,.\\:i:-.^ 



1058 



The Weekly Florists^ Review* 



October 20, 1904. 



will already need the second tier, while 

 many of the dwarfer and stiff-stemmed 

 sorts will do very well on one tier for 

 a little while yet. Don't delay adding 

 the supports as they are needed, but the 

 less strings, etc., there are in the way 

 the better you can work the soil, etc. 



Of course you are keeping the plants 

 disbudded right along now, so that by 

 this time you should be picking some very 

 nice blooms. There is a vast diftereuce 

 in the quality of the blooms from the 

 different varieties at this time and often 

 we are inclined to judge a new variety too 

 harshly because it fails to come up to our 

 expectations early in the season, or, on 

 the other hand, we may fall in love 

 with a variety during this month and 

 next, only to be all the more disappointed 

 later on in the winter. Don't pass final 

 judgment on any new variety you may 

 have on trial until at least the end of 

 the propagating season next spring. Last 

 spring I heard of several growers who 

 threw away their stock of Adonis only 

 to buy a new stock of cuttings a little 

 later, when it picked up so well for some 

 of their neighbors. Then, again, there 

 are those varieties which do not like 

 warm weather, but produce grand blooms 

 as soon as cool weather sets in. They 

 may all be profitable when given a 

 chance, and when judging a variety it 

 should be when it is at its best, and not 



when it may be at its poorest. Study 

 the wants of the new ones and try to see 

 what can be done with them when they 

 are grown as they should be. 



A. F. J. Baur. 



GREEN CARNATIONa 



Is there such a thing as a green 

 carnation? I am told there is, but have 

 not heard of such a thing. 



Elmwood. 



I know of no carnation which pro- 

 duces blooms of a green color, nor would 

 1 grow it if I knew of one. The party 

 who told you there is such a variety 

 must have seen some blooms which were 

 colored artificially. This is often done 

 to meet the demand for something green 

 to wear on St. Patrick's day and, while 

 the process is simple enough, it is not 

 known to everyone who handles flowers. 

 You will find that if you cut some white 

 blooms when they are just unfolded and 

 set the stems into a dark green colored 

 water they will draw up enough of the 

 coloring matter to take on a lively green 

 cast. Of course the people who buy 

 the blooms imagine they have a naturally 

 green bloom because they can see no 

 coloring matter on the outside. 



A. F. J. Baur. 



DECORATIVE SCHEMES. 



A Wall Decoration* 



The illustration here presented is of 

 a chapel wall at Christmas time. The 

 material is wild smilax, holly sprays 

 and berries. The wall was covered 

 with ingrain paper, no figures at all 

 appearing excepting the top ^borider. 

 This last part, of the permanent deco- 

 ration was carefully respected. No 

 part of the temporary decoration was 

 allowed to extend over the lower line 

 of the border. A plain wall is always 

 the piost desirable for foliage or flower 

 decorations. 



The first part of the decoration to 

 be put up was that of the tapestry ef- 

 fect which shows under the spray of 

 smilax to the left. The material for 

 this tapestry was strings of holly ber- 

 ries on linen thread. The loose, holly 

 berries from several empty cases of 

 holly were saved and the work was 

 done by a number of children. This 

 they greatly enjoyed, which could 

 hardly be said of a busy florist during 

 Chrirtmas week. It would be a long, 

 tedious job for anybody else but chil- 

 dren who were anxious to earn a little 

 money for Christmas. Although such 

 a task for one person, the results are 

 well worth the work, for the bright 

 berries retain the color for many weeks 

 and the smilax as well. One end of 

 the linen thread is wound around a 

 tack which can be driven in along the 

 lower liiie of the border without having 



the tack show. Place the strings about 

 an inch apart. Make the longer ones 

 to reach the top of the wainscoting be- 

 low. Vary the lengths of the strings 

 about as shown in the illustration. 

 Along the top of the wainscoting make 

 a sort of frieze of ordinary sized holly 

 sprays. Tack these on with double 

 pointed tacks on the top edge of the 

 woodwork, being careful to make as 

 few punctures as possible. 



The principal part of the design rep- 

 resents one large spray of wild smilax 

 with numerous drooping and side 



branches. The design is simple, but 

 very decided. It is much easier, as has 

 been emphasized before in these col- 

 umns, to have a deflnite picture in mind 

 of the design whicli is to be put up. 

 With this end in view, select the sprays 

 of smilax which can be easily connected 

 and will fall into place to make the 

 one large spray of the decoration. This 

 was begun at the heavy end immedi- 

 ately over the window in the right cor- 

 ner. The first spray was tacked on 

 the top of the woodwork of the window 

 frame and spread out along the prin- 

 cipal lino of the large spray. One tack 

 somewhere over the slender end of the 

 top part of the branch will hold this 

 part of the spray in place. The tip of 

 the spray, as can be seen in the illus- 

 tration, takes a decided curve down- 

 ward. At the point where the principal 

 line of this spray begins to deviate 

 from the main line of the large spray, 

 place the lower end of another spray of 

 the smilax. Direct this last one up- 

 ward and parallel with the lower line of 

 the border. Tack it in place with not 

 more than two or three of the staples, 

 and repeat the process several times 

 until the left upper end of the whole 

 design is put in place. Do not lose the 

 direction of the whole spray. Several 

 of the drooping branches toward the 

 center and left end of the spray can 

 be put in last, as they seem to natur- 

 ally fit in. Do not attempt to twist 

 these tough stems nor turn them about 

 from the position which the natural 

 bend of the spray seems to demand. 

 After completing the main spray, the 

 large branch extending to the right 

 along the side wall is attached to the 

 main spray, fastened along the corner 

 where the two walls meet, and termi- 

 nated in much the same way as the 

 far end of the spray. Where the 

 sprays are fastened in the comers of 

 the walls, several little side branches 

 are trained out past the corner on the 

 side wall to prevent an abrupt corner 

 to the spray. 



The left window is framed in holly 

 sprays, following closely the outline of 

 the windo.w frame. Let the top of the 

 wainscoting be the lower border of the 

 whole decoration. GERTRxn>E Blair. 



A LOOSE BASKET. 



One of the handsomest baskets of 

 loosely arranged flowers seen recently 

 was filled with Shasta daisies. It was 



ILL'Jfy^ 



Decoration of Wild Smilax and Holly Spray*. 



