Although people have enjoyed the beauty of cut flowers in their homes for hundreds of years, the flora found on dining tables wasn’t always of the garden variety. In seventeenth and eighteenth century France, for example, real blooms were thought to be too rustic and uncultured to be placed indoors. (After all, they had never even been to one opera, much less went to college). Flowers made from beads and feathers often adorned tables, sideboards and consoles. It wasn’t until the Victorian era of the late nineteenth century that real flowers came into vogue. Like everything of the period, the … Continue reading →