70 



THE FLORISTS MANUAL. 



and is with many a florist a leading fea 

 ture of his trade. Looking back twenty- 

 five or thirty years we can hardly imag 

 ine what material we then had with 

 which to fill an order when we were fa 

 vored with a decoration. Smilax we 



awakening and the throwing off of a 

 crude, semi-barbaric education in that 

 particular line. And as pronounced traits 

 of barbarism are occasionally cropping 

 out among the most refined and polished 

 people you occasionally see a bouquet 



Single Dahlia. 



had, and some flowe. &quot; in g plants of very 

 common sorfs. With the exception of 

 the chandelier the deco rations must have 

 been of cut flowers, anc 1 they were hard 

 ly worth calling cut flow ers &amp;gt; for a11 were 

 short-stemmed and jamm ed into frames 

 and designs in a very con ventional way. 



We can all remember ( at least a11 

 those whose hair is gray) ti 1& t at a wed 

 ding or reception the chiei c decoration 

 was the banking of the n mantelpieces 

 with cut flowers, and I think 1 have seen 

 such a bank of flowers, six fe* ^ by two 

 feet, that contained as many ore 1ers &amp;gt; en &quot; 

 era, species and varieties as are usually 

 found in a botanic garden. Ot palms 

 there were scarcely any. A fe ^ *&quot; 

 latanias and occasionally a shop worn 

 Seaforthia elegans comprised the x &quot;tock 

 in trade. Of the ornamental kentias anc | 

 arecas there were none, and it wo\ 7&quot; 

 not be far wrong to say that with t. ie 

 great majority of those who undertook . a 

 decoration, of palms or decorative plantt 

 there were none at all. 



To trace the progress and improve 

 ment in our style of decoration would 

 be of no avail. What it is today and 

 what we can look for in the future is 

 what we are after. The basket filled 

 with moss and stuffed full of a variety 

 of flowers on toothpicks is gone for 

 ever, and so is the bank of moss (often 

 made on a board to fit the mantelpiece) 

 gone never to return. The passing away 

 of that style, as well as the bouquet de 

 scribed in Peter Henderson s fine little 

 work, Practical Floriculture, is not a 

 change of fashion; not at all. It is the 



that in form and make-up reminds you of 

 the dark ages. 



Jt is a question what brings about 

 these great changes. Was it the supply 

 of better material that suggested a more 

 natural and refined style of decoration, 

 or was it the good taste of our patrons 

 that stimulated the taste and originality 



of the florist? We think decidedly it 

 was the latter, for material of some 

 kinds we always had, and flowers, too, 

 but a knowledge of their proper use 

 came by education and it came slowly. 

 Did it ever occur to you how much we 

 are all imitators? There are in our line 

 only a few men of bright and original 

 ideas in the whole country and I am 

 without the post-office address of those 

 few. 



All reformers are abused and reviled, 

 or considered cranks by the common 

 herd. All discoverers and demonstrators 

 of everlasting truths are held in con 

 tempt and spoken of by fossilized brains 

 and robed hypocrites as enemies of man 

 kind. Saints never lived; they are 

 saints when they die. Linnaeus, the 

 colossal-brained Swede who demonstrated 

 and published the facts about the sexes 

 in plants, had to eat his words at the 

 command of the church. Just fancy; 

 he had to deny a great truth in nature 

 which is today taught to every student at 

 a high school. Happy is the man (for 

 his mind is his great consolation) who 

 will grasp the truth as great minds re 

 veal it. Let him be penniless, he is yet 

 nch, and a king compared to ignorant 

 affluence, who, ostrich-like, hides its head 

 to all true knowledge except that of ac 

 quiring wealth far beyond its necessi 

 ties. 



This is a deviation from floral decora 

 tions, but I will apply the argument to 

 show that reformers in our line, men 

 who were not afraid to step out of the 

 beaten track, have likely been sneered 

 at by hundreds of fogies who perhaps 

 had nothing to say in argument against 

 a new idea only that the author was 

 getting gay, &quot; or &quot; thinks he s smart. 

 Every time some man of bright ideas 

 brings out an artistic move we ought to 

 be thankful, for by slow degrees our 

 ideas of the artistic part of our business 

 have been moved upward and onward. 



Dwarf Dahlias in Pots. 



