J3I0 



The Weekly Florists' Review. 



May 12, U)04. 



that have stood uiiiiijiiied for several 

 years. But I am not going into tliat 

 now, with one exception, viz., the Cali- 

 fornia privet. It is bailly killed in many 

 places and Uiis is not the first winter 

 that it has suffered. The so-called J-jig- 

 lisli privet, Ligustrum vulgaris, is tlie 

 hedge shrub for our climate. It is per- 

 fectly hardy and I am inclined to think, 

 although not such a shining, glossy fo- 

 liage as the Californian. it makes a more 

 dense, compact hedge and does not ^liow 

 the ell'ect of the shears as much. If 1 

 mistake not. those wonderful hedges that 

 are so admirably cared for by real gar- 

 deners at Newport are the English and 

 not the Califoinia privet. 



1 have been mildly criticised about my 

 advice to defer planting so-called ever- 

 greens ( pro]>crly conifers) till the end 

 of May or until the young growth stjirts. 

 It is possible that in New Jersey and 

 southward it may be better to plant ear- 

 lier, or as soon as tbc ground is work- 

 able, but I still think tbc nortbcin nur- 

 serymen will agree with iiic on tins im- 

 portant question. 



I enjoyed the pleasant and almost flat- 

 tering criticism, except that ime corre- 

 spoiulent referred to me as tbc "venerable 

 Mr, S." I don't think that gentleman 

 and 1 ever met. 1 am not yet venerable: 

 only a sprouting .\raucaria imbricata and 

 won't be ready to |)lant for several sea- 

 sons. William Scott. 



THE RETAIL 



FLORIST 



i 



I 



COLOR HINTS- 1. 



When an artist takes up a certain 

 study with a box of paints at hand and 

 the landscape before him, he can scarcely 

 ever touch his brush to a color in the 

 box and lay it pure on the canvas. The 

 truer bis eye, the more mixing and blend- 

 ing and toning be must do in order to 

 reproduce the harmony of color that na- 

 ture has painted in the scene which he 

 assunu's to cop3'. A real artist uses few- 

 colors, but many mixtures of his own 

 make. An untrained eye could never 

 analyze the product, nor trace the pure 

 colors in the finished picture. 



But we have our pictures already col- 

 ored in marvelous beauty and form. Each 

 flower we handle is a picture of itself. 

 It is ours to group these pictures and to 

 make the settings and combinations of 

 flowers harmonious. Our work is large- 

 ly selective and analytical. But there 

 is much in each of these. I was aston- 

 ished to hear a woman of taste and 

 style in dress once remark: "All kinds 

 of flowers look well together! " A .ium- 

 blc of all colors of fabrics couldn't be 

 worse than -a hit and miss collection of 

 flowers. 



Uemenibering that there is scarcely a 

 flower to be found which is composed of 

 a pure, that is. unmixed color, we should 

 know why certain combinations of flow- 

 ers are good and correct, and why cer- 

 tain others are vile, aside from mere 

 personal taste or fancy, which is not al- 

 ways to be trusted. This is the principle 

 of color combination which we shall con- 

 sider in today's chapter. 



As a preliminary study we will con- 

 sider a combination which any artist 

 will admire and recommend. It is that 

 of the coloring found in the Perle rose 

 and English violet. What is the reason 

 that this combination is so excellent? 

 Why is it so pleasing to the eye? Let 

 us see the reason, and find out if the 

 same principle can be applied to other 

 combinations, and be a guide in all, or 

 many color combinations. 



There are two ways of proving this to 

 one's satisfaction and profit. Now, be- 

 fore there can be harmony between two 

 persons there must be found something 



in common between them, that is, some of 

 the same qualities in each. It is precisely 

 the same in the color world. Get a lit- 

 tle box of water color such as the chil- 

 dren use in school, and actually perform 

 the operation of mixing the colors which 

 we shall fi.nd in the English violet." But 

 somebody will say, ' ' I have no time for 

 such experiments." If you are not in- 

 terested to this extent, here is anothej 

 way of arriving at the same result: 



Glance at a bunch of violets in or- 

 dinary daylight and you will say they are 

 purple, of course. Now look at the same 

 bunch of violets by artificial light, and 

 they will not look as purple as they did 

 before. They will appear quite red. 

 Whether the blue has disappeared partly 

 or the red has been strengtjieued is not 

 so much what concerns us as that our vio- 

 lets now appear red. Then iu daylight 

 agaiu look well into the heart of the 

 flower and see the streaks of red down 

 toward the ba.se of the petals. Now 



take your color box and mix a red and 

 a blue and the product W'ill be purple. 

 That is just what has been done iu the 

 violets. 



Next examine a Perle rose in the 

 same way as you have done the violet, 

 except that daylight will serve our pur- 

 pcse. You will say, at first glance, that 

 tile Perle rose is a soft yellow. But 

 let us see. Look sharply into the heart 

 of a half blown bud and you are bliml 

 to color if you cannot see in among the 

 yellow petals rich wavy red lines reflect- 

 ed back and forth. Then turn a leaf 

 of the Perle foliage wrong side up and 

 you will find almost more red than any 

 other color. The red is laid on in thick 

 lines along the veining and the base of 

 each leaflet. We fail to find any blue 

 in the Perle rose as we did in the violet, 

 but we have found red in both flowers,, 

 and so we must conclude that if the art- 

 ist is correct in calling this a fine com- 

 bination, it must be the red that estab- 

 lishes the harmony. 



Try another example. This time it will 

 be Bridesmaid roses and marguerites. 

 Examine the Bridesmaid rose in the- 

 same way as the Perle. You will say 

 at once that the pink, which names the 

 rose, is the principal color. So it is, 

 but the pink is not the only color. There- 

 are yellow stamens and yellow blotches 

 on both the inside and outside of the 

 ])etals, especially toward the bases of 

 the petals. Occa.sibnally you will see a 

 tiny thread of red in the veining of the 

 petals, as well as .green intermingled. 

 It will not be difficult to discover the 

 yellow in the marguerites. Here is the 

 key to the harmony. No critic can dis- 

 pute our authority for this combination. 



Here are some more interesting and 

 harmonious combinations which can be 

 made under the same law of color: Perle- 

 roses with bronze galax leaves ; Perle 

 roses with Morning Glory carnations; 

 Narcissus poeticus with Bridesmaid 

 roses; American Beauty roses with white 

 lilacs; delicate salmon-colored sweet peas 

 with the dark, rich purples; the dull 

 browns in dahlias and zinnias. with the 

 yellows and creams in the same flowers. 



While many yellows and crimsons, 

 make fine combinations, there are like- 

 wise yellows and crimsons that fight. 



Residence of J. F. 'Wilcox, Council Bluffs, Iowa. 



