WHEN FLOWERS ARE SCARCE.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVIII, Issue 150, 26 June 1937, Page 27 (Supplement)

WHEN FLOWERS ARE SCARCE.

Bringing Colour Into the Home.

Flowers for the house are something of a problem in those barren weeks after the autumn blooms have withered, and before the spring blossoms are bursting their buds. "Not a thing in the garden" we say despairingly, and resign ourselves either to doing without nowers—which really we need more than ever in the winter months to bring a cheery touch of colour to the rooms— or to buying them week by week, a fairly costly business, that will tot up quite a substantial addition to the household expenses. But though there may seem to •be literally nothing worth picking in the garden it is surprising what possibilities a little patient research—and rather more ingenuity— vill reveal.

To substitute foliage for flowers in decorating your rooms in the winter months offers one obvious solution to tlie problem, but one of which surprisingly few housewives take advantage, once the glory of burnished gold and rti?«et leaves is done. But- the more lioinely evergreens lend themselves for effective decoration, too, provided they Bre arranged, like flowers, according to tlieir character. Big stoneware jars, old metal pots, heavy old jugs or tankards. Particularly of black or dark coloured K'ass, suit the bold masses and glossy texture of the green foliage especially well, «nd the foliage, well massed with » •eeking-after-bold effect, will look unexpectedly effective against a lightcoloured wall or silhouetted against a window or a mirror. One warning though—the branches of foliage should be. held resolutely under the tap Oil the leaves are thoroughly cleansed, a*! the full beauty of their gloss and colour is revealed. And the stalks should be

peeled for an inch or so above the cut, to help them last all the longer. An occasional rinsing of the leaves is all to the good, too, not only to improve their appearance, but also to lengthen their life.

Arum lily leaves, arranged in a glass jar or dull pottery bowl, make an effective decoration, too, especially set near a window, so that the light will give added colour to the leaves, and the vivid green of nasturtium leaves has definite possibilities. And charming little posies can be formed simply of different kinds of leaves, with perhaps a cluster of berries to lend a touch of colour—rose hips, by the way, should be carefully treasured for their warm russet red, so don't overlook them in your researches in the garden.

Or those bright red and green chillies you can buy at the greengrocer's will prove an excellent substitute for berries, and, supplemented with stalks of wire will help you out in that task of making quaint little nosegays to brighten a sombre corner of a room. You will find all sorts of other vegetables and fruits at your greengrocer's, too, that, properly handled, will prove to have very definite decorative possibilities. For instance, there are those shiny, pear-shaped capsicums, vivid scarlet or deep green, that look so well piled on a flat metal plaque or in a low bowl.. Green pears, tiny yellow pumpkins and gourds, ranging from clear green through to warm, bright orange, and as interesting for their different shapes as for their subtly-graded colours, will prove a strikingly effective decor for the centre of a polished table or a corner that catches the afternoon sunlight or radiance from one of the lamps in yonr room-. Remember, too, the decorative possibilities of the more ordinary fruits —oranges, rosy-cheeked apples, passion fruit and yellow-green bananas—when you are seeking a substitute for flowers in the winter months. Carefully arranged in an attractive bowl and artfully placed, so that the lisht will "rive them added colour and added glossiness, they will make a decoration every bit as effective as a bowl of flowers. '