MAKING FLOWERS LAST.

Dominion, Volume 6, Issue 1641, 7 January 1913, Page 2

MAKING FLOWERS LAST.

' .When yon bring your chrysanthemums !• home yon must not put them straight into '•• water. , If you do this they will not be F . able to drink enough to keep them alive. Their stalks are very hard, and it is diffi,-, '<• cult for water to eoak through them, So ?■ you inust soften them in one of the folc lowing ways:— * Hold tho end of the stalks in tho fire r for a moment, so that they are blackened » and softened, though not burned through; * Let aboutan inch of each stalk touch ? the hot ooals, but do not hold the blooms J themselves near a tlnme, as this would T causo them to shrivel. J Or hammer the ends of your stalks, so • that they aro broken and softened. This ' docs o.uit©ias well as burning. ■; Strip off, tho lower leaves, for if yon * let these remainthey will mako tho water •• smell nasty. .■■'.. When arranging flowers it is sometimes difficult to make them face in the way that you wish. Perhaps two largo heads aro growing together, and nothing will v induco them to keep apart and mako tho a best of themsolves. Perhaps tho wholo - bunch inclines in' ono direction, so that all your flowers insist on looking towards tho window, and will havo'nothing at e all to do with the other sido of tho room, '■ 4 This Is particularly tiresome when you faro arranging a:vaso whiohi is to go at tho middle of tho table, eo that it can i •■" be viewed from [all ados. Don't try to! 9 bend your flowere roughly, for by doing r this you would only snap their heads oft, Just hold tho tiresome.ones near the fire , till they are quite warm, and then twist J, them very gently with vour fingers, hand- ' ling them almost as if you wero giving i " them massage treatment. > I ' They will turn right round without even offering to break. If you hold them for a * moment till they grow cool again they 0 will retain the position to which you have bent them, and then you can arrange them" just as you wish.