The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1855-07-10 00:00:00

HORTICULTURE:

To PRESERVE A. BOUQUET.—A florist of many years' ex-
perience gives the following receipt for preserving bouquets
for an indefinite period, which may be useful to our lady
readers :—" When you receive a bouquet, sprinkle it lightly
with fresh water. Then put it into a vessel containing some
soap-suds ; this will nutrify the roots and keep the flowers
bright as new. Take the bouquet out of the suds every morn-
ing and lay it sideways (the sock entering first) into clean
water; keep it there a minute or two, then take it out, and
sprinkle the flowers lightly by the hand with water. Replace
it in the soap-suds, and it will bloom as fresh as when first
gathered. The soap-suds need changing every three or four
days. By observing these rules a bouquet can be kept bright
and beautiful for at least a month, and will last still longer in
a very passable state ; but attention to the fair but frail crea-
tures, as directed above, must be strictly observed, or will
perish.
FLOWER GARDEN.—With few and comparatively short ex-
ceptions, the weather has not been sufficiently warm for the
bedded-out stock making rapid and vigorous growth, but so
far everything seems to keep perfectly clean and healthy, and
is growing slowly. Watering must still be well attended to,
especially where the soil is of a light dry nature ; and as the
roots are yet near the surface, this should not on any account
be neglected a single day, after the plants begin to feel the
want of moisture. Where the soil is of a stiff tenacious cha-
racter, it will be advisable to give a thorough soaking when
watering is necessary, as frequent waterings on soils of this
nature cake and harden the surface to a most injurious extent ;
and as soon as the surface soil is sufficiently dry after watering,
it should be lightly broken up, using a short-headed rake with
short blunt teeth, or a small Dutch hoe, and taking care not to
injure the roots. Get annuals thinned before they grow into
and weaken each other, for if left to stand too thick they never
flower finely, nor make half the display of plants that are
afforded plenty of room and grown strongly. The early-flow-
ering bulbs, as tulips, hyacinths, &c., should not be left in
the ground after the decay of the foliage, as if wet weather
occurs they will make fresh roots, which weaken and injure
the bulbs.

FRIIIT.—The bright warm weather which we are now en-
joying will cause the peach and other trees to grow away
freely, and on light shallow borders watering may be neces-
sary, and if so use water that has been some time exposed to
the sun, mulching lightly with rotten leaves to retain the
moisture as soon after watering as the border will bear
treading. Weakly trees would be benefited by mixing with
the leaf-soil a portion of good rotten dung. But where the
trees are at all inclined to make gross wood, mulching should
not be practised. Stop any gross shoots, or remove them alto-
gether if they can be spared, and endeavour to equalise the
growth as much as possible, so as to get the trees well filled
throughout with bearing wood. Look to the preparation of
strawberry plants for forcing next spring, and do not allow the
beds of this favourite to want for water until the fruit is be-
ginning to ripen.
THE GREENHOUSE.—In choosing a locality for the green-
house-plants in pots to stand in during the summer and au-
tumnal months, we should prefer a situation shaded during a
portion of the day from the rays of the sun, yet free from the
drip of trees,-open, and well ventilated. It is also of the
highest importance that the spot should be well drained, and
if it is not so naturally, artificial means should be employed for
the purpose, for in the event of continued rains, it would be
highly injurious to the plants if the water did not pass freely
and rapidly from the surface. Having fixed on the spot,the
surface should be rendered quite smooth and level, and covered
an inch thick with sifted cinder ash, which when well rolled
makes a good surface on which to set the pots. But better
than this, though somewhat more expenSive, is a layer of thin
slate, the common house slate will do, which possesses two
great advantages ; first, it prevents the entrance of worms into
the pot, which is a great evil; and secondly, it prevents the
hole of the pot from becoming filled with earth or ash, and
thus impeding the free flow of the water.—Bell's Weekly
Messenger.