SWEET LAVENDER

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume XVII, 3 December 1927, Page 11

SWEET LAVENDER

FOR THE LINEN CUPBOARD. No one wlio has lavender in the garden should neglect to catch some of the fleeting sweetness of summer and store up pleasurable memories for the winter by making delicioussmelling pot-pourrj and flower-scent sachets. Save the stalks of lavender which you have cut off when making potpourri. and dry them, then fill a jar with a saturated solution of nitro (saltpetre), immerse the stalks in this solution, and leave them for seven days, then drain, and dry slowly, lie in bunches, and when required, take ou« stalk and apply a spark Jo the end. It will smoulder slowly, and give off a delightful perfume. A bundle thrown on the file in the winter will fill a room with delicious scent. It is easy and pieasant to prepare a pot-pourri of home-grown flowers and herbs. (11 you don’t grow' them in your own garden, you may be able to beg them from your friends' With the exception of dried orange end lemon peel, all the ingredients can be grown in a garden.' They are rosemary. sweet-briar, tnyme, a lew sage leaves, ordinary mint. lavender, scented geranium, lemon-scented verbena, and rose and carnation petals. The flowers must be gathered when quite dry, and before the petals have begun to fade. Spread them on trays or newspapers in a sunny window, and leave them till they are quite dry. When they are readv pick off the leaves and the heads of lavender, and put them in a bowl with the dry petals. As each ingredient is added to the bowl stir up the whole, as this allows all the contents to get aired in turn. Then when the finished potpourri is ready, store in bags or in old-fashioned jars. TOILET VINEGAR. A delicious toiiet vinegar can be made by steeping half a pound of dried damask rose petals and two ounces of dried lavender flowers in two pints of white wino vinegar and half a pint of rose water. The flowers should be steeped in the vinegar and rosewater (states the Sydney Sun), for ten days, then the liquid should bo strained off and bottled. A little of this vinegar applied with a pad of cotton wool <» a small sponge to tne forehead and back of the ears is most refreshing in cases of headache, while a little added to the washing water softens and perfumes it deliciously Elat sachets filled with shredded lavender should always be kept in the linen cupboard, and be placed a.aong one’s lingerie. The sachets are pretty covered with book muslin and decorated with an embroidered or handpainted sprig of lavender. Coat and dress hangers can be covered with lavender nbnon or sateen, and weighed down with two little lavender bags. It is a pretty' idea so cover the shelves in the linen cupboard with pieces of mauve sateen.