Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1905-05-21
BLOSSOM AND VASE
HOW TO PUT WILD FLOWERS TO
DECORATIVE USE.
Beauty and Availability of the Thistle
Globe Seed Of the .Dandelion
and Glover.

summer In the country has the freedom of
the roadsides, pastures, meadow and
woods; the wild gardens which belong to
every man and to no man, where every
one is free to gather, and there is no one
to forbid OF course. it is by courtesy and
custom that this freedom extends to the
fields and woods, and it may be that the
unacknowledged obligation enhances the
privilege of leaving the long, narrow road
side flower beds, and looking for rarer and
more effective things along fences and
hedges, and in Swallowed and solitary
places
If one has acquired the habit Of wild
flower gathering, and the knowledge Of
what to gather and how to bring her
gleanlngs safely home; and the still fur
Their knowledge Of the best decorative eff
feet to be gotten from them. she has
reached a possibility of great satisfaction
and everyday happiness.
The first important thing is to know
which OF them have friendly and social
characteristics and are willing to exchange
outdoor for indoor air, and diet of good
solid earth for thin water; and will Meth
er pine nor demonstrate at the change OF
course, the wonder Is that any of these
smiles of nature will bear the exchange,
and continue to smile; but we find among
them those that will behave like fortunate
and well-placed adopted children, believing
in the ability, power and devotion of all
grown-ups," and quite willing to trust
themselves IN Inelr ndndS.
Yet in spite of general complaisance,
nearly every species has its inherent likes
and disl1kes to surroundings or happenings,
and will behave we'll i'll according to
them. For this reason, successful flower
decoration demands a perfect understand
ing of flower idiosyncracies, none the less
interesting because the majority are ami
able and insensitive. We all know that
some of the friendliest and most domestic
of plants-those which will allow US to
trample them under our very feet, as long
as they grow in earth and breathe in open
air-will be satisfied with nothing less;
while others of the shyest natures, choos-
ing to live in retired and lonely places,
will bear themselves with courage and
beauty when brought into the companion
ship of the house.
Some, indeed, seem absolutely to expand
and rejoice in the artificial atmosphere OF
human habitat lions, while others would lit
orally rather die than live under the same
conditions.
Vegetable Gold.
The dandelon. which might If it would,
be the crown and glory of wild flower deco
ration, refuses to exist except in soil, and
will succumb almost before it has touched
water. The long, hollow stem, which looks
and is a veritable vegetable hose, will not
condescend to carry liquid food to the
queen blossom. One could reconcile oneself
to the immediate closing up of the disk or
the vegetable gold if a bud would open in
its place, but this it seems disinclined to
authorize. l have discovered, however,
more than compensation for this reluct-
ance of the flower to accept human COM
partnership in the fact that the perfect
seed globe may be plucked with impunity.
Nothing in plant nature Is more beautiful
more ethereal, more delicately suggestive
of spiritual existence in the blossom world,
than a fully developed seed globe of the
dandelion flower. One thinks of 1t as
plant aspiration. floating flower thought,
something that stands beyond the vanish
ing point of matter. If these tender mani
festations are carefully transported to the
house and placed in water they will con-
tinue for days, waiting for the delayed air
current which should watt them to some
sheltered bit of earth where they may lie
until time and golden weather combine to
start them upon a new stage of existence
Ten or twenty of these winged things gath
cred into tall Venetian glass, surrounded
by newly-grown maidenhair ferns. will give
one new ideal of refinement in flower ar
rangement OF course, the ferns are sure
to shrivel and curl before many hours are
over and will require several renewals, but
the dandelion ghosts will stand bravery on
until their heightened days are numbered.
Another almost domestic flower which
shares a reluctance to human intimacy is
the great white elder. An elder bush IN
full flower is not only one OF the most beau
tifuI, but one most eminently suggestive OF
decorative use and yet this great fiat eX-
panse of bloom will not bear breakage from
the parent stem, and has apparently root
ed objection to house air. 1t quletly COZ
lapses just when we have accomplished our
most perfect effects; its circle of thousands
Of little individual blossoms whitening al
most as soon as the stems are placed III
water. There Is a way OF clrcumVentlns
even this positive negative of the elder TOT
decorative use. If we will cut Grown,
woody branches. where the green stems Oh
the flower punches are short ana closeiy
connected with last years growth OF WOOD,
ttr,rIA n
even remain fresh until every tiny flower
circle falls, and only the beautiful ana
minute branching Of the hundreds or plos-
som stems remains. These orten take on
purple tint with the green. as foretaste OF
the color of the berries they should bear,
and are in themselves beautiful decora-
ton.
Brilliant Fireweed.
Those who are unacquainted with Its dis
appointing habits are always tempted by
the enhancing color of the orange-red
hawkweed, and will continue to gather 1t
until taught by experience that 1t utterly
refuses to live in water. This Is also true or
the white and lemon-colored roadside va
reties and approximately so OF the tan
and eminently effective fireweed or purple
rocket
This should by all appearance and reason
Ing be amenable and lasting mower, the
stem having robust, Independent look
flower stems is even more beautiful than
that of the flower. and its want of human
liking Is a yearly disappointment to the
wild flower lover.
In the case of the fireweed and other re-
Iuctant wild blooms, l have found that sud
den and immediate change will seem to
pass unnoticed shock being apparently less
fatal to them than suspense. If one carries
a water jar on his flower gathering, and
plunges the stems in water as soon as sepa-
rated from the plant, they will often go on
blossomng in the house without knowing
that they have been transplanted.
1t Is fattering to some human quality in
us. some pride of species, to accomplish
the adoption of reluctant flowers success
fully but it does not change the nature or
disposition of the flowers. This sudden
treatment holds good in case of the jewel
weed. which hangs it's yellow and orange
amphora- shaped blossoms along the edges
of water courses, but can only be cheated
into standing in the water.
All this is very interesting to one who
knows what to expect, but disappointing
to one absorbed in pursuit Of color and eff
feet
II we prefer easy classification to indi-
yIdual study it Is safe to say that. with