Ingredients
- two peach baskets
- one
- 88 ferns
Directions
Take two peach baskets, fasten together and line the upper one with moss turf, with the green placed outward and the basket filled with earth and leaf mold. The moss should also be extended over the top of the basket after setting out young ferns, which may be found in any of the damp, mossy parts of the woods. The basket when pre- pared should be kept somewhat shaded and the moss should be daily
88 FERNS.
dampened. The bottom and splints of the basket should be painted in green, as violent contrasts in flowers are not preferable. When moss is not available, grass sod may be substituted for the basket-lining, and other plants be substituted for the ferns.
Very beautiful baskets for flowers and ferns can be made of the longer and more feathery kinds of mosses. These look very beautiful, especially the wild flowers, when clustered in this delicate and soft green nest, which can be made to preserve its freshness and brilliancy for many months. A light frame of any shape liked, should be made of wire, and the moss, which should first be well picked over and cleansed from any bits of dirt or dead leaves which may be hanging about it, gathered into httle tufts and sewed with a coarse needle and thread to the covering, so as to clothe it thickly with a close and com- pact coating, taking care that points of the moss are all outward. A long handle made in the same manner should be attached to the basket and a tin or other vessel, filled with either wet sand or water, placed within to hold the flowers. By dipping the whole structure into water once in three or four days, its verdure and elasticity will be fully preserved, and a block of wood about an inch thick and stained black or green, if placed under the basket, will prevent all risk of damage to the table from moisture.
Another satisfactory arrangement is to obtain a common shallow box and ornament it with sticks or bark and fill it with sandy earth, mixed with moss finely broken up. After planting the ferns the whole can be covered with moss, such as is found on logs in damp woods. The ferns will find their way through the moss.