Japanese flower arrangement/Chapter 16
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
FLOWERS BLOOMING IN AND OUT
OF SEASON
IN Japan flowers which bloom in their proper season are the most highly esteemed and are considered the most suitable for gifts. When flowers blooming in season are arranged with flowers which have been forced into bloom in advance of or kept after their usual time of blossom, the seasonable flowers will always take the highest positions. Heaven and Man will be made of the seasonable flowers, and only Earth may be of those blooming out of their time.
Flowers blooming out of season would never be chosen for a present by a Japanese nor used as decorations for an entertainment. In fact a Japanese never attaches any value to flowers or fruit forced out of their proper season; strawberries in January have no charms for him. In presenting flowers to a friend they always send them in buds, so that the friend may experience the pleasure of seeing the flowers open in his own home; and a branch of a non-flowering tree would be given while its leaves were forming, so that the pleasure of watching the leaves unfold would not be lost.
Arrangement of Plum Blossoms. The upper section of
the vase is filled with water only, and is supposed to
represent the reflection of the moon
Three-sectioned Vase with Wistaria and Iris