FLOWERS YOU CAN DUST

Dominion, Volume 23, Issue 257, 26 July 1930, Page 31

FLOWERS YOU CAN DUST

Metal Blooms in the Garden

The garden of the future may be a blaze of flowers in winter as well as in summer.

But if you were to examine these flowers closely you would discover that for all their natural appearance they are synthetic things of clay or metal —in short, nature robotised. Already the Queen, Princess Mary, and the Duchess of York have evinced interest in these new' flowers and have bought s’Vie of them. Meanwhile the inventor —a London society woman —is making plans for popularising the flowers all over the country. By way of setting an example to others, her home in Chelsea is ablaze with synthetic peonies, tulips, irises, and lilies, and she proposes to improve the strip of garden in front of the house with large painted metal blooms. The inventor originally got the idea

for her invention when she was on the Rhine witli her soldier husbaud “I.saw some oue doing clay modelling, and I thought I would like to try it,” she said to a "Sunday Express” representative. “I used to paint wild flowers at my home in Scotland, and naturally my first clay models were of flowers.

“That gave me the idea of doing groups for table and house decoration. These artificial flowers can be made to match the scheme of a room, and they do uot need to be changed. “Then I thought of making flowers to brighten London’s gardens. The garden flowers are made of bronze and are painted iu natural colours. “They can be dusted or washed or even repainted. “People do not seem to get tired of them. Princess Mary recently sent hep blue flowers to me to be touched up.”