September, 19 21 
35 
THE GARDEN AND THE STILL ROOM 
It Is Quite Simple for the Woman with a Garden to Distill Flower 
Waters and Make Fragrant Pot-Pourri 
SINCLAIRE RONDE 
I F the fair lady, who will¬ 
ingly spends large sums on 
scents and lotions done up 
with all the cunning of the per¬ 
fumer’s art, so wishes, she can 
have delicious rose water every 
day from roses of her own gath¬ 
ering. Any sweet-scented roses 
make rose water, but none are 
quite so good as the damask, the 
Provence, or the old cabbage 
rose. It is best to pluck blos¬ 
soms which are not quite fully 
blown, and the white heels 
should be cut off. 
To a pound of petals a pint 
and a half of water should be 
allowed, and it must be sim¬ 
mered gently till all the fra¬ 
grance has been extracted. This 
will take from three-quarters of 
an hour to an hour, but the 
water must never actually boil. 
Then the petals are to be 
strained off and the rose water bottled. 
Imagine each guest in a country house find¬ 
ing in her room in the evening a tiny jug of 
fresh rose water! Certainly no offering could 
give a rarer pleasure. Violet or carnation or 
wall flower water may all be made in the same 
way, but the pan must always be closely cov¬ 
ered while the simmering is in progress, or 
much of the fragrance will be lost. 
Lavender Water 
Water in which lavender spikes have been 
simmered is, perhaps, the most delicious of all 
waters, but to make it by putting in whole 
spikes of lavender is an extravagant method. 
The lavender should first be 
stripped from the stalks, and two 
good handfuls of the flowers al¬ 
lowed to every pint of water. It 
is surprising how much scented 
water can be made even from a 
garden of modest dimensions if 
one never allows any fragrant 
petal to be wasted. To make the 
water very strongly scented, a 
fresh quantity of flowers or 
petals should be simmered in the 
first making of the water, and 
this process may be repeated a 
third time. If bottled immedi¬ 
ately these sweet-scented waters 
will keep good for several weeks, 
but if it is desired to keep them 
indefinitely the stronger essence 
should always be made, and 
poured into small bottles with 
Many herbs give pleasant scents that can be preserved. The herb garden 
plays an important part in any garden of size. Here it is laid out on lines 
from the Italian parterre 
teaspoonful of grain alcohol added, and the 
bottles corked immediately. 
Those who have never tried a bath in which 
sweet-scented leaves have been steeped will Ire 
surprised to find how refreshing it is. A pint 
of water in which a pound of balm leaves have 
been boiled very slowly (and then removed 
from it) will, if added to an ordinary bath, 
make that bath delightful. And so will water 
in which sweet-scented verbena leaves have 
been so treated. Thyme and sweet marjoram 
will give a bath a clean, aromatic scent. 
Then w'hy not give yourself the pleasure of 
offering your guests flowers of your own candy¬ 
ing? Candying flowers is very simple, but it 
calls for time and patience. A strong syrup 
larrow necks (medicine jxittles 
vashed and dried with smipu- 
ous care are ideal), a generous 
From lavender is made fragrant lavender water, lavender sachet and if is 
an ingredient of good pot-pourri. In sections where the climate is mild 
it can be grown without difficulty and is a beautiful perennial 
must first be made, a pound of 
sugar being allowed to each pint 
of water. When the syrup is 
ready, the flowers should be put 
in and simmered till tender. 
This will only take a few min¬ 
utes, and then the flowers must 
be lifted out and placed, care¬ 
fully separated, on fine wire 
sieves. They should be dusted 
with powdered sugar, and when 
perfectly dry put away in air¬ 
tight boxes. Carnation petals 
so treated make a charming des¬ 
sert, but, as with roses, the white 
heels must be cut off. A less ex¬ 
pensive and effective method is 
to dip any flowers or petals in a 
weak solution of gum arabic, 
spread them out to dry on a wire 
sieve, and when perfectly dry to 
dip them again and sprinkle 
them with powdered sugar. After 
this they will take several days 
to dry in a very warm room. When they are 
perfectly dry they should be put away in air¬ 
tight tins until used. 
Pot-Pourri 
All sweet-scented petals should be kept to 
give the pleasure of their fragrance and the 
memory of their beauty through the dreary 
winter months. No pot-pourri is ever so good 
as that which is added to day by day through¬ 
out the summer, for it is a blend of every per¬ 
fume in the garden. Recipes for pot-pourri 
vary infinitely, but the elementary principles 
are so simple that amateurs are apt to forget 
that only by carrying them out with scrupulous 
care can success be achieved. 
Flower petals should never be 
gathered for pot-pourri if the 
previous day has been rainy or 
even showery. The flowers may 
appear to be dry, but they will 
in reality be loaded with suffi¬ 
cient moisture to ruin a whole 
jar of pot-pourri. The petals 
should be picked when the dew 
is well off, but before the sun is 
at its hottest, and there is no 
doubt that the best method of 
drying is to spread them—each 
one separately—on fine wire 
trays in the warmest room in the 
house. The air can circulate 
freely all round such trays, and 
this is the real secret of good 
drying. A hot shady attic with 
a current of air blowing through 
is a perfect drying-place, and to 
keep off the dust and prevent the 
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