May 18, 1905. 



The Weekly Florists' Review. 



J57t 



Filling Cemetery Vases. 



Memorial day will soon be here and 

 it brings a busy time. Not only do our 

 customers want their vases filled in the 

 cemeteries, but there is often the desire 

 expressed: "I want our flower beds and 

 veranda boxes filled by Decoration day." 

 Those who do what we call a cemetery 

 business, and fill 300 or 400 vases, know 

 what a laborious business it is. Some 

 years ago there were several kinds of 

 vases and baskets used for this purpose. 

 There were cast-iron vases, wire baskets 

 or stands and rustic baskets. Now there 

 are few of any kind but the iron vases 

 and they certainly have the best ap- 

 pearance, as well as being practically 

 everlasting. A coat of paint annually 

 and they are always new. We think there 

 is rather too much sameness in the 

 painting. Ninety-five or more per cent 

 are painted white. While any gaudy 

 color would be quite out of place, if more 

 were painted a deep green and others a 

 stone color it would relieve the monot- 

 ony. 



Time was when we used to send wag- 

 ons loaded with plants and other wagons 

 with soil and a gang of men and attempt 

 to fill fifty vases in a day. We have got 

 over that, for there was too much waste 

 of material. Plants were broken and 

 wilted and the battered plants that came 

 back made too big an item. There are 

 a few old-fashioned iron vases and, of 

 course, some large stone vases that have 

 to be filled at the cemeteries, but nearly 

 all iron vases are of the reservoir type 

 and the top, or bowl, can be lifted off 

 and brought to the greenhouse and much 

 more satisfactorily filled. The work can 

 be done much better, with no waste of 

 plants, and you have the contents of the 

 whole greenhouses at your back. There 

 may be a little more teaming this way, 

 but, all things considered, it is by far 

 the better plan. 



Don't Procrastinate. 



Another weakness we used to have was 

 to try to persuade people to wait until 

 a day or two after Decoration day. That 

 is a big mistake. Don't put off for an 

 hour anything that can be donef now, for 

 the first ten days of June find us as busy 

 as on Easter Saturday. 



We never considered that there was 

 much piargin of profit in this vase filling 

 business, yet a change in style of late 

 years has been somewhat in our favor. 

 Ten years ago, with few exceptions, the 

 vases were filled with a mixture of 

 plants, with vines around the edge. 

 Often have we counted the plants and 

 found that at wholesale prices they 

 would cost as much as we got for the 

 filling, soil, moss and labor thrown in. 

 But remember that in those cases we 

 largely used what we had and so cleaned 

 up on everything, and that makes a won- 

 derful difference. 



Did you ever think of the difference 

 in the profits of a place where all the 

 stock is in salable shape and the benches 



emptied and one where one-third or one- 

 half the plants, for some reason or other, 

 arcf left unsold? It is the difference be- 

 tween success and failure. Every foot 

 of your bench room must yield you some 

 profit. If it does not, it has dragged 

 down the profit of the space that did 



pay- 

 Too Much Red. 



But to return to the vases. The great 

 majority ar^ now filled with one kind of 

 plant, mostly geraniums. There are sev- 

 eral reasons for that. They are always 

 in bloom, are neat and compact and do 

 not suffer from a little neglect of water. 

 They make a bright, gay spot. S. A. 

 Nutt is such an admirable variety for 

 this purpose that it is overdone. The 



fine for the purpose. A mixture of droop- 

 ing plants for the edge is not at all suit- 

 able for a geranium vase. The green 

 vinca is good for the scarlets and the 

 variegated vinca for the pink and salmon 

 shades. A dwarf white geranium is fine 

 for Mrs. Perkins and Mme. Salleroi is 

 often wanted as an edging for Nutt, A 

 combination that many want is a pink 

 geranium for the center with an edging 

 of the pink ivy-leaved geranium. 



Other Good Material. 



Large vases are sometimes filled with 

 dwarf, free-flowering cannas of one va- 

 riety, such as Tarrytown, The Express, 

 or Souvenir de Antoine Crozy. Large 

 stone vases are sometimes filled with 

 Caladium esculentum but these vigorous 

 rooting plants should never be used in 

 combination with other plants, for they 

 quickly starve them out. Begonias of the 

 Vernon type make pretty vases and 

 where there is some shade during the 

 hottest hours we have filled vases with 

 tuberous-rooted begonias, and rich and 

 choice they look. 



I don't pretend to have exhausted the 

 list of available plants for this purpose, 

 but always recommend the filling to be 



The Hydrangea is the Popular Memorial Day Plant. 



individual lot-owner may be charmed 

 with his brilliant mass of scarlet blooms, 

 but when there are forty similar ones 

 within 100 yards, the effect is not pleas 

 ant. There should be more pink, white 

 and salmon. Beaute Poitevine, Mrs. 

 Frances Perkins and John Doyle are all 



of one kind of plant. There is more 

 profit for you and it is sure to be more 

 satisfactory to your patron. If your 

 customer wants scarlet geraniums, it will 

 have to be so, but encourage variety. 

 It is not the beauty of one lot that 

 should please the visitor to the city of 



