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FREAK FLOWERS m 

 X FUNNY FANCIES 



WKUe no florist is urged to go beyond the conventional, urn^ual uses 

 of flowers undeniably have an interest for the public, even for that part of^ 

 the public which would not consider admitting' such ideas to their own prac- 

 tices. Read, but do not necessarily go and do likewise. 



THE one thing a nower busi- 

 ness most needs is nov- 

 elty. Probably there is 

 no retail florist who has 

 not, like the writer, felt 

 the force of this fact. 

 There are, as we all know, 

 innumerable differences in 



the quality of flowers and 



an immense variety of 

 combinations that are possible in ar- 

 rangement, but the differences pass al- 

 most without notice from the public, 

 riower buyers tire of the same thing 

 used time after time in much the same 

 way and the greatest need is novelty, 

 in every store that is pushing for- 

 ward. 



But in the search for novelty the 

 florist must remain within the conven- 

 tions; freak arrange- 

 ments have no place ex- 

 cept in advertising. 



What Started It. 



The development of 

 new ideas in the ar- 

 rangement of flowers for 

 personal adornment be- 

 gan with the illustration 

 in The Eeview more 

 than a year ago of what 

 is known as tango bou- 

 quets. These had a 

 legitimate place and 

 use, for the reason that 

 the conventional style of 

 corsage was not adapted 

 to the close style of 

 dancing that was so 

 much in vogue a year 

 or two ago. The shoul- 

 der and arm bouquet, 

 though a bit extreme, 

 might safely be recom- 

 mended by the florist to 

 even his most discrimi- 

 nating customers, but 

 when The Eeview 

 showed the anklet bou- 

 quet it was with the 

 admonition that "he 

 would be a most rash, 

 thoughtless and unde- 

 serving retailer who 

 would even suggest that 

 a lady tie flowers on her 

 leg — no matter how 

 near the shoe! " 



But the anklet bou- 

 quet undoubtedly has 

 had a vogue. It has 

 been seen on the stage 

 of many a musical com- 

 edy and in the window 



of many a florist who was seeking de- 

 parture from the humdrum by show- 

 ing novelty arrangements on living 

 models. 



Oood for Publicity Only. 



In the attempt to elaborate the tango 

 bouquet, many freak ideas were de- 

 veloped — some of them unobjectionable, 

 and nearly all of them good for adver- 

 tising purposes, but most of them short- 

 lived, for the simple reason that no flo- 

 rist with any pretension to standing in 

 his community could possibly recom- 

 mend the use of such things to his 

 patrons. Indeed, many thought that 

 the prestige of the store would suffer 

 if these freak arrangements even were 

 shown in the window. 



It is beyond question, however, that 



"Excuse My Back."— One of the Funniest of Freak Flower Fancies. 



the idea of displaying merchandise on 

 living models has become eitremely 

 popular in the last year or s6. It is 

 done in the windows of department 

 stores of the highest class and there 

 seems no reason why florists should not 

 employ the same method to attract 

 patrons and create -talk. But extreme 

 care must be taken to see that the talk 

 is not discreditable to that particular 

 flower store and to florists in general. 

 Ours is a high-class merchandising busi- 

 ness. Flower store||^^hould be among 

 the most scrupulously conducted of the 

 leading specialty shops in every city 

 and nothing should be attempted that 

 will in the slightest degree offend good 

 taste. 



If a man runs a downtown flower 

 store that caters to "sporty" 

 trade, he can make good 

 advertising capital out 

 of the living model idea, 

 but it is of no use to the 

 man in a residence dis- 

 trict with a family 

 trade. Nor can the store 

 that deals in the flash- 

 iest kind of floral ar- 

 rangement afford to 

 recommend the freak 

 ideas to its customers. 

 The only value the idea 

 has is in hippodroming; 

 "unique" uses of flow- 

 ers have no commercial 

 possibilities and such ar- 

 rangements never can 

 be sold except in the oc- 

 casional instances of a 

 demand from a musical 

 comedy star or the queen 

 of a movie ball. 



Living Models. 



The illustrations in 

 this issue of The Review 

 are not in any way in- 

 tended as a recommenda- 

 tion of any of the forms 

 of pspflonal adornment 

 shown. They are given 

 merely for the purpose 

 of showing what can be 

 done by the man who 

 wants to attract atten- 

 tion by the use of the 

 unusual. ^It is true that 

 some of these might 

 "get by "ft in an oc- 

 casional way as regular 

 articles of sale. For in- 

 stance, the -bouquet for 

 the walking staff is not 

 half bad; it is inoffen- 



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