Those in the alcohol lose their color after being immersed for a time, and will not last when removed from the alcohol.
In following any of these directions be careful not to tie the flowers. No string must be used. The flower stems must be loose and separate from each other.
A florist of much experience in preserving bouquets for an indefinite period gives this recipe for
Keeping Bouquets Fresh a Long Time.
When you receive a bouquet sprinkle it lightly with fresh water, then put it into a vessel containing some soapsuds; this will take the place of the roots and keep the flowers bright as new. Take the bouquet out of the suds every morning, and lay it sideways, the stems entering first, in 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 soapsuds, and it will bloom as fresh as when first gathered.
The soapsuds 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 longer in a very passable state. From another source we learn how
To Keep Flowers or Fruit a whole Year perfectly Fresh.
Mix one pound of nitre with two pounds of sal ammoniac and three pounds of clean common sand; then in dry weather take fruit of any sort which is not fully ripe, allowing the stalks to remain, and put them one by one into an open glass until it is quite full; cover the glass with oiled cloth, closely tied down. Put the glass three or four inches down in the earth in a dry cellar, and surround it on all sides to the depth of three or four inches with the above mixture. The fruit will thus be preserved quite fresh all the year round.
In giving the following recipe for the manufacture of rose-water, it may be as well to state that the original verse is given, not for its merit as such, but simply because it is the form in which the recipe reached the writer.