NovEMBKH 1. 1917. ' The Florists^ Review 



•^ .'I n.iji m.«p iii» ji.'/w "i>^»|fi"Tr'^i'wf;f'."»irj 



17 



A Casket Cover of Chrysanthemums, Large and Small* Made by the Springfield Floral Co. 



A wise thing to do nowadays is to 

 watch for building operations or altera- 

 tions on the part of business houses, and 

 then, when there is something doing, 

 take the party concerned into one 's con- 

 fidence. 



THAT WONDER PLANT. 



Penn, of Boston, some time ago dis- 

 covered what he termed ' ' the most won- 

 derful plant in the world," and The Ee- 

 view reproduced the advertisement in 

 which this "plant" was exploited. Mr. 

 Penn stated at the time that the idea 

 was not copyrighted, and invited other 

 florists to use it. Some of them ac- 

 cepted the suggestion. 



The Eeview is in receipt of a copy of 

 the advertisement used by the J. M. 

 Gasser Co. in a Cleveland morning news- 

 ])aper, occupying a column of space. 

 With the advertisement came the fol- 

 lowing letter: 



"The enclosed advertisement is the 

 one used by the J. M. Gasser Co. Octo- 

 ber 25 in the midst of the Liberty bond 

 campaign. Penn, of Boston, is the orig- 

 inator and Gude Bros. Co., of Washing- 

 ton, D. C, has also used it. Its appear- 

 ance here called forth much favorable 

 comment, and we consider it a fine j)ieee 

 of timely advertising." 



The copy for the advertisement read: 



Tlie most wondorful plniit in tlio world. If 

 tlio J. M. Gasser Co. ofCert'il to tlio ))iit)lio a i)laiit 

 that could bo bouRlit in an.v size, at a jiricc 

 !<iiit('d to every man's i)ork(>tbook, that r('()uired 

 absolutely no care, would urow outdoors and in 

 the house, stmimer and winter alike, and was 

 guaranteed to bear twice a year, on stated days, 

 for a period of twenty-tive years, blossoms so 

 liiKhly prized that anybody would accept tlieni 

 in payment for mercbaivdise and service: and if 

 at the end of the period we guaranteed to repay 

 the owner his total original cost — such a plant 

 would truly be the most wonderful plant in the 

 world. The above conditions apply exactly to the 

 terms and advantages of the Liberty loan bonds. 

 We advise thejr purchase by every household in 

 the country. 



MTJM'S THE WORD. 



The genus chrysanthemum happily in- 

 cludes a number of sub-groups, or types, 

 so diversified in appearance that if an 

 anemone-flowered variety were placed 

 beside Bounaffon the average layman 

 woulfl consider the two as of different 



families, or genera. This variation of 

 form comes in handy when it is desir- 

 able, for instance, to make a design en- 

 tirely of mums. By using two or three 

 types, the designer is able to avoid 

 monotony or marked uniformity in his 

 piece, as shown in the accompanying 

 illustration of a casket cover made en- 

 tirely of mums. Medium-sized blooms 

 were used for the double spray, Garza 

 mums for the finishing in the center and 

 pompons for the showers. John Bryant, 

 manager of the Springfield Floral Co., of 

 Springfield, 111., who made the cover, 

 says there is special wisdom in getting 

 rid of mums when mum prices are down 

 ■and at the same time pleasing the 

 patrons. 



SHERMAN WAS RIGHT. 



The influence of war on milady's 

 fashions, on art's expression or Amer- 

 ica's progress is as apparent as day, and 

 now, as of similar nature, it is interest- 

 ing to note the sway of war times in 

 the work of florist.s, although tlie re- 

 sults are of a rather freakish order. 

 When a soldier dies a funeral design of 

 the stock variety will do, of course, but 

 tliere are times when the retailer has to 

 l)ow to the whims of tlie customer, how- 

 ever peculiar the whims may seem. In 

 the cases illustrated on ])ages 18 and 19 

 the designer was required to employ 

 the military element as the motif of 

 his funeral piece, and it is to his credit 

 that he succeeded as well as shown in 

 the picture. 



The smaller reproduction sliows the 

 work of Lee L. Larmon, of Omaha, Neb. 

 The decedent in this instance was an 

 infantryman, and Mr. Larmon was 

 obliged to give floral representation to 

 the insignia of the infantry, crossed 

 rifles. The "4" at top denotes the 

 number of the regiment and the "C" 

 the company. Crossed cannons would 

 have been used for a member of the ar- 

 tillery and crossed sabers for a cavalry- 

 man. 



The design shown in the larger picture 

 was made by H. X. Lowe, of Lowe's 

 Flower Shop, Long Beach, Cal. Here 

 the deceased was a shipbuilder em- 



ployed on government work, the piece 

 being the tribute of employees, who 

 evidently insisted on having a U-boat 

 at the grave. The design was five feet 

 in length and made of white asters, 

 pink roses and white carnations. 



Before winter there will be in the 

 neighborhood of 1,000,000 men in train- 

 ing in this country for service in 

 Europe. Considering the mortuary 

 tables of the insurance companies, 

 there is reason to believe that no com- 

 paratively mean number of the embryo 

 soldiers will die on this side of the 

 water, from natural causes. Funerals 

 with military lionors are pretentious 

 affairs, and lucky perhaps will be the 

 retailer who does business near one of 

 the large cantonments. At any rate, 

 why not paste the illustrations in the 

 scrapbook, to liold against tlie time 

 when a customer wants something "dif- 

 ferent"? Florists must stand by the 

 slogan, "Customers first," but for 

 shocked artistic ideas there is a good 

 salve in the way of more money usually 

 obtainable when a design of the freak- 

 ish order is demanded. Let us recom- 

 mend wreaths and sprays, but make 

 special designs when we must, not for- 

 getting to charge a special price. 



BREITMEYER'S BEST BET. 



"This S. A. F. publicity idea," ob- 

 serve(l Frank Danzcr, advertising man- 

 ager for Breitmeyor 's, Detroit, "is the 

 best scheme conceived in the history 

 of our business. It is a necessarv jirod- 

 uct of the times. It is bound to go 

 through when thoroughly understood by 

 those it is intended to interest, and that 

 means the entire profession. 



"Take ourselves, for example. We 

 propose to double the amount appor- 

 tioned for publicity, and, as a coinci- 

 dence, we have now four stores, twice 

 the original number. We pay close at- 

 tention to billboard displays, seeing 

 that flowers in season are featured; 

 now it is dahlias, then roses and so on, 

 so that the sign is not allowed to be- 

 come stale. We have adopted the idea, 

 'Papa brought these flowers to Mama,' 



