June 30, 1904. 



The Weekly Florists' Review* 



249 



*<^*♦^^'^-^'♦^'*-^'^■^^'^■-i>l'^■»^♦^^«^-n.'^-y1»■'^^^»■'^■'y^t♦->v '♦>».* ^^ '•-^v-^^ 



BEGINNINGS 



IN DESIGN... 



'♦'i^^H. '♦rk<«--ni'«-^>fc*"»-^<«<Ti«*>K.« 



THE STAR AND CRESCENT. 



A Piece Combining Two Styles. 



The distinctive feature of tliis combi- 

 nation design is its two styles of finish. 

 The star is plain, made solid with the 

 carnations. The crescent admits of a 

 much looser arrangement without des- 

 troying its outline. If you can have the 

 frame for the two pieces made together 

 it will be much easier to handle. The 

 star measures between any two opposite 

 points about one-half the distance be- 

 tween the points of the crescent. The 

 star should be well set up on the easel, 

 the point of the easel striking it about 

 the center of the back. 



First of all, bronze the easel and the 

 cross piece which supports the star. Then 

 it may be trimmed, or partially trimmed 

 after your own fancy. When such wires 

 are not bronzed they must be wrapped 

 or covered with green, and this becomes 

 rather monotonous when it i? done on 

 every piece, besides making a confusion 

 of straight lines. This latter should 

 always be avoided in design. After fill- 

 ing in the entire piece with sphagnum, 

 lining with ferns, and wrapping as in 

 other pieces before described, cover the 

 sphagnum filling of the crescent with a 

 solid green background of ferns and se- 

 cure them in place by wrapping with 

 No. 36 wire. Next proceed with fillinj^ 

 the star. 



Filling the Star. 



White carnations stemmed on three- 

 quarter picks, as was done for the pil- 

 low and broken column, compose the en- 

 tire filling of the star. Cover the top 

 and edges solid, making a smooth, plain 

 surface. In such a place as this mechan- 

 ical skill counts for everything. There 

 is to be no trimming of any kind in this 

 part of the piece. It is the positive, piv- 

 otal center of design, Mhile the crescent 

 and its trimmings constitute the loose 

 rays and variations of light and color. 



Filling the Crescent. 



While putting on the green back- 

 ground of the crescent, point the ends 

 each with the tip of a fern leaf, as is 

 plainly seen on the right point. The 

 edge of the crescent is liere covered witli 

 smilax. Stem a medium-sized string on 

 a whole or three-quarter pick. Insert 

 one of the stemmed ends near the top 

 point of the inside edge. Follow tho 

 edge of the design upwards and around 

 the point down the outside edge as far 

 as the length of the smilax will permit. 

 Stretch the smilax tight. Stem tho other 

 end and attach it to the piece. Start 

 another string at this point and continue 

 until the whole edge, inside and out, is 

 covered. Be careful to bury the stub 

 end of the pick well out of sight in the 

 sphagnum. The sight of one toothpick 

 is enough to spoil the appearance of a 

 fine piece. 



The filling of this crescent is of 

 Bridesmaid roses. Dutch hyacinths of 

 the same color, freesias, ferns and caii- 



didum lilies. The Dutch hyacinths se- 

 lected for this purpose are the loosely 

 flowered spikes. Most of them are dou- 

 ble, where the flowers are few on a stalk. 

 Cut the stems off close to the lower 

 flower and insert whole picks from the 

 bottom about half the length of the 

 picks up the inside of the stem and wrap 

 with No. 36 wire. If the stems are too 

 soft and thick to use in this way, make 

 a passage for each one into the sphagnum 

 and re-pack the moss around it. Tie 

 down across the frame with No. 36 wire 

 somewhere near the tip in between the 

 flowers. 



Stem the roses just below the decisive 

 point of the stem, and if too long to 

 keep their places after being inserted 

 in the sphagnum, tie down as with the 

 hyacinths. Considerable rose foliage 

 should be stemmed with the flowers. The 

 roses should not be monotonously set in, 



cover the background space, because th» 

 background is already laid in witU green. 



The candidum lilies should be steiiuiie«i 

 in the same way as the hyacinths, and 

 the freesias like the roses, as also az» 

 the ferns used in the group with the ean- 

 didums, on the upper edge of the cres- 

 cent against the easel. Observe that the 

 five fern leaves appear to spring from 

 the same point, like the growing plant. 



The last of the trimmings is the dove 

 bearing the rose. Wire the feet securely 

 on the cross wire and adjust as sbowa 

 in the illustration. Gertrude Blaou 



THE BEDDING PLANT TRADE^ 



The reason for bedding out wa« twa 

 weeks late in starting this year and o» 

 May 20 nearly everyone was conaider- 

 ably behind the average season '» salesy. 

 but by Decoration day nearly all were 

 fully up to last year's record^ so great 

 was the rush in the last ten dajs of 

 May. The bedding plant trade is practi- 

 cally finished at Decoration day in most 

 localities in normal seasons but this 

 year it extended well into June and even 

 as late as the present date there ia still 

 something doing in this line, so that tho 

 result has been, with few exceptions the 

 best season on record, and in manr 

 localities far ahead of the ordinary spring 

 business. Coming after the most expen- 

 sive winter in years, the outcome has been 



The Star and Crescent. 



one way >r the other, but from about 

 the centir of the piece begin to point 

 toward each end of the crescent, with a 

 few flowers here and there breaking the 

 line, and seeming to fall out of place. 

 These should be securely wired by wrap- 

 ]iing, where they fall. 



I have tried to make it possible here 

 to single out the individual flowers in 

 tlie crescent. They are not close enough 

 together to crowd one another and t.; 



most gratifying, serving to retriere the- 

 los^s in {)rofits of the generally anaatis- 

 factory winter and put hundreds of the 

 craft ahead for the year. 



Good prices have been realized where 

 good stock was provided. Because of 

 tiie cold, cloudy, backward spring macb 

 of the bedding stock was not ready at 

 the usual time. This Avas particularly 

 the case with geraniums, well flowered 

 plants being in strongest demand at 



