Fbbbdabt 6, 1919. 



The Florists^ Review 



27 



:xi(UlliLLl|&mii^lLUilA 



pMi^*|ti^*it^»it^iiiyj|iiii|tAiAiL^i|iim3 i!^ 



^^ 



i^ IN KHAKI AND BLUE i^ 



iff«»Wl^.iyN^iyA^fSWIW^ 



OUB WAR BECOBD. 



Florists FoUowliig the Flag. 



The war page of The Eeview is de- 

 nted to recording the movements of 

 embers of tjie trade in the service of 

 leir country, the exploits, adventures, 

 -hievements and honors of the many 

 ho have left the pursuits of peace at 

 leir country 's call to enter the training 

 imps or naval stations and later to 

 )llow the flag to foreign shores to par- 

 cipate in actual engagements. Now 

 lat the great war has been won by 

 lem and their comrades, and the proc- 

 ^ses of demobilization are bringing 

 ack the boys in khaki and blue to take 

 leir places once more in the industrial 

 fe of the nation, opportunities to learn 

 P their experiences abroad will be af- 

 )rded the readers of these columns from 

 eek to week. Former members of the 

 ade now in the Army of Occupation 

 Iso will be represented. Altogether, 

 I fact, these notes show that the trade 

 as responded nobly to the call of Uncle 

 am in the hour of need and that our 

 len have had representation in every 

 ranch of the service, in practically 

 i^ery section in which the stern busi- 

 ess of warfare has been carried on. 



A Brilliant War Becord. 



A member of the trade who has par- 

 cipated in the most important engage- 

 ents of the war in a company every 

 ember of which is entitled to wear the 

 roix de Guerre, has just returned from 

 broad to his home in Lexington, Ky., 

 ) await orders to report at Quantico, 

 a., for discharge from the service, 

 unnery Sergeant Theodore Keller, 47th 

 ompany, Fifth Marine Corps, is a 

 rother of John A. Keller, of that city, 

 id before his enlistment in July, 1914, 

 as engaged with the latter in the flo- 

 sts' business there. Sergeant Keller 

 ad seen service in Mexico and Santo 

 omingo before he went overseas with 

 le troops who were in the drive on 

 hateau Thierry, where he went over 

 le top for the first time. It was after 

 lis engagement, while in the Belleau 

 oods, that he received a shrapnel 

 ound. After a month in a hospital in 

 ranee, he rejoined his regiment to en- 

 ige in the St. Mihiel drive. He was 

 I action also in the lileuse-Argonne 

 rive. The four-year term of his en- 

 stment having expired, he was expect- 

 g his discharge when his regiment was 

 dered, upon the signing of the armis- 

 ce, to advance with the Army of Oc- 

 ipation and he marched with the troops 

 the allied armies through northern 

 "■ance, Belgium and into Luxemburg. 

 ist before reaching the Ehine, orders 

 I me for his return to this country. 

 For exceptionally heroic conduct in 

 tion, the entire personnel of the Fifth 

 urines was given permission to wear 

 *! Croix de Guerre. 



Trajosferred to Panama. 



Captain James W. Anderson, son of 

 lliam Anderson, South Lancaster, 

 ss., has been transferred from Fort 



Oscar W. Eklund. 



Greble, Newport, R. I., to Panama, for 

 duty. Captain Anderson is a graduate 

 of the Massachusetts Institute of Tech- 

 nology and has made rapid progress 

 since joining tho service. W. N. C. 



A Florist's War Becord. 



Oscar W. Eklund has returned to his 

 old position with the Sterling Floral 

 Co., Sterling, 111., after sixteen months' 

 service in the army. Mr. Eklund left 

 Sterling for Camp Grant September 19, 

 1917, where he was made a private in 

 Company I, 842d Infantry. He was 

 transferred from there to Company G,, 

 131st Infantry, .3.3d Division, at Camp 

 Logan, Tex., April 3, 1918. May 23 his 

 division sailed from New York on the 

 Leviathan, formerly the German liner 

 Vaterland, arriving in Brest, France, 

 Dec#ration day. 



Private Eklund was in active service 

 at the front for six weeks, being wound- 

 ed August 9 by a machine-gun bullet in 

 the battle of the Somme. He was sent to 

 a French hospital and later removed to 

 United States base hospital No. 37, at 

 Dartford, England. He arrived in New 

 York aboard the hospital ship Saxonia 

 December 26, where he was assigned to 

 the American Red Cross hospital at 

 Grand Central Palace. From here he 

 was transferred to Camp Merritt, N. J., 

 and later to Camp Grant, where he was 

 mustered out January 19. 



Mr. Eklund considers it a wonderful 

 experience and particularly exciting for 

 a florist, but does not consider that, from 

 what he saw of France, it is entitled 

 to its appellation of "Sunny France," 

 as he never saw weather conditions suit- 



able for growing flowers and on one oc- 

 casion the whole camp had to move, as 

 they were knee-deep in water. 



Visits French Florist. 



Private Karl K. Witthuhn, with the 

 American Expeditionary Fences in 

 France, writes his father, F. C. Witt- 

 huhn, whose range is on Schaaf road, 

 at South Brooklyn, near Cleveland, O., 

 a detailed account of his experiences in 

 the city of Angers, France, located 225 

 miles southwest of Paris on the River 

 Maine, in the department of Maine-et- 

 Loire, with a population of 85,000. 

 Private Witthuhn has not acquired a 

 speaking knowledge of French and 

 therefore enjoyed especially a visit with 

 a French florist who speaks Englisfti. 

 The florist's shop is in the heart of the 

 city, and he reports trade much the 

 same as before the war. If this state- 

 ment was due to optimism, the place 

 nevertheless presented an inviting ap- 

 pearance, with its many handsome 

 plants and large stock of jardinieres, 

 fern dishes, etc. Cut flowers were con- 

 spicuous by their absence, as the trade 

 seemed to be chiefly in designs made 

 of tin ornamented with painted artificial 

 flowers, which are largely used in funeral 

 and cemetery work in France. The 

 plants were chiefly chrysanthemums in 

 different varieties about the size of 

 Bonnaffon. 



Private Witthuhn Is at a base hospital 

 recovering from illness. 



Two Florist-Fighters. 



Albert J. Diserens, of the firm of A. 

 J. Diserens & Co., florists and landscape 

 architects, Cedar Rapids, la., was a son 

 of Frederick L. Diserens, Cedar Rapids, 

 whose death is chronicled in this issue. 

 The range of A. J. Diserens & Co. com- 

 prised 10,000 feet of glass and was 

 looked after by members of the Diserens 

 family when Albert J. Diserens was 

 called to the colors in July, 1918. He 

 was in training at Camp Zachary Taylor, 

 Louisville, Ky., until December, when 

 he returned to his home in Cedar Rapids 

 just before the beginning of the last 

 illness of his father. Frederick L. 

 Diserens II, his brother, is a horticultur- 

 ist. He is a member of Company M, 

 32nd Engineers, Fourth Battalion, a' 

 E. F. 



Woodruff Coming Home. 



Sergt. Stiles D. Woodruff, of the 302nd 

 Feld Artillery, son of Watson S. Wood- 

 ruff, seedsman, of Orange, Conn., is re- 

 ported as en route from the Verdun 

 front to a port of embarkation for the 

 United States. 



A Y. M. C. A. Fan. 



Twenty-two additional pounds in 

 weight is in itself ample compensation 

 for having helped Uncle Sam out in his 

 task of squelching the Potsdam gang, 

 in the opinion of Private Harry P. Lang- 

 hans, Pittsburgh, Pa., who has returned 

 recently from a sixteen days' demobili- 

 zation period at Camp Sherman, O. His 

 military training began September 4, 

 1918, at Camp Forest, Ga., where he was 

 identified with the Fourth Provisional 



