One of England's leading writers and demonstrators on the art of flower arranging made a return visit to Bermuda last week.

Mrs. Daphne Vagg, who was last here in 1986, travels all over the world, teaching people how to bring that extra dash of imagination to this centuries-old art. She flew in from Boston where she had run a two-day course at the Arnold Arboretum at Harvard.

Invited back by the Garden Club of Bermuda for a three-day workshop, Mrs.

Vagg, who specialises in "period'' arranging, concentrated on the Victorians this time around. "I think people were backing off, at first, because the Victorians mixed very bright colours together, like reds and yellows, ferns and lots of fussy flowers! But the arrangements are actually very attractive and different and they're a challenge because the centrepieces can be very elaborate.'' She points out that the Victorian style is relatively inexpensive, as there is no need for lots of big flowers and the tall centrepieces can be home-made, using plates, glasses, or even jam-jars to achieve the height and then cover it with leaves and ferns. "The Victorians had tall arrangements of flowers at their dinner parties because they didn't speak to the person opposite them -only to the person at the right or left. And they very rarely bothered with putting the flowers in water as they only wanted the arrangement to last for the party. They would sometimes use damp moss, and of course the rooms were usually quite cold and the flowers didn't suffer from central heating or air-conditioning.'' Asked how she became drawn to the Victorian era, Mrs. Vagg said: "Well, I also do other periods. The Tudor period, for instance, is lovely, using rosemary, pinks and old-fashioned country flowers. We found a picture by Holbein, dating back to the 16th century, of a merchant in his office and on his desk there was a slender glass vase holding what looked like a sprig of rosemary, dianthus and sweet woodruff. But I live in a Victorian house, and I think that's what set me off. I don't think my house would like abstract, modern arrangements.'' Mrs. Vagg has written six books, including Flowers for the Table, Flowers in Every Home and A-Z for Flower Arrangers. For eight years, she was also the editor of the magazine published by the National Association of Flower Arrangement Societies. There are 1,400 clubs in the UK and the Garden Club of Bermuda is an overseas affiliate. "We are also affiliated with the National Council of State Garden Clubs in the US, so we tend to go to and fro, visiting each other. I am very lucky, as I get invited to give talks and demonstrations all over the place. Our society even visits Northern Ireland and Southern Ireland. They all work so well and so happily together -- maybe things would be better if it were left to the flower-arrangers of the world to sort things out!'' VICTORIAN ELEGANCE -- Mrs. Daphne Vagg, using ivy, phlox and trailing ferns, shows the Garden Club of Bermuda how to capture the look of Victorian flower arrangement.