Decorations for the Home. 
39 
embellishment of public fetes and soirees in the winter season. All the bulbs 
intended for this work are planted in pots of rich soil, and have the usual 
greenhouse or stove culture that would be required for plants intended for 
exhibition. In other words, they are really cultivated, and their flowers have 
their true colours, and are borne on stems capable of supporting them. It 
is a very small task, indeed, to shake them out, wash off all the soil from 
their roots, and insert them in the ornamental vases; and then they are ready 
for decorative purposes, and will maintain their good looks and fragrance for 
a fortnight if required, if only treated with a little care. Snowdrops, and 
for the matter of that, crocus and scillas, may be lifted from the open ground, 
in bunches, with a little soil attached to their roots, and placed in small pots, 
bowls, or other bric-a-bac, just when they begin to show their flowers. Given 
a moderate amount of water, they will flower quite as long as those grown 
entirely in pots, and the blooms be much finer. By this method of 
procedure a grand display is secured • but we lose the recreation of 
growing the flowers by the fireside, which may be too great a price to pay 
for it. 
The last subject demanding notice in this section is that of Everlasting 
Flowers, and these are far more deserving of eulogy than many will suppose 
who know them only as they appear in the London shops. The very last 
idea of those who provide these flowers for sale is to allow nature to speak 
in or by them. They are dyed, and thereby we lose their natural colours. 
They are mixed with grasses and mosses, also dyed, and they are gathered 
up in ugly bunches, as if intended for brushing crumbs or cobwebs—not at all 
as if intended to serve as ornaments, and to take their place as flowers. 
The only way to employ these beautiful flowers with good taste is to 
preserve their natural colours, and mount them all on wires, for their stems do 
not maintain their original rigidity sufficiently; and, moreover, in the manipula¬ 
tions to which they must be subjected, they are likely, if not wired, to separate 
from their stems and become suddenly useless. A few words on the subject 
will close this chapter appropriately; we beg that it may have attention, for, 
though short, it contains much, and is thoroughly practical. 
First, as to cultivation. 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 
