Sutfoii-?tole 'Souqnets and Coat I^loJt'ers. 271 



Button-hole Bonqnets and Coat Flowers. 



BUT few seem to understand that there is any difference between a button-hole 

 bouquet and a coat flower ; yet thore is, and a very great difference too, the 

 flower being, as the word signifies, a single bloom, whereas a bouquet means a num- 

 ber of flowers arranged according to taste. Many papers have appeared in different 

 horticultural periodicals on the arrangement of cut flowers, and yet, with few excep- 

 tions, they have excluded button-hole bouquets, probably because, being small, people 

 imagine that they must necessarily be easy to make. Just let them try, and I do 

 not hesitate to say that they will find themselves much mistaken, as no combination 

 of flowers requires to be put together with more taste, or to be more lightly done, 

 than a properly made button-hole bouquet. Flowers selected for this purpose should 

 always be good, particularly those for mounting singly, which should, in fact, be 

 specimens of whatever kind is chosen. Ferns I always like to see in such bouquets, 

 and also along with coat flowers, provided these are stove or greenhouse kinds ; but 

 hardy flowers I like best mounted with their own foliage alone. Nearly all flowers 

 for bouquets of any sort should be wired ; indeed, many could not be used for that 

 purpose at all, were they not mounted on wire, as, for example, the pips of white 

 Hyacinths, which, in winter, are among the most useful flowers which we have. 

 There are, however, other ways of mounting flowers besides wiring them. Let us 

 take, for example, a Gardenia. The center petals of this flower — indeed all except 

 the outside row — are very even and lovely ; but their beauty is sometimes marred by 

 the outer ones, which look twisted. Now to remedy this evil, and to make them look 

 all even, proceed as follows : Take a common Laurel leaf, and cut a piece out of it 

 about an inch square ; with a pair of scissors trim round the corners, so as to almost 

 make it circular ; then cut a cross in the middle, and down through that push the 

 stem of the Gardenia until the flower and Laurel leaf are pressed tightly together; 

 then hold it upside down, and through the stem, close to the leaf, pass a "stub" wire 

 (which will keep the leaf in its place) ; bend the ends down and fasten them together 

 with a little binding wire so as to form a stem. The petals of the flower can be then 

 arranged out in their proper places, and the piece of Laurel leaf being so tight to the 

 flower that they will remain wherever they are placed. There is also another point 

 to which I would wish to direct attention, and that is, the foundation of the button- 

 hole bouquets, which is generally a piece of Maiden-hair Fern ; but that is not stifi" 

 enough in itself to form a good support for the other flowers. To remedy this, the 

 best plan is to back the Fern with a small Camellia leaf, wired, which will keep the 

 whole bouquet firm and in shape. The following arrangement is that most often 

 seen : at the back is a spray of Fern ; next some long light flower, so as to form a 

 kind of point or finish at the top ; then a Camellia bud, or Rose, or some such flower, 

 and then Maiden-hair Fern and whatever other small flowers are at hand. I made 

 one a short time ago of a half-open white Camellia bud, spray of Hoteia (Spirjea) 

 japonica, and a few pips of white Hyacinth, mixed with a little Maiden-hair, and 

 many remarked that it was very light and elegant looking. That which took the 

 first prize at the Royal Horticultural Society's Show at Birmingham, last summer, 

 was composed of a yellow Rose-bud, mounted with blue Forget-me-Not, a pip of 

 Kalosanthes coccinea, and one of Bouvardia. I have seen one made of the Lily of 



