896 



The Weekly Florists' Review. 



March 24, 1904. 



stems Leave them as long as they can 

 oe. it IS a saving in time, though not 

 aJways m the Iceeping qualities of the 

 flowers, to stem all the flowers before 

 doing any of the filUng, but it is scaree- 

 iy praetioai for a beginner, for the work 

 proceeds too slowly, and the waiting 

 flowers will show the exposure. Either 

 HJl m the background first, and set the 

 piece in a cool room while preparing the 

 flowers for trimming, or put the stemmed 

 flowers m the ice box while the rest are 

 being made ready. Keep the flowers that 

 are waiting to be stemmed in water till 

 the last minut*. Don't let any quantity 

 lie around on the work table 

 . Having stemmed the daisies in various 

 sized groups, insert the most o'f them ir- 

 regularly from the foot of the shaft to 

 the nearest corner of the base, some 

 erect against the shaft, others noddin<r 

 and bending any way thev please, bu^ 

 all appearing to spring from a common 

 source. Make another smaller group part 

 of the way around the base at the bacit 

 ot the column. 



Handling the Valley. 



.f Ti^ /'"■" .''''"''•^' separate the flower 

 stalk from the thick stem of the foliage 

 that surrounds it; take a whole tooth- 

 pick and wrap a small valley leaf around 



'2l"^-P^^^'^- .^*'" "^"''""S t'>e sheathed 

 pick m the left hand, place the flower 

 stalk against it so that the lower end 

 will come a little below the middle of 

 the covered pick, and wrap with wire a« 

 in the case of the alyssum or daisies 

 except that the upper end of the pick 

 IS Jett tree from the wrapping. The rea- 

 son tor this will appear a moment later 



In stemming forced bulbous flowers 

 and foliage, it will take a little careful 

 attention to see that the wire wrapping 

 IS drawn just tight enough to keep the 

 stem from sliding ofl' the pick and still 

 not tight enough to cut the tender stem 

 fn inserting these tender stems into the 

 sphagnum, hold by the pick and not by 

 the stem. They are apt to break in your 

 hand, before they are pushed in ' far 

 enough. Catch the free end of the pick 

 which was sheathed with the leaf, and 

 hoW and insert the stemmed flower by it 



But there is still another advantage to 

 the sheathed pick: often to hide the up- 

 per end of the pick, a stemmed flower 

 must be pushed into the moss so far 

 that the visible part of the stalk looks 

 stumpy. With the sheathed pick you 

 can not only insert the flower in the 

 way to best display the grace of the 

 flower stalk, but you can have the addi- 

 tion of a delicate touch of foliage which 

 IS alwa.ys valuable in trimming. 



The circular garniture of valley ex- 

 tends all around the foot of the "shaft 

 through the clump of daisies. Insert the 

 stemmed valley through the carnation 

 background, at various angles to the base 

 Let some swing out and bend over, while 

 others stand more nearly erect, all spring- 

 ing from the same circular line, but vary- 

 ing in their attitudes. Here and there 

 wiU appear the spear-like points of the 

 foliage used in covering the pick, and 

 the larger leaves that are stemmed with 

 the flowers. 



Making the Garland. 



-^ow it is time to prepare the roses and 

 asparagus for the garland which is to be 

 thrown around the column. Cut a deli- 

 cate spray of asparagus long enough to 

 reach from the edge of the break on thr 



upper side of the shaft diagonally around 

 t;ie column, and half way around the 

 foot, a few inches beyond the edge on the 

 left side. If it is necessary to cut the 

 asparagus to get the correct length for 

 the garland, be sure that the cutting is 

 done at the large end, leaving the tip to 

 point out the garland. Select about two 

 dozen roses with tractable stems, in all 

 stages from quarter blown buds to the 

 wide open flowers. Remove about half 

 tho foliage. Fasten a full blown rose 

 downwards a few inches from the tip of 

 the asparagus spray, attach the rose to 

 the asparagus at the decisive curve of the 

 stem, using a fine wire wrapping. Lay 

 the balance of the rose stem on the as- 

 paragus and Jasten again at the end. 

 .Just above the decisive point on the first 

 rose stem, lay down a second rose, and 

 fasten it to the asparagus as before. Re- 

 peat the process along the asparagus 



The New Shasta Daisy. 



spray, graduating from the full blown 

 roses to the smallest buas. The distances 

 between the roses will be irregular, and 

 they will fall naturally, .some to one side 

 antl some to the other side. 



Stem the blunt end of the asparagus 

 on a three-quarters pick and insert se- 

 curely through the carnation background, 

 well into the moss, so that the pick will 

 be buried deep, .just below the break in 

 the column. With the tip end of the 

 garland in the right hand, train it from 

 the starting point, toward the left and 

 diagonally around the column, till it 

 breaks through the circle cf valley on the 

 right side of the column at the foot, and 

 falls a little to the left of the front 

 corner of the base, while the fine end of 

 the asparagus extends beyond the edge 

 airily. Fasten the garland here and there 



where its weight threatens to pull it out 

 of place, using hair pins or wire staples 

 inserted through the background into the 

 moss. The lowest rose should also be 

 pinned firmly on the base. 



Character and Coloring. 



Since this is someone else's design, I 

 can freely say that it is natural, and 

 therefore especially attractive. The slop- 

 ing square base is the best setting pos- 

 sible for the piece and the position of the 

 garland contributes to that good effect. 

 I have seen broken columns where the 

 break was not sufiiciently distinct to be 

 even suggestive. Study to make this kind 

 of a design strong and decided, so as to 

 be recognized at a glance. In this par- 

 ticular arrangement the break is sharply 

 indicated by an abrupt change in the 

 kind of flowers used, and the styles of 

 filling them into the frame. The break 

 occurs obliquely across the upper right 

 hand side and top, and is indicated by 

 the irregularly filled space of sweet alys- 

 sum, in contrast to the smooth carnation 

 filling of the body of the shaft. 



With the decided yellow of the daisy 

 centers, perhaps pink or yellow roses 

 would be the better colors to use. Red 

 roses would not be a very good combina- 

 tion with this touchy bit of yellow. The 

 break might be filled with a contrasting 

 color, such as pink, purple, or blue. The 

 base might be laid in with a delicate 

 pink, or yellow, with a white shaft. In 

 place of the daisies and valley, there 

 might be used long, stiff stemmed roses, 

 any kind of lilies, tulips, narcissi, long 

 carnations, chrysanthemums, or fine foli- 

 age, such as adiantium, asparagus, or even 

 catchy bunches of wood ferns. 



Gertrude Blair. 



A VIOLET GROWER SOUTH. 



Yes, I believe that there is such a thing 

 as violets, but here in Florida the fra- 

 grance of the orange trees is much more 

 pronounced and when you have been 

 growing violets for years the change in 

 odor is very agreeable and you think it 

 nuu h to be preferred, and yet I eloubt not 

 that you could easily get an elegant suf- 

 ficiency of this also. 



The wild violets are plentiful here, 

 both in the pine land and hummocks, un- 

 less they have been too lately burned 

 out, the curse of eveiything nice in the 

 state. The blue ones predominate and 

 are beautiful though not fragrant. When 

 you come to cultivated violets you will 

 find that many people have one or two 

 boxes (generally a soap box) full of 

 fragrant single ones. I have as yet to 

 find that any one grows double ones. 



I think that one of the things that 

 strikes a northerner on coming here is to 

 see the large quantity of window plants 

 that people grow, or perhaps I should 

 say veranda plants. Every house has 

 nearly twice as much veranda as house 

 room and a great quantity of this space 

 will be occupied with plants, such as 

 geraniums, ferns, asparagus, begonias, 

 violets and salvias, and nearly the first 

 question that you ask them is: "Why 

 in this land of flowers and sunshine do 

 you bother with those things; why don't 

 you plant thorn in the ground?" But, 

 alas for your ignorance, their summer is 

 as bad for plants as our winter would 

 be, only with this difference, that they 

 would cook hel-e and freeze north. And 

 so the good housewife spends as much 

 time here in tending a geranium as her 



