Gladioli will last for over a week indoors, and chrysanthemums and orchids may last for nearly a month. Roses will last for two to seven days, depending on the stage at which they are cut and on the season other flowers have only one season, but roses are available throughout the year. Yet, despite their relatively short-lasting properties, the whole world still regards the rose as possessing everything that goes to make the perfect flower. It is the flower demanded for all special occasions; it always has been so. Some of the exotic types of flowers almost suggest opulent lack of taste, but the rose is always appropriate. The bowl of flowers in the centre of the main table at the State dinner or the civic reception, or the vase in the lounge-room, will always call for comment if it is of roses. Useful for all purposes, admired by all, the rose is the bloom of choice for all floral art work.

Beauty is a composite quality. In any individual flower there are many contributing factors, the chief being colour and form. The flower may be of any colour, but this must be pleasing, either as a self-colour or as a colour combination. Form may be conventionally concentric as in dahlias, zinnias, and calendulas, looser as in carnations, azaleas, some camellias, and some chrysanthemums, or of an asymmetrical structure peculiar to that one type of flower, as in violets, pansies, sweet peas, antirrhinums, and irises. Each is beautiful in its own way.

All roses are concentric and either of the conventional spiral, or of loose form. Many are spiral in their early stages and loose as half-open flowers. Any flower that is normally concentric is enhanced by spiral arrangement of its petals, provided it is not made up of a multitude of petals amounting to solidity and coarseness.

A jug of roses. Plate 60 HELVETIA with privet foliage. Plate 61

Design

In the same way as Nature varies her arrangement of petals in flowers, so can we vary our use of flowers, not only for many purposes, but in diverse ways for each purpose. It is the effect gained that matters, and not the material used or the method adopted in arriving at that effect.

The more beautiful the integral parts of a floral arrangement, the easier it is to achieve a pleasing effect, but good arrangement of poorer material can often surpass less artistic handling of perfect specimen blooms. This is the real test of a floral artist

Design is the basis of all beauty in floral art, and so each arrangement can be called "formal", if you will. Whether the artist realizes it or not, he or she has some preconceived plan for each floral effect attempted. In bowls or table decorations one frequently sees the "pudding-basin" or "grave-mound" effect. Though stilted and unimaginative, they can be very beautiful, especially if done with mechanical precision but without too much solidity. Lighter and less symmetrical arrangements give more scope for individuality, but need more skill in both conception and execution. Balance is essential, but balance and symmetry are not synonymous terms.

Almost all flowers are grown for their beauty either in our gardens or for our homes; roses can fulfil all our requirements in either sphere. Any beautiful rose is desirable, and the main factors contributing to its beauty are colour, freshness, freedom from damage, size, perfume, erect carriage, and pleasing form. Staleness and extensive damage rule any bloom out of consideration. Form without freshness and its accompanying sheen can be almost repulsive. Freshness and colour, including white, can make attractive a bloom of poor form. Chateau de Clos Vougeot, Christopher Stone, Brazier, Contrast, McGredy's Sunset (Plate 59), Mme Edouard Herriot, and many others are outstandingly beautiful but are not specimen-bloom types. A bowl of any one of them is much more attractive than one of blooms of a heavier type such as Mrs Charles Lamplough, Malar Ros (Plate 39), or even the more commonly used Dame Edith Helen (Plate 13).

Beautiful as our loose varieties are, it is inconceivable that any hybridist would not be proud to raise a Mme Henri Guil-lot, fitoile de Hollande, McGredy's Sunset, Guinde, or Con-desa de Sastago with more spiral form.

Roses are beautiful in every phase of their bloom from the time the sepals separate and show us a mere line of colour until the petals fall. Spiral types are at their greatest beauty when half or three-quarters open, but they are handsome even as full-blown blooms. If it were not that we know of the more beautiful stage of their development, we would, undoubtedly, grow them for their beauty in this stage and not refer to them as full-blown, implying that they are not worthy of any further admiration.

Full-blown roses have most perfume, and it is always worth while leaving them in a room until the last possible moment-long after fresh blooms have been arranged and set in place.

Containers

Flower containers should be subservient to the blooms and of simple shapes, with firm bases and good capacity for water. Occasionally a bowl or vase of distinctive colouring may be desirable, but only for roses of one variety of a dominant colouring. Opaque vessels are to be preferred because they conceal the stems. The old-fashioned silver rose-bowl has almost disappeared. Any accessories used should be subordinate to the flowers and their arrangement.

One person will name this colour as his favourite and another will name that. The colour described as "rose" is pink, but the roses most universally sought are red. The rich red of modern roses is unsurpassed by the colour of any other flower, and those who claim to dislike red roses may be suspected of defiance of popular choice. The most striking effect is gained by massing fresh red roses with very little foliage showing. Freshness is important because brilliancy and depth of colour decrease within a very few hours. The newer roses in shades of mauve, lavender and lilac were not greeted with enthusiasm at first but they are gaining favour rapidly, especially with women. This is reviving an interest in Veilchenblau and Baby Faurax, two quite old roses of similar colourings but much smaller flowers.

Cutting Blooms

For decorative uses, full-petalled roses may be left on the plant until half open, but the thinner types are best cut when only the outer petals have unfolded. Some roses lose their colour and freshness more quickly than others after cutting. Many of the reds and deeper pinks "blue" fairly quickly. The apricot and other fancy colours often look drab after a very few hours, and should be cut as late as possible before they are to be displayed for any special occasion. White or yellow roses improve after cutting, the white becoming whiter and the yellow deepening in colour in much the same way as blooms covered for show purposes.

Flower-cutting scissors are now available. They are a very welcome addition to one's kit in that they not only cut but also hold the flower. This obviates stretching with both arms, one hand to do the cutting and the other to hold the stem, or having to allow the flower to fall to the ground and thereby become torn or soiled. It is possible, too, to stretch much farther with one arm than with both to reach that particular bloom which you especially want from high up on a climbing rose or far across a large bush or standard. The risk of damage by thorns to hands and clothing is also greatly reduced. These special scissors are attractively chromium plated and have replaceable stainless steel blades.

All thorns should be stripped from the stems while the roses are being gathered. Blooms should never be carried in the hand for longer than necessary, but should be immersed as soon as possible in cool water right up to their calyces. Never walk round your garden with a friend, cut him a bunch of roses, and then allow him to leave without having plunged the stems in water for even a quarter of an hour.

Wilting is due to water's evaporating faster than it is being taken up by the stalk. When a rose is cut from the plant, air immediately enters the small spaces at the end of the stem. This air remains there when the cut end is placed in water, and obstructs the suction of water into the stem. Recutting of the stems under water before the blooms are arranged will allow water, instead of air, to enter the new cut and will greatly increase the lasting properties of flowers. Only about a quarter of an inch need be clipped from each stem.

It has always been considered that the ideal times for cutting roses are late evening and early morning, preferably the latter. Heat and strong sunlight on blooms when gathered have been thought to shorten greatly their lasting times. Recent research at Cornell University, New York, has indicated, however, that roses cut at 4 or 4.30 p.m. last longest, but it is imperative that they be steeped in water promptly.

All roses last longer indoors than on the plants. As yet, the decorative value and lasting qualities of Floribundas have not been fully realized.

Foliage

With few exceptions, roses are at their best with their own leaves, but use of added foliage can be made an interesting study. Old Hugo Roller or General Gallieni, two valuable late autumn roses, are very effective when stripped of all their leaves and arranged with added foliage tinted by autumn, such as Virginia creeper, Rhus succedanea, the cherry, or the liquidamber. The oft-despised red rose that "blues" readily can be similarly arranged. The yellow and orange shades of the added leaves accentuate the blueness, giving a new effect. Some people may at first find it hard to reconcile themselves to admiring blued roses, but their objections will seldom be long-lived.

Wiring

Wires are frequently used in arrangement of roses, but must never be allowed to become conspicuous.

All flowers, including roses, are much easier to arrange if one uses in the container some device that will steady the blooms and hold them in the positions desired. Sometimes sawdust or sphagnum moss is used, but better results are obtained with needle-point holders or wire-netting crumpled into a ball that is fairly compact and fits the container tightly. The holders are on sale at most florists' shops. Wiring of even a few of the blooms makes arrangement easier. In baskets there should always be a layer of leaves or sphagnum moss covering the wire or holder and the top of the basket.

Cut-Flower Trade In Roses

In Australia the cut-flower trade for roses is very neglected. In America, England, France, and other oversea countries many millions of rose blooms are sold each year. One of America's leading retail florists (Max Schling, of New York) reports that "roses represent over seventy-five per cent of our total sales. In selling, they represent a hundred per cent in our thoughts. About ninety per cent of our purchasers turn instinctively to roses or to combinations with roses". Years ago, he states, roses were less beautiful and in less demand, but the hybridist has caught up with the more highly developed taste and the more refined artistic demand.

The cut-flower market demands free-blooming habit, adequate size of flower, clear colour, good keeping qualities, and length and stiffness of stem. Perfume is of little importance in this sphere.

Any rose will last much better if handled carefully by the grower, the retailer, and the purchaser. Flowers will always wilt quickly in draughts and in heat. Vast numbers of roses are grown in hot-houses overseas, for show and for sale.

Sydney has Australia's largest trade in roses as cut flowers, and many acres of plants are to be seen in the areas north and north-west of the city. Only a small number of varieties are grown, and among them Talisman, Golden Ophelia, fitoile de Hollande, White Ensign, Radiance, and Red Radiance are the most prominent. Crimson Glory is not a satisfactory rose for this purpose, for it recommences growth too slowly. Discriminating amateurs now seldom grow any of the Radiance family, but they are a great asset to the commercial cut-flower growers, with their great resistance to disease and constant growth. They may not be good roses by modern standards of blooms, but people must have roses of some sort, and, while the demand exceeds the supply of the more beautiful varieties, Radiance will still be grown and sold in large numbers.

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