July 3, 1902. 



The Weekly Florists^ Review. 



163 



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THE RETAIL 



FLORIST 



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Flowers for Wearing. 



Every few years, iia.v at some periods 

 every few months, the people adopt some 

 craze that most forcibly reminds us of 

 the logic in Darwinian theories. In no 

 other country has the wearing of badges 

 and buttons become so general as in 

 the United States. The Grand Army 

 adopted their button and it was recog- 

 nized as a badge of honor, but now every 

 woman, man and child wants to wear 

 something that means nothing except to 

 be in line with the vast army of faddists. 

 These buttons and badges have long 

 cea.sed to be of any value, but do an 

 immense harm to the florist's tradjO. 

 These crazy baubles have dispensed with 

 the wearing of flowers to such a degree 

 that it may be safely said that the 

 boutonniere and corsage bouquet section 

 of the business has dropped to 20 per 

 cent of what it was even ten j-ears ago. 

 Is it possible that "familiarity breeds 

 contempt" and that florists as a class are 

 adverse to the wejiring of flowers? It 

 might be well to do otherwise and grasp 

 every opportunity to make flowers popu- 

 lar on all occasions. 



Blue corn flowers make about the best 

 or at least the most modest boutonniere 

 or corsage bouquet to wear during the 

 day. Dark crimson or pink carnations 

 are worn by some, and the ladies just 

 now are using a combination of white 

 water lilies and blue cornflowers. But 

 as stated above, flowers are not worn as 

 much as we would like. Gardenias con- 

 tinue to be a favorite flower among those 

 selected to be wealthy. There are quite 

 a few good blooms coming into the 

 market, and they are sure to be even 

 more popular than ever next season. 

 Might be just as well to study and pay 

 more attention to the cultivation of this 

 elite flower. 



Specialties, 



And by the way, Mr. Grower who does 

 a local or fancy shipping trade, it might 

 be well for you to plant that empty or 

 nonprofitable bench with some old, sweet, 

 once popular rose. Make your place 

 famous for one thing, which can often 

 only be done by growing something 

 nobody else has got. It will pay you 

 to break away from the beaten track in 

 the matter of flowers. Double flowering 

 hibiscus will be a most valuable flower 

 this month. The white are very good for 

 funeral work, the colored ones cut in 

 branches, make good decorative material. 

 There are some very beautiful varieties 

 ■which it would be well to get acquainted 

 with. They are the best the nursery can 

 give us when flowers are scarcest. 



Phloxes. 



Just now and for some time to come 

 phloxes give us the very best material for 

 showy decorations. These beautiful 

 flowers can be used for almost anything. 

 The white, lavender and purple sorts are 

 excellent for funeral work, be it bunches, 

 ■wreaths or base embellishment. They 



mix well with other flowers, say flat 

 bunches of lavender or purple phlox and 

 Lilium longiflorum, or you can make 

 crosses of the white or the above colors 

 in conjunction with other flowers. There 

 is no large design in which you cannot 

 use these flowers, and we have done some 

 of our best summer wedding decorations 

 with them, tying large bunches of pink 

 or red down all the pew ends in the 

 center aisle and having the altar one mass 

 of white with just a cluster of Ught 

 pink to give tone to the work. These 

 flowers are good for general vase work 

 and for cheap table decorations. They 

 are fine ■when used in separate colors. 



Blue Flo-wers. 



Blue flowers are often wanted for col- 

 lege or national colors in design work and 

 very often purple is used as a substitute 

 for blue. Many shades of blue flowers 

 will be procurable for the next few 

 weeks. The deljjhinium family gives us 

 every tone and shade of color wanted. 

 Some of the light blues are lovely and 

 can be used in almost any kind of work. 

 There are many cases where the lobelias 

 are useful, the compact kinds for solid 

 or fringe work and the gracilis or trailing 

 ones for boxes or hanging baskets. "We 

 have seen them doing finely in high alti- 

 tudes, such places as roof gardens, etc. 

 Yucca filamentosa is a fine thing to use 

 for funeral work when flowers are scarce, 

 and used in its immense spikes they are 

 about the most impressive flower you can 

 get for large decorations. They go fine 

 in alternate clusters with gladiolus and 

 lilies. 



Gladioli. 



Speaking of gladiolus reminds us that 

 they are another family of flowers it ■will 

 be difficult to dispense with. They are 

 despised by some, same as most things 

 that are over plcntifuJ, but nevertheless 

 their great beauty and general useful- 

 ness will always make them the most 

 valuable of flowers. They constitute one 

 of the best and most showy window 

 flowers during hot ■n-eather. The white 

 and purple are excellent for funeral; 

 the others, which almost cover the entire 

 range of colors, can be Aised to great ad- 

 var.tage in general work. We would 

 strongly advise retailers who do much of 

 a summer trade or who consider it neces- 

 sary to keep up a show of flowers to 

 occasionally visit some large bulb grower 

 and make a contract or arrangements for 

 regular supply of showy outdoor flowers. 

 Growers who have grounds and do a local 

 trade should always have a supply of 

 seasonable flowers. 



Lilies. 



Lilium longiflorum in some cities at 

 the present time may be considered a 

 drug on the market, but they are never- 

 theless a God send, and it seems to us 

 far better to grow them for summer 

 trade, even at a small price, than grow 

 them for Easter with the severe losses 

 through blight that has of late years 



made the venture a most expensive one. 

 Continue to give us lots of them all the 

 year around if you possibly can, and as 

 with other flowers, consider the average 

 and not the accidental price. 



Galax Leaves. 



I know that ■nheu we say anything 

 derogatory to the extensive use of galax 

 leaves w*e wiu disfavor in some quarters, 

 but the facts compel us to say that they 

 have become in a measure a curse to 

 American floriculture. They have been 

 and still are a blessing, a savior to many, 

 for there is more profit in them perhaps 

 than in anything handled in the -retail 

 stoie, but as it is today where they are 

 recommended and pushed on every pos- 

 sible occasion they do incalculable harm 

 to the cut flower trade. To be sure a 

 wreath of galax can be made to look very 

 pretty but there is no sentiment about 

 it except in the design. We must once 

 in a while consider the millions of dollars 

 invested in floriculture and it might be 

 ■nell to remember that things overdone 

 never amount to much. 



Fuaeral Designs. 



Hollyhocks ■vrill be in demand. The 

 long spikes of single and double colored 

 ones are splendid for decorative work and 

 the white ■will, of course, be good for 

 groundwork in funeral designs. The 

 days of stiff funeral designs promise to 

 return shortly. Although they have been 

 in disfavor among the wealthier folks 

 they have always been a necessity in the 

 poorer sections. In such places the people 

 want good big, showy designs and it 

 either costs much or is impossible to 

 supply suitable materials for loose work. 



You can, especially at this time of the 

 year, buy many kinds of short stemmed 

 or small flowers cheaply, which enables 

 one to give more satisfaction, providing 

 you can choose your way of making up. 

 And even now, when roses are poor and 

 small, it is necessary to compactly ar- 

 range them in order to have them show to 

 advantage. To the majority of people 

 who order funeral designs roses are the 

 most considered flower, but you can 

 satisfy most people by giving them an 

 apparent value for their money, and this 

 can often be done by using almost any 

 white flower and making roses, or a 

 favorite flower, a prominent feature. 

 This can seldom be done by a scattering 

 arrangement. One dozen roses are more 

 impressive in a cluster than twice that 

 many scattered in design work. I^veea. 



PAEONIA FESTIVA MAXIMA. 



This description should have been given 

 ■svith the cut in last issue of the Ee^vte'W. 

 With M. Pailette of France and T. C. 

 Thurlow, the paeony prince of New Eng- 

 land, this flower stands at the head of 

 the procession of beauty. It has been 

 propagated for from fifteen to twenty 

 years in Europe and America and it is 

 impossible to supply the demand for it. 

 One of the largest wholesale growers sells 

 the flowers in Chicago for $2 per dozen 

 and wholesales the roots at $1 each. 

 Western growers are in the market now 

 hunting places where they can buy by 

 the hundred thousand. 



This is a very large flower of pure 

 snowy whiteness, with the center sprink- 

 led ■n-ith drops of deep red, which seem 

 to emphasize the whiteness. As a cut 

 flower it is one of the finest. Taken just 



