52 



The Weekly Florists^ Review. 



DECEMBER 15, 1S9S. 



Christmas Greens. 



With the average florist the week 

 before Christmas should be a very 

 busy one; all true gardening opera- 

 tions should be iu such shape that they 

 cau be suspended for a couple of weeks 

 except the most essential features of 

 ■water, fire and ventilation. If you busy 

 yourself with making wreathing and 

 holly wreaths it should all be done and 

 stored away at least three days before 

 Christmas, for the last few days before 

 that great festival and florist harvest 

 are always taken up with packing and 

 delivery, and with the customers that 

 you are not sure to get, but fondly 

 hope you will, and most always do. 

 This bit of advice can best be summed 

 up with the adage, "Never put off till 

 tomorrow what can be done today." I 

 say a word about keeping these so- 

 called greens for the last week. The 

 bouquet green or ground pine dries 

 very quickly and if not green and 

 fresh has lost what little beauty it 

 ever had. I have never found a better 

 place to keep it after being made into 

 wreathing than in a frame outside, 

 and cover the frame with boards to 

 prevent too great an amount of snow 

 from piling on it. The last advice is 

 seasonable, for within a few miles of 

 here we have now 5 feet on the level. 

 Scatter a little between the wreathing 

 and keep dark, but do not pile too 

 much wreathing in a heap or it will 

 flatten out and be anything but orna- 

 mental. A cool, damp cellar is the 

 ideal place for holly wreaths, and next 

 to that I have found that beneath a 

 bench in a cool house is a good place. 

 Beneath a bench 100 tcet long and 6 

 feet wide and some coarse paper laid 

 on the ground will hold a good many 

 holly wreaths. 



Delivering Plarts. 



There are many things that can be 

 done which will save you time and 

 consequent vexation, fret and stew 

 when the last day of the rush does 

 come, not only save you the general 

 upsetting of yourself and help, but 

 aid greatly in serving your customers 

 in a more satisfactory way. We must 

 admit that plants are much more diffi- 

 cult to handle and require far more 

 skill and care in their handling than 

 cut flowers. A plan which we have fol- 

 lowed for the past few years, much to 



the help of our business, is to set aside 

 a portion of a bench in one of the 

 houses near the packmg shed, or as 

 near where the wagons will leave from 

 as possible (but that is not of so great 

 consequence as to set aside the bench 

 in some cool house), spread heavy 

 wrapping paper on the bench so that 

 the pots which you place there will not 

 have any sand or ashes sticking to 

 them. 



Have a portion of the bench allotted 

 to the different days on which the de- 

 liveries will be heavy. This year you 

 should have a space for Thursday, Fri- 

 day, Saturday and Sunday (Christmas 

 day). As soon as you take orders in 

 the week beginning Dec. 19th, you can 

 look out the plants, have the pot 

 washed and the plants set in the space 

 allotted for each day's delivery. That 

 will save you a tremendous amount of 

 work; on Friday morning you need 

 not let the heap of Saturday's delivery 

 crush your soul, you have only Fri- 

 day's to think of. "Sufficient unto the 

 day is the evil thereof." The evening 

 before or very early in the morning 

 the deliveries of that day should be 

 wrapped in paper, taggea with the ad- 

 dress where they are to go, and in nine 

 cases out of ten nowadays they will 

 be presents and there will be a card to 

 attach to the plant. Now when Mrs. 

 Sampson says, "1 want that azalea to 

 go to Mrs. Dewey; there's the card, 

 and this poinsettia to Mrs. Genl. 

 Wheeler, and this Boston fern to Mrs. 

 Shaffer, don't mix the cards, please," 

 you will say "Yes, ma'am," and get it 

 down all right and understand it, but 

 if left to the hurry and rush of the last 

 day and perhaps two wagons waiting 

 for a load, you are likely to get things 

 mixed and much annoyance ensues. All 

 cards should be in an envelope and not 

 fastened on with a piece of wire, but 

 by narrow baby ribbon. These little 

 things make a great difference. The 

 card of the person sending the plant 

 can be tied on a day or two ahead of 

 time, for syringing can be dispensed 

 with. The address tag can be written 

 and temporarily fastened to the plant 

 as soon as sold. 



In addition to the full name and 

 number on street of the destination of 

 the plant, wreath or mistletoe bough, 

 you should write on the tag just what 

 the articles are, then the delivery man 



has little excuse. Example: "Mrs. 

 Roosevelt, 1001 Halcyon avenue, one- 

 palm, one begonia, bunch holly." This 

 I consider a most important point for 

 the driver is bound to forget verbal in- 

 structions, but if he can read he will 

 know what goes with each name. An- 

 other point about delivering which 

 will save much time, much horseflesh 

 and much disappointment is in addi- 

 tion to having the plants looked c*t 

 for each day, to have a man who 

 thoroughly knows the city to load up 

 a wagon of deliveries that are going 

 to a certain section of the city, let it 

 be it either east, west, north or south. 

 It is better to send off a small load in 

 one direction than it is to send a big 

 load in contrary directions. You can 

 call this man the "router" if you like, 

 but he is a valuable man whatever his 

 name, and his knowledge of the city 

 and expeditious dispatch of the deliv- 

 ery wagon will help wonderfully at 

 the critical time. 



System is everything and get every- 

 thing down to a system. I know (>f 

 little that is new in the way of deliv- 

 ering plants. If the weather should 

 turn warm, as we have many times, 

 seen it, delivery is easy. We have 

 more than once delivered a poinsettia 

 on Christmas eve in an open wagon in 

 the balmy temperature of 55 degrees, 

 and the following Easter sending out 

 lilies in a covered box with a blanket 

 over it. If Christmas brings us sea- 

 sonable weather, and it Is exceedingly 

 seasonable at present, plants have ta 

 be wrapped in paper. If it were only 

 just above or below the freezing point 

 then they would be safe in a covered 

 wagon, but if there are 20 degrees of 

 frost they must be enveloped in paper, 

 whatever wagon you use. I know of 

 no way better than to lay on the 

 bench a sheet of strong wrapping pa- 

 per of ample size, then one or more 

 sheets of tissue paper, and then the 

 plant. With a quick bat skillful roll 

 the plant is enveloped, and a few pins 

 do the rest. The last pin should 

 fasten on the address trg. for it is 

 much better to have the address well 

 up towards the top of tie plant where 

 it is easily seen and iicd, than It is 

 fastened round the pot. 



Crepe Paper. 



Crepe paper was used largely last 

 Christmas and still more so at Easter, 

 and doubtless will be asked for again. 

 It is a tax on us florists, for I don't 

 know that we get any more for our 

 plants, but you can't blame our cus- 

 tomers, for it adds greatly to the at- 

 tractiveness of a plant and hides the 

 plebeian flower pot. It should be cheer- 

 fully and artistically supplied, not 

 only when requested but to induce 

 sales. A Deutsche Perle azalea, with 

 the addition of ten cents' worth (or 

 less) of pale green crepe, would look 

 worth a dollar more than it would in 

 its plain red jar, however well 

 scrubbed. It takes time, especially 



