FASHIONABLE FLORAL DECORATIONS.

Globe, Volume XXIII, Issue 2372, 9 November 1881, Page 4

FASHIONABLE FLORAL DECORATIONS.

The taste for floral decoration is very rapidly increasing, and in no direction is this more apparent than that of dinner-tablo decoration. The description of some which have been noticed with admiration this season may be of interest, and may prove suggestive to those anxious to carry out similar decorations. In many houses where flowers are much considered it is no longer customary to have the dessert on the table, the place of the dessert dishes is taken by flower vases, and fruit and biscuits are handed round. The fashion of having a piece of colored satin or velvet in the centre of the table is by no means so much in favor as was the case

last season. Still, it is by no means entirely abandoned, and occasionally produces an excellent effect. We lately saw a round table arranged for twelve persons, of which the centre was a piece of peacock blue velvet, round the edge of which was a border of Marechal Niel roses laid on the velvet, the short stalks buried in damp moss concealed by fern and lycopodium. In the centre was a small bowl of old silver filled with tho same roses and maidenhair, and on the velvet were some quaint ornaments of old silver. Another table, a long one for four-and-twenty, had strips of scarlet satin about five inches wide placed lattice-wise on the table. A narrow white lace was turned over on the satin, and a broader one lay on the table cloth. At every point where the lattice work crossed, and at each ending of tho satin in front of the plates was placed a small low glass dish, filled with fern and stephanotis. Tho effect was excellent, being much less heavy than that of one largo piece of satin; the only-drawback was the too strong scent of the stephanotis, and this is , a point on which those engaged in the decoration of a dinner table cannot exorcise too much consideration. Many persons suffer severely from strong scent; and in a diningroom tho combination of heavily perfumed flowers and the odour of the various viands is apt to bo particularly overpowering. Another long table was recently decorated with a perfect bank of flowers. In the centre was a line of pots of pelargoniums of beautiful shades, forming tho apex of the ridge; and sloping from them on each side to a small silver rail, immediately in front of the plates, was a bank of lycopodium, in which roses, orchids, and other flowers were so arranged as to seem as if growing through it. The effect was excellent. A round table which we saw earlier in the year had the whole of the centre formed of a mound of lycopodium, through which variegated tulips appeared to be growing. The same idea might bo well carried out with moss and primroses in the early spring, and tho addition of a few sprays of small-leaved ivy carelessly arranged would give quite tho idea of a mossy bank. This decoration, too, would be of more moderate cost than the more elaborate ones of hothouse flowers. An oval table for sixteen had a fine old silver vase in the centre, in which was placed a pot of rich crimson pelagonium, round the base was a ring of fern hiding the stalks of a wreath of the crimson pelargonium laid on the cloth. From this circle sprang eight ovals, formed of wreaths of the same flowers and fern, and wherever these ovals intersected each other was placed a small ornament of old silver. Before each guest was a specimen glass, containing a boutonniere of pelargonium and fern. A long table had the whole cloth covered with branches and rose-leaves, through which crimson, blush, and yellow roses appeared ; the roses were placed in tiny specimen glasses, whioh were hidden by the branches of leaves. The troughs, which were formerly so much used for decoration, do not seem to be in such favor this year as last, but they are still frequently used. A long table had an edging close to the plates of a trough filled with ferns, white roses, cornflowers, white pinks, and the yellow alamanda, with every here and there a bloom of the coral antirrhinum. Before each gnest was a small recessed semicircle, in which stood a specimen glass with a rose with fern for tho ladies and a gardenia for the gentlemen. In the centre was a large basket, in the middle of which were arums rising from a ring of white lilies and coral antirrhinum, and a profusion of maidenhair. At each end of the table were baskets of variegated roses. One of the prettiest tables we ever saw was on a very hot night late last season. The centre of the table was a largo sheet of looking glass, the table being long and narrow; the glass was edged with grass and water-lily leaves lying on the tablecloth, and on the glass itself water lilies, with their leaves, were placed irregularly, as if grpwing. To effect this satisfactorily the stalk must be out off close into the flower, that it may lie quite flat. A pretty table had as a centre a large bowl of old china filled with rhododendron and azaleas. The rest of the table was almost covered with low specimen glasses, each containing one head of rhododendrons. Another had as a centre a fine old gold oup_, in troughs round whioh were arranged crimson peonies and white arums, with a profusion of maidenhair fern. At the four corners of the table were small glasses, each containing a peony, and before each guest was a glass with a crimson rosebud and a spray of spirosa. A long table had a gold salvor in the centre, round which was a ring of moss with oom-flowers, white pinks, and the red flower of the common field sorrel. A similar wreath went round the table. The two great points to be remembered in arranging flowers are to use enough green and not to place the flowers too formally. As far as is possible, every flower should have its own leaves. A Marechal Niel rose has a totally different leaf from, for instance, a Souvenir de Malmaison, and each looks infinitely better with its own. There must, however, always be more green than is afforded by the leaves attached to the flowers themselves. Fern always looks well, and harmonises with everything, and, when it is not attainable, tho leaves of azaleas or spire? a are extremely useful. Common field grasses csn also be used with gread advantage, and, as a background, some pieces of box will often be found extremely useful. In placing flowers in troughs it will be found very convenient to use damp sand instead, of water, as the flowers remain exactly in the position in which they are placed, and as they do not lean against each other, fewer of them are required. Of course, in London the decoration is very frequently carried out by professional persons, and in large establishments in the country by the kind gardener; but in many small households the lady of the house or her daughters undertake the floral arrangements, and to such we hope these remarks may prove of some assistance.