Note 30 — Chapter V · My Eldest Sister’s Marriage—Life at Cresswell—School-days in London—First Sea Voyages—Roualeyn’s Return from South Africa.

I believe that many more owners of gardens would of their abundance send flowers to friends and hospitals in cities, were it not from the imaginary necessity of providing boxes. To such may I give some simple suggestions? Carefully select flowers scarcely half-blown. Remove all superfluous green from their stalks. Tie them in bunches with a long strip of wet newspaper about three inches wide, tied round the ends, that they may drink on the journey. Leave them all in water for at least an hour before packing.

Spread on the floor a sheet of brown paper, and on that a stout newspaper. Then sprays of green things to protect the flowers and gladden the recipient. If you have long ferns, and iris buds, a stick of the same length is good protection. Then lay in your bunches of flowers and roll all up securely in the newspapers, and then in the brown paper, when your parcel will resemble a well-packed salmon, and will travel by parcel-post for a very moderate sum.

If you leave this to your gardener to do, he will probably supply as green useless prunings of Portugal and common laurels and unlovable mahonia, sadly tantalising to the recipient.

Here is a list of desirable out-of-door green things that will live. Sprays of beech-tree not too young; small trails of ivy. Most ferns, especially Felix-mas, provided old fronds are selected, free from seed; but not the lovely Lastrea Dilatata or Lastrea Felix Femina, which invariably die. Sprigs of Rosa Rugosa, boxwood, Solomon’s seal, carrot-leaves, periwinkle, a few bits of glossy rhododendron, all varieties of Aber-vitæ, sprays of Diodera. Most precious of all are bits of Retinospora Plumosa and Thuyopsis Dolobrata, which will live for months.

For home use, where water is at once available, I would add sprays of wild raspberry, and leaves of wild cow-parsley, strawberry and potentilla leaves, bishop’s weed, leaves of large lupins, of columbine, of blue delphinium, of Dialitra Spectabilis, of pyrethrium; and daintiest of all is the fumitory (Fumaria officinalis), which gardeners ruthlessly hoe up as a worthless weed, unless specially bidden to spare some for pet vases.

Perhaps many friends who have no gardens could, if they realised the above simple method of packing, send parcels of real Scotch heather (ling, NOT purple bell heather, which dies at once). Also yellow cornflowers, and Scottish bluebells: the latter carry very well, and all the buds will bloom. All they crave is a minute’s attention to their morning “toilette,” just to nip off the dead bells. But in remote districts, mercy to the walking postman must limit his parcels.