In this season when flowers abound, I shall speak to you about them and about the ways of arranging them, so that their appearance may please us and we may enjoy the fullest share of their beauty.
The love of flowers is instinctive in man, and this feeling is accompanied by a strong desire to arrange them, display them, and adorn homes with them, that one may delight in their beauty and their fragrance.
Hundreds of years ago the East studied the art of flower arrangement, which reached its peak in Japan; and the paintings that date back to the eighteenth century and earlier show that the West, too, took an interest in this art. Western arrangement differs greatly from the Eastern: it is distinguished by an abundance of colors, materials, and styles, while
An abundance of flowers is not a condition of beauty; a single flower is sometimes enough to create a wonderful sight, as appears in this drawing.
Eastern arrangements rest on definite principles. From the contact of West with East there came rules and laws that are still applied to this day in every beautiful design.
It is possible to place flowers in a vessel without any design at all. Anyone with experience can make flowers appear charming without any serious thought to their arrangement, and some persons have a special gift in the sense of form and color, so that they produce a splendid arrangement without recourse to the rules. But the ordinary person may benefit greatly from study and from following the fundamental rules and methods in order to achieve the desired result. The most important of these principles are eight. Design in flower arrangement stands as a balanced bond among all the parts — flowers, greenery, and vessel — and it must suit the room and the place set aside for it. A narrow spot between two windows suggests a slanting triangular line, while a wide expanse calls for a large arrangement; likewise a coffee table or dining table requires an arrangement that is low and equal on all sides.
In a successful design the materials are proportionate in size to one another and to the container. The
The vessel itself suggests an arrangement all its own, as appears in this picture: it is a beautiful seashell, and from it and the rest of the shells a splendid group has been composed.