CHAPTER XIII 



CUT FLOWERS 



When cut flowers are to be sent a journey, it is a 

 mistake to collect them in the early morning, and pack 

 and send them off at once. This way is often recom- 

 mended, but no one would follow it and do it on a 

 large scale if the better way were known. The only 

 flowers for which such treatment is suitable are Roses 

 and Violets, and even those should be put in water for 

 an hour or two before their journey. The better plan is 

 to collect the flowers the afternoon or even the morning 

 before they are to go ; to take them to a handy bench 

 in a cool shed, look them carefully over, bunch them 

 in sorts, and then stand them deep in pails of water, 

 I use the common galvanised pails, and the small 

 baths of the same kind for flowers with shorter stalks. 

 As the smaller bunches would tumble about in the baths 

 if they were not full, I stand in them three garden pots, 

 which make a convenient support. In a dozen pails 

 and a dozen baths a large quantity of bunched flowers 

 can be closely placed, to drink their fill till packing 

 time arrives. Next morning, when they are packed, 

 they are fresh and stiff and in the best possible state for 

 travelling. I make an exception in the case of Roses 



