SEPTEMBKn 8, 1921 



The Florists' Revie\v 



19 



THE RETAIL STORE 



A PAGE OF HINTS AND HELPS 

 FOR THE RETAIL FLORIST 



FUNEEAL SPRAYS. 



Supplanting Designs. 



More and more the funeral spray or 

 cluster is taking the place of designs, 

 because it is more natural and graceful 

 and permits a greater variety of ar- 

 rangement and combination of kinds and 

 colors of flowers. Patrons of refined 

 taste often choose a spray in preference 

 to a design, for it can be made as elabo- 

 rate and costly as one wishes, and at 

 least as much art can be put into a large 

 spray as into a design. The customers 

 realize that a design, at best, is artifi- 

 cial looking, for the design must have a 

 certain fixed form of outline which is 

 really out of place in a spray. 



It is true, however, that thousands 

 of florists all over the country are striv- 

 ing to make stiff, formal bunches in- 

 stead of loose, feathery, artistic ar- 

 rangements, because they forget that 

 the funeral bunch is not a design, but a 

 natural clustering together of one kind 

 or several kinds of flowers, as the case 

 may be. 



The Bight Materials. 



The selection of the flowers to be 

 used; the wiring of the greens for the 

 foundation of the bunch; the finer 

 greens used to give the delicate, lacy 

 effect — all these points must be taken 

 into consideration at the outset in order 

 to get good results. 



Long-stemmed flowers are always 

 preferable. Nevertheless, short-stemmed 

 flowers can be wired and then grouped 

 into small clusters of from two to four 

 flowers each, by using 18-inch wires to 

 give the desired length and then cover- 

 ing the wires with asparagus, hardy 

 ferns or maidenhair ferns. The long 



stems or wires are absolutely essential should be comjiosed of the white roses, 



to the arrangeinont. for the short stems and the lavoiidcr jio;is should be gath- 



produce a low, flat, mussy looking ered into a delicate bunch just where 



bunch, with none of the fluffiness or the stems of the roses are caught and 



A Typical Spray of Roses on a Background of Asparagus. 



height which is so desirable in funeral 

 sprays. 



A Spray in White and Lavender. 



Never use more than two, or at the 

 most three, varieties of flowers in one 

 spray. The same rule applies to colors, 

 for too many colors form a hetero- 

 geneous mass. For instance, if white 

 roses and lavender sweet j)eas are to be 

 used, the greater part of the bunch 



A Typical Spray of Carnations on a Background of Asparagus. 



the bunch ends, thus covering the stems 

 of the roses. Then a finish should be 

 given to the whole cluster with the ad- 

 dition of a few si)rays of ;isparagus. 

 Ribbon of similar shade, in this case 

 either lavender or white, may be used, 

 l)ut often ribbon detracts from the 

 bunch rather than adds. Therefore the 

 true artist uses little ribbon aii<l then 

 only when lie decides that it adds ma- 

 terially to tlie color scheme or to the 

 finish of the arrangement. 



Mixing two kinds of flowers through- 

 out the bunch is undesirable. They 

 should be kept distinctly separate. How- 

 ever, two or three might be intermin- 

 gled artistically beyond tlie color line. 



Poising the Flowers. 

 Care should be taken, after tlie clus- 

 ter is finished, to poise certain separate 

 flowers, for, having been previously 

 wired, they will stay just where the de- 

 signer wishes them to be. He must give 

 the finishing touches by bending the 

 wired flowers up and out of the mass of 

 blossoms and greens into which they 

 have been gathered, while the cluster is 

 being tied together. This is just where 

 many designers fail, because thev do 

 not poise or balance their clusters "after 

 they are put together. Good designers 

 do not fuss witli a bunch after it is 

 completed, but they pnuse just long 

 enough to imj)art the artistic touch be- 

 fore their work leaves their hands. The 

 large clusters or sprays are used a great 

 deal for caskets. 



Casket Mounds. 



Casket blankets are giving way to 

 the more artistic and natural casket 



