24 



The Florists' Review 



Max 21, 1914. 



rf*:V i.') 



RETAIL STORE MANAGEMENT 



WHAT THE LEADERS IN THE TRADE ARE DOING 



FLOWERS AT POST FUNERAL. 



The fuueral of the late C. W. Post' 

 at Battle Creek, May 34, called for an 

 unusually large quantity of flowers. 

 The Fleischnian Floral Co., Chicago, 

 made a splendid great casket cover of 

 American Beauties, as well as a number 

 of big pieces, and its manager and aft 

 assistant made the trip to the Michigan 

 city with them, taking charge of the 

 flowers at the funeral. Muir and Lang 

 each sent one large piece from Chicago 

 and Breitmeyer sent several pieces from 

 Detroit, but the greater number of^ the 

 designs were of local workmanship, the 

 orders falling to S. W. Coggan and 

 Joseph Case, who each had numerous 

 telegraph orders as well as the home 

 orders. The accompanying illustration 

 shows the flowers as arranged in the 

 church. It is reproduced from a photo- 

 graph by a staff photographer for a 

 Detroit dailj' paper who was fortunate 

 enough to get the only negative that 

 shows the casket cover in its place. 



THE CASltET CROSS. 



An aristocrat among funeral designs 

 is the casket cross of lily of the valley. 

 The. pall, or blanket^ is a more commonly 

 made casket covery.but where enough 

 money is to be fwt 'into the design 

 there is nothing bett^i; than the cross 

 of valley. Of cobr^e^: the use of the 

 <{esigii prevents the 'Opening of the cas- 

 ket, but this also ia true of the blanket 

 when made the full length of the cas- 

 ket. This point must be understood 

 letween florist and customer before the 

 blanket is started, and before an order 

 for a casket cross can be taken. The 



cross is made on a wire frame made 

 specially for the purpose. The propor- 

 tions are not the correct proportions of 

 the cross; compared with the length of 

 the piece, the arms are shorter than they 

 would be for any other purpose. The 

 frame is made for mossing and should 

 be shaped to fit the casket, with the 

 ends bent downward so that they clasp 

 the top of the casket in ■ such a way 

 that the cross will not fall off even 

 though the casket be more or less tipped 

 about in the handling. 



Some retailers make the casket cross . 

 of valley stemmed without foliage. It 

 consumes a great deal more material, 

 but it is only a matter of personal pref- 

 erence whether the style is better than 

 the one shown in the accompanying il- 

 lustration, where the valley was stemmed 

 with its own foliage and set into the 

 design at considerable height, so that 

 a more or less loose effect was produced. 

 The design is the same as the standing 

 c- )8s of valley except that it is made 

 of casket size and with the object of 

 presenting its best appearance when in 

 a horizontal position. One point to be 

 guarded is the bottom of ihe design. 

 Not only must no wire show, but the 

 projections must be taken care of so 

 that no damage will be done the casket. 



USINO ARTIFICIAL FLOWERS. 



I wish to take this opportunity of 

 expressing my appreciation of the splen- 

 did helpfulness of The Eeview. Some- 

 times I feel I could not run the business 

 without the helpful hints and articles 

 I find in The Review. 



As Decoration day draws near the 

 problem of a suitable and salable wreath 



for th«^i^-.day presents itself. Would you 

 kindljc,i±hrough the columns of The Be- 

 view^-give' me some suggestions along 

 this irne ? Would you advise the use of 

 artificial flowers? We never have used 

 them, and yet sometimes the temptation 

 to do so is strong. . We have tried to 

 wax roses and carnations for . wreaths, 

 but withomt much success, the flowers 

 scarcely lasting any longer than fresh 

 ones. Could you give us. a recipe for 

 waxing flowers? Perhaps we did not ga 

 at it right. 



What would you suggest as the best 

 way to decorate a magnolia wreath for 

 Decoration day? Waxed flowers, fresh 

 flowers, or artificial ones? We have 

 never sold artificial flowers and would 

 hate to begin now,, but perhaps, after 

 all, it is the best solution of the way to 

 decorate a wreath for Memorial day. 

 We thank you for an early reply 

 through the columns of The Review. 

 G. A. T. 



The Review does not favor the grow- 

 ing use of artificial material by florists,, 

 yet the fact that its use rapidly is be- 

 coming more general seems to show that 

 it serves a purpose. It is difficult to see 

 where sentiment attaches to the use of 

 a cemetery wreath of paper, cloth or 

 wax "flowers," but the fact is that in 

 certain sections even tin wreaths can be 

 sold to people who will not buy wreatbs 

 of real flowers. It is not a long step 

 from the use of perpetuated foliage, like 

 magnolia leaves, to the substitution of 

 cloth imitations for flowers. 



The sale of cemetery wreaths for Me- 

 morial day attained no important pro- 

 portions until the prepared magnolia 

 leaves came into use, and, if one 's cus- 



Flowers at the Funeral of C W. Post, Battle Creek, Mich., Showing Casket and Pall in Front Center. 



