86 

 EVEELASTING ELOWEES FOE WINTEE BOUQUETS. 



BY KAEL PEOSPEE. 



AM to treat on this subject in a small space of time. I 

 shall tell you that what you have in your shops at 

 Christmas are spoilt flowers badly mounted, so those 

 friends who would do them as we do in Germany, where 

 these winter wreaths were first formed, had best grow 

 the flowers and prepare them for their own use. I promise them, 

 thereby, a recreation. It is a time of year in which few perhaps will 

 care to read this paper, for, as Goethe says in Eaust — 



" Old "Winter past, and worn, and weak, 

 Is flying to his mountains bleak, 

 But still as on his way he wends, 



O'er the green meadows in his flight, 

 His useless showers of hail he sends, 



For now the sun endures no white ; 

 O'er all the earth he spreads his hues, 

 And life and growth themselves diffuse." 



"Well, those who now obtain the seeds, and prepare the soil, may 

 be on the right way to have joyous flowers for the next Christmas- 

 tide ; and those who, like the cricket in the song, chirrup away the 

 merry hours and make no provision, will find themselves unprovided 

 when the winter comes. The faults of the flowers sold at the shops 

 are that they consist of the commonest sorts, that they are dyed, 

 and, therefore, all false in colour, and that they are grouped with 

 absolutely no taste at all. We can have better natural colours than 

 the dyer can produce by his highest art, if we grow the right sorts 

 of plants, especially amongst the helichrysums, the acrocliniums, and 

 the rhodanthes. I shall name the best of them. 



Eirst as to the cultivation. On this point I shall not say much. 

 All the annual sorts, both of everlasting flowers and grasses, are 

 best grown by sowing the seeds in light rich soil in March or April, 

 and treating the plants in just the same way as asters ; that is, in 

 brief, getting them strong by the middle of May, and then planting 

 them out. But if this is not convenient, they may all be sown on a 

 rich light sunny border, in the early part of April. Every patch 

 should be tallied, and a bit of seed of every sort kept in reserve. 

 About the middle of May sow again any that have not, by that time, 

 come up. By this plan you will be likely to secure all the sorts on 

 which you speculate. As for the greenhouse plants they require 

 good cultivation. As the best of these is the Aphelexis, a practical 

 word on that may be useful. It is a difficult plant to grow, too 

 much or too little water being pretty certain death to it. The soil 

 should be good turfy peat, and plenty of silver sand. The pots 

 should be prepared with great care to insure perfect drainage. The 

 plants must be potted firm, and with the collar slightly above the 

 surface. Plenty of light and air are essential. The beautiful Phoeno- 



