THE FLORISTS' MANUAL, 



2J7 



A Corner in a Florist's Store. 



VASES. 



The florist adjacent to or in a town 

 or city and who does a general retail 

 business will have many vases to fill, 

 and if his establishment is near a lead- 

 ing cemetery it will be one of the prin- 

 cipal features of his trade. I know 

 several who consider it their most im- 

 portant business. 



Filling vases for cemeteries in some 

 cities is at a price very close to, any 

 profitable margin, and if one or two 

 set the price low the rest have to fol- 

 low, for few people will pay more than 

 their neighbor does. In some cemeter- 

 ies the florist agrees to fill and water 

 the vase for the season, and although 

 the price charged for the watering, 

 $2.00 to $2.50, for watering a vase from 

 June 1st to the time frost kills the 

 plants, does not seem much to charge 

 it is by far the most profitable part of 

 the business if you have two or three 

 hundred of them. 



I know some florists who have al- 

 most a "corner" on certain cemeteries, 

 and there they charge a good price for 

 filling, including a coat of paint. We 

 are so situated we cannot do that. We 

 charge 50 cents for one coat of paint 

 and 75 cents for two coats. 



Our best cemeteries are now kept in 

 the most perfect shape, walks, drives 

 and grass kept as trim as in the private 

 grounds of the wealthy, and with shade 

 trees scattered here and there in judi- 

 cious groupings, the pleasant surround- 

 ings marred only by the over-use of 

 monuments and statuary which in their 



glaring whiteness dispel at once any 

 comfortable or cheerful feeling that 

 might otherwise be associated with a 

 cemetery. And the innumerable white 

 iron vases only still further add to the 

 cold dismalness of the scene. Why 

 should it be so? 



Some day a better and more ad- 

 vanced idea of our final resting place 

 will be shown by subduing the osten- 

 tatious display of wealth and marble. 

 Graves will be leveled and a small 

 marker will denote the spot where the 

 departed lies, and the whole cemetery 

 will be a beautiful garden with its 

 necessary features reduced to incon- 

 spicuousness. Monuments are not by 

 their size and cost the slightest indi- 

 cation of the worth or genius of the 

 person gone before. The most common- 

 place man lies at the foot of an impos- 

 ing column, while the remains of a 

 President of the United States rests 

 near a humble stone. But this lavish 

 display is good in one way, it distrib- 

 utes wealth and the greatest good a 

 wealthy man can do with his money 

 is to spend it. Work is the best of all 

 charities. We can help some by telling 

 our customers to have their iron vases 

 painted dark green or drab; a few are, 

 but not enough. 



Most of our vases, whether for the 

 grounds or cemeteries, are iron, stone, 

 or rustic wood work. The stone vases 

 are usually large, are costly but much 

 superior to any in appearance. I have 

 never noticed any difference in the 

 health of the plants in either of these 



styles. Sometimes the handsome, 

 massive stone vases are left without 

 any outlet for the water to escape; al- 

 ways see to that if you are consulted. 

 If a long dry spell occurs they do very 

 well, but if we get a week's rain in 

 July the consequence is disastrous. 



The wooden vases, or baskets as they 

 should be called, are lined with green 

 moss, before the soil is filled in. Plants 

 always do well in them but as the 

 drainage is most perfect they take an 

 awful lot of water in August and Sep- 

 tember to keep them green. 



Plants do excellently in iron vases. 

 The great majority of the iron vases 

 are now what is called of the reservoir 

 pattern. There is an iron basin which 

 holds three inches of water immediate- 

 ly below the roots separated from the 

 earth by the casting but connected with 

 the water in the center by a funnel of 

 two inches in diameter which dips into 

 the water and which we fill with sphag- 

 num. The inventor meant it to be 

 filled with a sponge so that the soil 

 would be always soaking up the water 

 by capillary attraction. This also 

 works well in dry seasons but in wet 

 times when the reservoir is always 

 full the soil gets saturated and the 

 plants die, and we frequently have to 

 lift off the top of the vase and empty 

 out the reservoir. This is a case of 

 sub-watering to excess. I prefer the 

 vases without reservoir. They look all 

 right on theory but in practice are 

 often more harm than good. 



When the frosts have killed the 

 plants in the vases we empty them. 

 The wooden baskets are stored in our 

 sheds. The tops of the iron vases are 

 turned upside down and the soil taken 

 out of the stone vases, or as is often 

 done with the large vases we fill them 

 with some neat evergreens for the 

 winter; the Chinese arbor vitae and 

 retinospora are good for the purpose. 

 We make no charge for emptying the 

 vases. They are mostly steady custom- 

 ers and if they are not we do it for 

 our satisfaction, for what would look 

 worse than withered plants where all 

 else was neat and trim. It is no longer 

 as it was when Gray wrote: 



Perhaps in this neglected spot is laid 

 Some heart once pregnant with celes- 

 tial fire; 

 Hands that the rod of empire might 



have swayed, 

 Or waked to ecstasy the living lyre. 



All now is neat and cared for. Even 

 rural cemeteries are now well kept. 

 Before I leave the precincts of what 

 should be a most pleasant and! beauti- 

 ful spot, and as far as care goes is, 

 I must say that the abolishing of 

 fences and the care and control of the 

 whole grounds by the cemetery authori- 

 ties, who treat all alike and study gen- 

 eral appearance and not individual, is 

 a vast improvement over those ceme- 

 teries where the lot owners pay some 

 outside party for its care. It is the 

 whole locality or section that should 

 be pleasing and beautiful, not one lot 

 scrupulously cared for and the next 

 one neglected. The man or woman 

 who would delight in their lot being 

 mowed and clipped and decorated and 



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