All about placement

The two most important places in the home for flowers are the dining-room table and the hallway. A cheerful greeting by flowers in the entrance hall makes guests feel at ease and flowers on the dining-room table have the power to make dining an aesthetic experience.

Where to put a bouquet deserves careful attention. Line arrangements often look good at eye level, but most compositions look best much lower. In fact, it is good to try putting large bouquets on the floor first, or on very low tables or stools. It is not surprising that flowers look great near the floor because most of them have grown close to the earth. Drooping flowers and vines should be placed high in a hanging basket or on a mantel or wall bracket. There should be a proper relation in scale between a bouquet and the table on which it sits. A small bouquet looks lost on a big table; a large bouquet on a small table looks top-heavy.

Flowers on the dining-room table should be low, although it is sometimes difficult to harmonize candles with the flame set properly above eye level, with such arrangements. On a large table it is often desirable to have flowers on both ends of it or distributed throughout instead of strictly in the center.

Sometimes, it is necessary to provide a special background for a flower arrangement, ie, to shut out disturbing elements or to inject additional beauty elements. A small, triple screen about one foot in height covered with silver paper on one side and gold on the other is a useful background since the gold side can be used for yellow, orange, or red bouquets, and the silver side, for many others. Other interesting background material consists of colored paper, Chinese paper, strips of wallpaper, hand-woven textiles, or whatever works in harmony with the flowers without detracting from their importance. Sometimes, it can be effective to put a sequence of corresponding pieces of colored paper under a vase of flowers.

Small sculptured figures of humans and animals can add an interesting and gay touch of humor to a flower arrangement. Natural figures are not as good in terms of design as somewhat conventionalized or geometric forms. Colored candles in candleholders, decorative boxes, dishes, books, tiles, etc, sometimes provide a contrast in form or one that completes a composition. When such objects supplement a flower composition they should express the same idea as the flowers themselves.