THE FLORAL WORLD AND GARDEN GUIDE. 43 



HAND AND BUTTON-HOLE BOUQUETS. 



BY MISS A. HASSAED, ST. EONAN's, UPPEE NORWOOD. 



HAND BOUQUETS. 



|ROM time to time I have often written in tliese pages on 

 the subject of florcal decorations, but never on that 

 branch whicli I now intend to treat of, namely, 

 Hand and Button-hole Bouquets. Thsrefore, a few 

 hints as to their construction may prove interestiurr. 

 There is no portion of floral decorations which require3 more skill, 

 neatness, and lightness of touch, and exhibits more satisfactorily the 

 good taste of the arranger, than either of these styles of bouquets. In 

 the knowledge of their construction there are many advantages. 

 Suppose a lady be on a visit to friends in the country, and invited 

 to a ball, she will wish to be possessed of a handsome bouquet ; and 

 though there may be many plants from which choice flowers can be 

 cut, after all, if she does not know how to moimt and arrange them, 

 they are comparatively useless. True, some of my readers may ex- 

 claim, " Of course the gardener could make up a nice bouquet;" 

 but I am not so sure of tbat ; it does not hold good always that 

 because a man is a good plant grower, he needs must be a good 

 arranger of flowers in a cut state. If this were always the case, 

 there would be no work for the girls in the florists' shops, as it 

 would be cheaper for the florist to buy them ready made, than pay 

 others for making them. Enough of this, however. It suflices to 

 say, should occasion occur, it is pleasant to be able to make a 

 bouquet, and the knowledge of liow to do so is not a heavy burden 

 to carry, though it may not require to be constantly employed. 



An experienced bouquet-maker could make four large handsome 

 hand bouquets with the same amount of flowers that an ordinary 

 amateur would require to employ in the construction of one. The 

 bouquet maker would separate all the geranium pips, and such like, 

 and mount them singly, whereas the amateur would just arrange 

 them in the truss on their own stem as cut. Though it may appear 

 that they would soon fade when subjected to the former, that is to say, 

 the dividing process, nevertheless, they really last very much longer, 

 as each is mounted with wet moss, which tends to keep them fresh. 

 There are many short-stemmed flowers, such as azaleas, which must 

 be mounted on artificial stems, as they have not any of their own 

 long enough without cutting the plant back very hard. As a substi- 

 tute for their own stems, what are termed " stub wires " are em- 

 ployed ; and here I may mention the difierent kinds, namely, 

 "stubs," "piercing" — two sizes of the latter — and "binding," or 

 "reel wire." The former two are sold in bundles cut in lengths, 

 and the latter by the reel. I always purchase my bouquet wires 

 at Hooper's, in The Arcade, Covent Garden ]\farket. I shall not 

 here enter into the different modes of mounting each flower, as 

 space would not permit of my enumerating half the number ; but 



February. 



