Flowers Are Better Than Tonics

New Zealand Journal of Agriculture, Volume 63, Issue 2, 15 August 1941, Page 167

Flowers Are Better Than Tonics

ANYONE who has spent long hours in a hospital will agree with me that flowers are better than tonics. Nothing is a better cheer germ than a bunch of flowers, be they common daffodils, or exquisite, expensive orchids. No home really lives unless there are flowers in it, and without very much trouble you should be able to keep the flowers blooming in your garden throughout the year so that there is always something to put in your vases. . But there is a definite art in arranging flowers. Do have a good selection of vases from which to choose when it is time to arrange your blooms. Keep a tall crystal vase for slender blooms, mass your daffodils in deep bowls, float a rose, alone, in a witch bowl, use leaves to set off the beauty of the blossoms. Jugs can be ever so lovely too. I have a friend who is the lucky owner of a tall, black jug, and it is an everlasting delight to see. the flowers that grace this —tall sprays of pink japonica, great bunches of jonquils, slender balloons of Iceland poppies have seen and loved them all in it. For smaller flowers, make use of your cream jug, or perhaps you have a crystal dish? - Floating bowls are always popular, but have you used the posy bowls that are so adaptable? A circle of purple pansy faces smiling up : from a posy bowlwhat could be lovelier? Nowadays vases of the wall-pocket type are becoming very popularmore perhaps in Windy Wellington than elsewhere, for, you see, they have the very definite advantage of not upsetting at the first breath of wind! Properly placed in a dark corner, they will rapidly transform it into a space of shining beauty. >' Do be kind to your flowers when you have picked themremember that Iceland poppies like their stems burnt, roses appreciate a good hammering at their stems, and violets drink through their heads, not their stalks. , So be kind to them, in particular, and give them a nightly soaking in cold water,

to which you have added an aspirin, if you want them to last. Choose your background carefully when . placing your —consider the colour of your flowers against the wallpaper. Pewter 'jugs iare ideal for gay marigolds, or perhaps tawny wallflowers. Next time you are doing the flowers, have a hunt through your cupboards,

and bring out. all your vases, bowls, and jugs. Try a little re-arranging of ideas, and just see how it reacts on you! Flowers are better than —keep your home full of them, now spring is here. '