THE FLOWER-STAND GARDEN.
Manner of keeping it.--Plants bought in Bloom.--Plants to
cultivate on the Flower-stand.--Its Dimensions.--Climbing
Plants.--Passion-flower.--Mandevillea suaveolens.--Wood
Pink.--Thunbergia alata.--Climbing Double Violet.--Manner
of cultivating it.--Plants for the Middle Part of the
Flower-stand.--Camellia.--Methods to prevent the Buds
from falling.--Management in cultivating.--Ericas or Cape
Heaths.--Pimeleas.--Mignionette as a Tree.--Manner of forming it.--Its
Duration.--Necessity of loving Flowers in order to take good Care of
them.
Manner of keeping a Flower-stand furnished with Flowers.
A flower-stand is a very pretty piece of furniture, which may be a
little more simple or a little more ornamented, according to the degree
of simplicity or elegance of the furniture around it, with which it
should harmonize. It makes a necessary part of that furniture. There
are two different ways of making use of it: these must be considered
separately. If you merely wish flowers while you can get them from
the gardeners, agree with a gardener by profession, and he will keep
your flower-stand furnished at all seasons with blooming plants. Your
care will be confined to watering them and keeping them free from the
dust. You will enjoy them; but they will not be your work.
[Illustration: Fig. 3.--Parlor Flower-stand.]
Plants to cultivate on the Flower-stand.
You will do better than that, if, having the leisure, you have the will
also, to give assiduous attention yourself to the cultivation of the
plants that are to adorn your flower-stand. I imagine this to be the
case--that you are disposed to take a little of that trouble which is a
pleasure, and to make of your flower-stand a real garden of your own.
We will begin, if you please, in the month of November--at the time
when the fall of the leaves brings back to the cities those who have
passed the fine season in the country.
Climbing Plants.
Choose a flower-stand as large as the space you have to give it will
allow; keep it constantly with one side against the wall, so that you
can put into it a trellis, shaped like a fan. The first thing now to
be done is to cover this trellis with climbing plants; they will not
be the least interesting part of this miniature flower garden. Plant
a passion-flower, as the principal ornament of this trellis; let it
be as wide and as high as it may, the passion-flower will soon cover
the greater part of it. You must add to this a somewhat rare plant,
the _Mandevillea suaveolens_, and a very common plant, the wood pink.
These three plants--the passion-flower, the Mandevillea, and the wood
pink--bloom principally at the top; and that the whole trellis may
be ornamented equally with flowers, plant at each end a _Thunbergia
alata_, and in the middle a double violet.
The Thunbergia lays hold of any thing that is within its reach, without
ever rising very high. It becomes covered with charming flowers, of
a fine nankeen yellow, set off with a black spot in the middle. You
find it, as well as the passion-flower and the Mandevillea, at all
the greenhouses. The price of these plants is never very high, and
they accommodate themselves very well to the artificial climate of an
inhabited room. Take good care not to buy them in bloom, even though
you should be able to get them in full flower; take them at most in the
bud; it will be much more agreeable to make them bloom yourself.
Climbing Double Violet.
Possibly you may never have seen a violet climbing on a trellis. The
culture of the double violet in this form is very common in Belgium and
in all the north of France. It is not difficult.
The double violet produces naturally, every year, a certain number of
runners, like those by which the strawberry is propagated. Attach to
the trellis those runners which are so situated as to be able to take
hold of it easily, and destroy all the others. The tufts in which each
runner terminates will flower abundantly in this position. After they
have bloomed, other runners will come out, which you must attach to the
trellis as you did the first; so arranging them as that they shall not
take possession of the space reserved for the other climbing plants. By
this system, continued for some years, (time is necessary for every
thing in horticulture,) the runners which have been raised and attached
to the trellis will become nearly woody; and every year, from the end
of winter to the middle of spring, you will be able to gather from them
a profusion of forced double violets, whose fragrance for you will far
surpass that of the violets forced by the gardener, and which he makes
you a present of for your money.
Plants for the Middle Part of the Flower-stand.
The middle part of the flower-stand is yet empty. To fill it well,
place in the centre a fine camellia; a Donkolerii; or, if rose color be
a favorite of yours, a marchioness of Exeter; if you prefer white, an
_alba flore plena_, a fimbriata, or an ochroleuca. There are at least
five or six hundred kinds of camellias, with flowers very different
from each other. Make what choice you please; only avoid taking for
your flower-stand a plant that is inclined to grow too tall; it will
injure the ornamental effect of the occupants of the trellis.
Management of Camellias.
When you buy your camellia it should be full of buds that have attained
to about half their size. If there are too many buds, above all, if
there are two or three in a bunch close together, you must not hesitate
to sacrifice a portion of them. But, as the very short stem by which
the flower bud of the camellia is attached to the branch, is precisely
the most delicate part of it, unless you observe great caution in
detaching the superfluous ones, all will fall, one after the other, and
you will not obtain a single flower. Happily, it is easy to avoid this
annoying result. With a very sharp penknife, cut off, horizontally,
the upper half of the buds which you do not wish to preserve, taking
care to shake the plant as little as possible, and especially not to
touch the bud stems. The remaining half of those buds will very soon
fall of itself, without occasioning the fall of the entire buds. These
will bloom perfectly a month or two later. Moreover, take care not to
water your camellia with water that is too cold. This injunction is
so important, that I am not afraid of repeating it too often. Should
its vegetation seem to you not vigorous enough, give to it, now and
then, half a tumbler of the water that the dishes have been washed in.
Frequently wash and wipe its leaves on both sides. Do all this, and
it will bloom as beautifully in your flower-stand as if it had never
quitted the greenhouse of the gardener who sold it to you.
Mignionette as a Tree.
Some pretty plants of Erica (cape heath) of the medium size varieties,
and one or two pimeleas,--one with a white hanging flower, the other
with a rose-colored, upright one,--will complete the filling of the
flower-stand. Do not fail to reserve, at each end, a little place
for a plant of mignionette as a tree. You have probably never seen
mignionette otherwise than in the ordinary form of an herbaceous
plant; and, as you do not live in the north of France, where these
pretty shrubs are very much in fashion, it will be difficult for you
to procure two tree mignionettes already formed. You must, therefore,
form them for yourself. To do this, proceed as follows: Buy a pot of
ordinary mignionette. This pot will probably contain a tuft composed
of many plants, produced from seeds. Pull up all but one; and, as the
mignionette is one of the most rustic of plants, which may be treated
without any delicacy, the single plant that is left in the middle of
the pot may be rigorously trimmed, leaving only one shoot. This shoot
you must attach to a slender stick of white osier. The extremity of
this shoot will put forth a bunch of flower buds, that must be cut
off entirely, leaving not a single bud. The stalk, in consequence of
this treatment, will put out a multitude of young shoots, that must
be allowed to develop freely until they are about three inches and a
half long. Then select out of these, four, six, or eight, according to
the strength of the plant, with equal spaces between them. Now, with
a slender rod of white osier, or better, with a piece of whalebone,
make a hoop, and attach your shoots to it, supported at the proper
height. When they have grown two or three inches longer, and are going
to bloom, support them by a second hoop, like the first. Let them
bloom; but take off the seed pods before they have time to form, or the
plant may perish. It will not be long before new shoots will appear
just below the places where the flowers were. From among these new
shoots choose the one on each branch which is in the best situation
to replace what you have nipped off. Little by little, the principal
stalk, and also the branches, will become woody, and your mignionette
will no longer be an herbaceous plant, except at its upper extremities,
which will bloom all the year without interruption. It will be truly
a tree mignionette, living for an indefinite period; for, with proper
treatment, a tree mignionette will live from twelve to fifteen years. I
have seen them in Holland double this age.
Resources that the Flower-stand offers.
Ornamented and managed as I have directed, your flower-stand will be
a continual source of agreeable recreation. There will always be work
about your plants. The pleasure of providing for their wants will be
as agreeable to you as that of seeing them flower, one after another.
Their bloom will be the fruit of your own labor; it will have been
merited by the act of cultivating them. They will have for you a
hundred times the value that the most beautiful plants would have which
you bought, in bloom, from the gardener, and replaced by others without
your having a hand in producing them.
Moreover, young ladies, besides the plants with which I have just
advised you to adorn your flower-stand, you have an immense latitude
and many resources--unlimited, we may say---in the many varieties of
the different species of other plants, equally worthy of your care.
As we shall, in the course of this treatise, when engaged upon the
subject of multiplying and cultivating plants, have occasion to make
special mention of those just referred to, this need not be done here.
I shall take care to make you acquainted with such as would figure
to advantage in the flower-stand of your apartment; which, if its
situation be favorable enough, may form a companion to the garden on
the mantel-piece, in addition to the garden on the _étagère_.
And pray observe, mothers,--to you do I now address myself,--that
flowers are like children: in order to bring them up well, you must
love them. If there be among you any who do not love flowers enough
to bestow upon them the attentions that they require, neither the
preceding counsels nor those of the following chapters will be intended
for any such.