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The Table Decorations
WHATEVER color scheme is used in the other parts of the house, an entirely different one may be carried out in the diningroom. Some suggestions for simple table decorations in various colors follow: 1. Large low bowl of blue and pink forgetme-nots in the center of the table, with candle shades of white, painted with forget-me-not sprays. 2. Garden basket or glass basket of yellow roses and honeysuckle with graceful sprays of honeysuckle vines trailing to the corners of the table, yellow candle shades. 3. Old-fashioned bouquet of garden flowers in old-fashioned vase - snapdragons, larkspur, coreopsis, babies' breath, mignonette old-fashioned stiff little artificial bouquets in white lace paper for favors. 4. Hanging basket of pink and lavender sweet peas and smilax over the table, with [143] smilax reaching to the corners of the table and caught with pink and lavender tulle bows. 5. Wood maidenhair ferns and pink garden roses, tiny ferns scattered over the tablecloth, and rose-colored candle shades. 6. Wild clematis vines from ceiling over table to four corners, and low bowl of wild roses in center beneath sprays. 7. Bachelors' buttons and mignonette in the center of the table connected with small baskets of mignonette at the corners of the table by ribbon matching the blue bachelors' buttons, tied on the handle of each basket. 8. Scarlet poppies in silver vase, silver candlesticks and shades. 9. Large bowl of "Jack" roses in the center on a table mirror, with a single large Jack rose in a slim flower holder at each corner of the table. 10. Wicker basket of June garden pinks (white and pink) with shower of tiny bells hung on pink ribbons above them from the chandelier or ceiling. [144]
Ten numbered schemes, and one formula underneath all of them. Read the list once for the flowers and a second time for the structure, which is the part that transfers.
- The formula is four partsA low container in the centre, something smaller repeated at the four corners, something trailing or hanging to connect them, and candle shades in the matching colour. Nine of the ten schemes are that shape, and the tenth hangs the whole arrangement from the ceiling.
- Low is a rule, not a styleLarge low bowl, low bowl of wild roses, tiny ferns scattered on the cloth. The page never says why, and the reason is that guests have to see and talk across the table. The two schemes that go high go all the way up, above head height, which is the other legitimate answer.
- A Jack rose is a crimson roseShort for Général Jacqueminot, the deep red rose then sold under that nickname. Scheme nine depends on the colour against silver and a mirror, so any strong crimson rose will carry it.
- These tables were meant to smellMignonette appears twice, honeysuckle and sweet peas once each, all grown for scent and all placed directly under the diners’ noses. Modern table flowers are chosen to be scentless for exactly the opposite reason, so copying these schemes faithfully will produce a strongly perfumed table.
- The mirror trick still worksA bowl set on a table mirror, with candles beside it, doubles the light and the flowers for the cost of a piece of glass. It is the cheapest idea on the page and the one most worth taking.
- This is a cutting garden’s listForget-me-nots, honeysuckle, snapdragons, larkspur, coreopsis, babies’ breath, mignonette, sweet peas, maidenhair fern, wild clematis, bachelors’ buttons, garden pinks. Almost none of it is a florist’s flower; nearly all of it is something you walk out and cut, and several are hard to buy at any price.
The chapter opens by granting the hostess a freedom that tells you how these rooms were used: whatever colour scheme is carried through the rest of the house, the dining room may have an entirely different one. The table was composed as its own picture, separately from the reception rooms the guests had just walked through, because they would meet it as a distinct event in the evening. The list that follows assumes a reader who gardens and who knows her flowers by their common names, who owns candle shades and silver candlesticks and a table mirror, and who can send out for maidenhair fern and wild clematis without asking what they are. It is also, read in order, a calendar: forget-me-nots, June pinks, garden roses, poppies, wild clematis. Each scheme belongs to a few weeks, and the hostess’s first decision was not a colour but a date.