10 



The Florists^ Review 



October 16, 1918. 



speed, which must be further reduced by 

 the application of friction, is inside the 

 pot, or, if you choose, the pot may have 

 no bottom. The rod is fastened to a 

 point of the circumference of a wooden 

 wheel turned by the motor. The hand 

 of the witch, well hidden by the flow- 

 ing black draperies of her costume, is 



then is that of a group of weird fea- 

 tures shining out of the darkness, but 

 when the lights in the window are 

 switched on and those in the heads 

 switched off, there is no trace of the 

 strange faces. By alternately switch- 

 ing on and off the two sets of lights and 

 allowing each set to shine about half a 



The Blue Ribbon Winner at the Houlton Fair, Exhibited by Newell's. 



attached to the upper end of the rod 

 and drawn around and around, just as 

 if it were stirring. 



Put in a touch of the supernatural, 

 if you wish, and, instead of attaching 

 the witch's hand to the rod, place in 

 the hand a wand for the witch to hold, 

 or wave, over the rod, which, by black 

 magic, stirs on and on without a guid- 

 ing hand. This will prove a puzzle 

 which some of the spectators who 

 crowd around your window will solve 

 and some will not. In either case the 

 person has thought about it, and will 

 remember it and will remember you and 

 your florists ' store. Perhaps they will 

 tell another of the clever window, as in 

 all probability they will, and your name 

 and fame and your florists' business all 

 will grow. 



An Effective Night Window. 



Another window, designed especially 

 for display at night, has for its main 

 feature a puzzle, although it is perhaps 

 not a hard one. The effectiveness of 

 the window depends to a great extent 

 on the beauty of the arrangement of 

 a screen of autumn foliage, cornstalks, 

 flowers, etc., across the entire window, 

 preferably in a semicircular form. In 

 this display there is a chance to work 

 in some fine decorations with yellow and 

 pink mums, especially the former. If 

 carried out in good style, this window 

 should be good enough to draw some 

 comment in the daytime, but its 

 strength lies in the darkness of night. 

 Behind the screen, arranged so that 

 they can be seen from neither inside nor 

 outside, is a group, three or four, of 

 pumpkins, which are carved with vari- 

 ous expressions, one laughing, another 

 grouchy looking, and so on, depending 

 mainly on your expert carver. In each 

 of these heads is an electric light which 

 is turned on as the Hglll^s in the window 

 are turned off. With care it is possible 

 to arrange the apertures through which 

 the light shines so that they are not 

 obstructed by anything on the screen 

 which hides the y)umpkins. The effect 



minute, the mystery is presented with 

 a sufficient interval to allow the spec- 

 tators to note the beauty of your screen. 

 This will draw their attention to your 

 flowers and reward vou with sales. 



WHAT TAKES PRIZES. 



No one can prophesy what will take 

 prizes. The only sure definition is that 

 it is the best in the class in which it is 

 entered. There can be no common crite- 

 rion for all shows and, therefore, none 

 for all prize-winners. The accompany- 

 ing illustration shows the exhi'oit of 

 Newell 's, florists and milliners of Houl- 

 ton, Me., which took the prize at thci 

 Houlton fair this year. A. E. Newell 's 

 opinion of it, expressed in his own 

 words, is: "Wouldn't your critics have 

 a hallelujah time if they were invited 

 to criticise! We fully realize there is 

 only one thing quite right and that 



doesn 't show. "- Nothing funereal about 

 it. Nevertheless, it looked good to the 

 people down here in the land of pota- 

 toes, and if compliments were money, 

 we'd be worth a million. We also took 

 all the blue ribbons." 



TELL 'EM IT'S NET. 



When an order is sent to a retail 

 florist in another city, to be filled there, 

 the sender should see to it that he 

 makes his wants understood. Ordi- 

 narily as much latitude as possible is 

 allowed the man who is to fill the or- 

 der — it isn't wise to specify orchids 

 or long Beauties on an order sent to a 

 small town for rush. delivery; the coun- 

 try florist may not have the stock and 

 he should, if possible, be given au- 

 thority to send something else instead. 



But the bulk of the orders still are 

 for funeral flowers and the most im- 

 portant thing is to specify the price. 

 •It should always be stated as so many 

 dollars, "net." If the word is omit- 

 ted the florist who receives the order 

 does not know whether or not he is 

 to allow the customary trade discount 

 of twenty per cent from the price 

 mentioned. When he gets a wire that 

 says "send a wreath at $4 net," he 

 knows he is to receive $4, not $3.20 

 and that he is expected to deliver a 

 wreath that he ordinarily would charge 

 $5 for at retail. 



AGAIN A PBIZE-WINNINO CAB. 



In this season of automobile parades 

 there comes from nearly every parade 

 the news of a florist's car taking the 

 prize. The wide variation in the styles 

 of decoration used, no two designs be- 

 ing at all the same, shows the great 

 scope in this field of decorative art. A 

 new idea is presented by the car en- 

 tered by Knoble Bros., of Cleveland, 

 0., in the automobile parade there. In 

 the class of steam and gas cars, 110-inch 

 wheel base and under, this car took first 

 prize. 



The decoration represented the coro- 

 nation carriage of George III. It was 

 built on the new chassis of a White car, 

 without a body on it. An automobile 

 top company built a rough frame cov- 

 ered with light .canvas and painted yel- 

 low This was covered with green pre- 

 pared oak foliage and 1,500 artificial 



Prize-winning Car of Knoble Broi, in a Cleveland Parade. 



