peep of ltbolf hero and H there. The cardinal flower Is nn nru- H tocrat, a river recluse, that likes to bo H left alono with tho green of tho trees H nnd tho brown earth hues that glvo H distinction to Its vivid coloring. Hero jH It only accentuated tho general con- geniality of tho flower groupings, H While I looked at tho flower fringe H and wondered I scorned to discover tho H hecrets of our present flower fashion. H For Nature Is as free and, In truth, much freer thun our flower fashions H - ? 1 A H |