The motif of canna lilies first appears after Laura hears a ring at the bell:
There, just inside the door, stood a wide, shallow tray full of pots of pink lilies. No other kind. Nothing but lilies—canna lilies, big pink flowers, wide open, radiant, almost frighteningly alive on bright crimson stems […] She crouched down as if to warm herself at that blaze of lilies; she felt they were in her fingers, on her lips, growing in her breast.
The sensual nature of the lilies, described as warm and close to Laura’s body, represents beauty as well as Laura’s adolescence and budding sexuality, as she is in between childhood and adulthood.
Later, when Laura leaves to pay a visit to the Cottages, Laura’s mother tells her to take lilies with her in order to impress “people of that class,” meaning the Scotts. The lilies take on a new meaning in this instance, representing how beauty is linked to wealth and social status, both of which are deeply important to the Sheridans—even more important than human emotion and empathy.
Mansfield uses the motif of the color green to emphasize the sense of liveliness and vibrancy in the Sheridan home, as it extends to how characters inside the house are described:
[Meg] had washed her hair before breakfast, and she sat drinking her coffee in a green turban, with a dark wet curl stamped on each cheek.
The color green connotes not only nature and the Sheridan garden—where the story opens—but also idyllic beauty. Mansfield references the color again when Laura is inside the Sheridan home:
The house was alive with soft, quick steps and running voices. The green baize door that led to the kitchen regions swung open and shut with a muffled thud.
The color green appears once more as the garden party is about to begin:
The green-coated band had arrived and was established in a corner of the tennis-court.
Again, in both of these passages, the color green is associated with life, vitality, and the Sheridan Estate’s lavish beauty. In “The Garden Party,” the protagonist, Laura, and the rest of the Sheridan family are primarily concerned with making things beautiful and pleasant. The story ultimately suggests that beauty offers pleasure and delight but can also be a distraction, a way for the Sheridans and those of their milieu to shield themselves from the realities of life. The color green thus represents beauty and status, but at the expense of genuine emotion and empathy.
