Mimosa is drawn at a scale that assumes a wall rather than a panel. Foliage and flower heads are set out large and loose, with real distance between the elements, and the design depends on that spacing. Crowd it and the exuberance would become noise; at this size the pattern breathes, and the ground between the leaves does as much work as the drawing itself.
The flowers are handled as clusters rather than as individual blooms, which is faithful to the plant, since mimosa flowers in soft globular heads and it is the mass that registers rather than the parts. Around them the foliage is finely divided and drawn with a lighter touch, so the wall carries two weights of mark, the substantial and the delicate, one setting off the other.
It is a design for rooms that can give it room. Height helps, and so does natural light, since the fineness of the foliage is lost in a dim corner and the whole thing flattens. A drawing room, a well-lit bedroom or a garden room with good glazing will show it properly, and it sits best against plain painted joinery and simple, unpatterned upholstery. In a darker room it is better confined to the wall that receives most of the light.
