Page:Japanese flower arrangement.djvu/213



HE Japanese tell us that no matter how skilful one may be in flower arrangement, if one is ignorant of the secret of keeping the flowers fresh, his skill is of no avail.

The masters of flower arrangement have many secret formulas for preservatives revealed only to their pupils on graduation and some never revealed except on their deathbeds to their successors. The drugs for most of these would be impossible to obtain outside of Japan, and none of them are really as important as the main Japanese rule that the flowers "must be so prepared before arranging as to enable them to suck up enough water to keep them in a fresh condition for a long time." All their vases are [207]