TABLE DECORATION.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIV, Issue 285, 2 December 1933, Page 6 (Supplement)

TABLE DECORATION.

I have often asked myself, and I am isure you have, why a certain table decoration, or a basket, or a vase, at a flower show has been awarded a prize in preference to others which have made •a more personal appeal. In awarding points to a horse or a dog, or even a baby, we have certain definite lines to guide us, but, as regards floral decorations, every judge has his own standards of valuation, particularly when it comes to colour blending. What one person calls execrable taste may appeal strongly to another, and what the more robust may term "potty" may appear aesthetically beautiful and right to an artist. This being so it may not greatly concern us what an individual judge looks for in awarding points, but it seems to me that Mr. Bolton, in judging at the Penge show, has given some excellent general advice, worthy of careful consideration by all competitors in floral classes. "You need constantly to impress it upon people that what we look for every time is lightness of display-and the flowers arranged in proportion. For example, one should be able to look right through the centre piece. Exhibitors should attend more to arrangement and not try to put so much in." This last warning is, I think, particularly needed. Many table are so crowded that any attempt to dine at a table so decorated would be Bheer agony. There was one beautiful orchid table at the Southport Show, consisting of a large centre piece, four vases of slightly less in size, and six or eight small receptacles, the whole interlaced with trails of foliage. The orchids were fresh and of first rate quality, the individual vases faultlessly arranged, and as a display of orchids it was really grand. But the competitor had completely overlooked the fact that the competition was for a dinner table arrangement, not an orchid display, with the result that, in all probability he (or she) was sorely disappointed at so worthy an effort being passed unrewarded. —"Garden Work."