How to Press Ferns

New Zealand Listener, Volume 2, Issue 38, 15 March 1940, Page 44

How to Press Ferns

ss -* oles ms Dear Aunt Daisy, All-wise, all-knowing! Greetings to you and gratitude for many an interesting and entertaining half-hour, I want to make a collection of ferns, and wondered if you or your correspondents could tell me the best way to press and mount them in an album. ‘Some of the ferns are sappy and’ very delicate, and if I could preserve their beautiful fresh colour, they would be a source of joy for many years to come. Wishing you some of the joy you give to others.-" Green Lady." Well, my dear "Green Lady,’ I certainly appreciate your delightful way of expressing yourself; albeit I wasn’t sutticiently "wise" and "knowing" in this case, for I really had only a vague idea of how to press flowers or ferns. We used to do them as children-putting them between blotting paper, and then keeping them in our Bible or Prayer Book, and looking at them during an extra long and dry sermon in church! | They were generally sentimental souvenirs, and fuchsias were very popular. Their meaning was, "Stoop down and kiss me!" However, I asked the Daisy Chain for help, which was, as usual, promptly forthcoming. Here are three letters which tell you in detail what to do. (The first is from " Typist-ee,’ who says that the information she gives can be vouched for as it came from a genuine botanist): Place the specimen in the position desired between a folded sheet of newspaper, making sure it is not crumpled as it cannot be straightened after pressing; then place the newspaper between sheets of blotting paper. If it is desired to keep the specimen green, then this (newspaper and blotting paper) should be placed between corrugated cardboard, corrugated side to the blotting paper. This, with a good weight on top, should be placed in a dry place in the sun. The papers should be changed daily; this together with the pressure on the specimens, is the secret of successful drying and pressing. Thin ferns should be dried in a week or so, given good weather. Each specimen should be dried separately. If these instructions are carried out with every care, then there should be no disappointment in their results. These instructions apply equally well to other specimens.