Floral Arrangement: A Handful Cut from the Garden

A vase of flowers casually arranged. The vessel is an ordinary ceramic pot, an old glass bottle, or a small silver pitcher, not a specialized flower vase. The flowers are seasonal plants cut from the garden—a few blooming peonies or dahlias, some delicate baby's breath or lace flowers, two or three leafy branches, varying in length, some already past their prime with slightly drooping petals. The arrangement is completely unmethodical: simply placed in to spread out naturally, with a loose, outward-reaching posture, not trimmed into a spherical shape. A few fallen leaves can be seen on the water surface in the vase. One or two fallen petals and trimmed leaves are scattered on the table. Avoid: arranging the flowers into a tight spherical shape, using neatly trimmed commercial bouquets, using only a single type of flower, drawing the tabletop clean and free of fallen leaves.

Translated from Chinese by AI.

一瓶隨意插進去的花。花器是一只普通的陶罐、舊玻璃瓶或銀質的小壺,不是專門的花器。花是從花園剪來的當季植物——幾枝盛開的芍藥或大理花、一些細碎的滿天星或蕾絲花、兩三枝帶葉的樹枝,長度不一,有的已經開過頭而花瓣微垂。插法完全沒有章法:直接放進去讓它自己散開,姿態鬆散、向四面伸展,不修剪成球形。花瓶的水面可以看見幾片落葉。桌上散落著一兩片掉下來的花瓣與剪下的枝葉。避免:把花插成緊密的球形、使用整齊修剪的商業花束、只用單一種類的花、把桌面畫得乾淨無落葉。