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76 



The Weekly Florists^ Review* 



JDXE 1, 1905. 



the country are reproduced in this is- 

 sue. These are not offered as examples 

 of what flower store advertising should 

 be, but as examples of what it is. There 

 is room for improvement, but these are 

 better than none. Why it should be that 

 a florist does not quote prices in an ad- 

 vertisement is liard to see. The most 

 liberal advertisers of all are the depart- 

 ment stores and they never print an ad- 

 vertisem<'nt witlicut quoting prices on 

 the goods advertised. This is true of 

 the high class stores, like Marshall 

 Field's in Chicago, as well as of the 

 stores which cater to the cheaper trade. 

 It is not necessary to quote cheap pricas 

 to attract trade, but advertising men in 

 general have come to the conclusion that 

 no advertisement is so strong as it might 

 be unless it tells the prospective buyer 

 what the article in question will cost. 



Florists everywhere are invited to send 

 the Review samples of their local retail 

 advertising. Th3 best of these will be 

 reproduced from time to time as oppor- 

 tunity offers. 



A CALLA LILY BASKET. 



There is no one flower so often and 

 more unjustly accused of being stiff as 

 the calla lily. To tell the truth, it is a 

 little difficult to handle and arrange 

 gracefully, especially in flat bunches. 

 Just what the difficulty of the average 

 designer is with this flower is not so 

 easily defined. Look at one flower alone, 

 with its stem. From the point of the 

 perianth down the outside toward the 

 stem and through its extreme length, 

 it is a long graceful curve, and from the 

 folded side of the perianth down the 

 other side of the liower and stem, it is 

 still the same graceful, easy line. Why 

 should not a group of callas somewhat 

 approach the natural curve of the one 

 flower? 



As has been said of other flowers in a 

 flat bunch, callas should have a springy 

 support under them to keep part of the 

 flower from being folded under, as it 

 would be if laid flat upon a hard sur- 

 face. As a rule a group of callas looks 

 better with the perianth point outward. 



While there is no disputing the fact 

 that its natural foliage is always the 

 best with a flower, it is not always prac- 

 tical to try to carry out this rule. In 

 this case the foliage is abundant and 

 accessible, but its poor lasting qualities 

 prevent using it cut, and wa fall back 

 on the old standby, wood ferns, with a 

 light spray of Asparagus plumosus and 

 a rosette of yellow dotted chiffon and 

 white satin ribbon. Two streamers of 

 the ribbon falling from this rosette are 

 caught on the right side, with a smaller 

 rosette of the chiffon below and a tiny 

 bow of the ribbon on the shorter 

 streamer. 



The coloring in this case is brown in 

 the basket, yellow and cream in the 

 flowers and ribbon, and green, which is 

 always understood to be present in less 

 or greater quantities. 



The fault in so many baskets, round 

 bouquets and the bases of standing de- 

 signs is the evenness of the top sur- 

 face. For instance, on a dove and bas- 

 ket of flowers for funeral use, the line 

 drawn across the top of the flowers slopes 

 gradually and uniformly on all sides 

 from the center out. Plow up that 

 even topf. Cut some stems quite short. 

 Leave others long. Let a few strong 

 stems tower away above the others. 

 Throw a few out of the regular line 

 down over the edge till they fall out 

 lawlessly from the mass of flowers and 



foliage. This plan not only makes a 

 more pleasing and inviting arrangement, 

 but shows the quality and size of the 

 individual flowers to a decidedly better 

 advantage. 



This basket, while being suitable for 

 a funeral or decorative design, was orig- 

 inally a store display piece. 



Often some one flower becomes a drug 

 on the market and requires some new 

 "dress up" to induce sales. Herein 

 lies the value of a good stock of acces- 

 sories. Instead of setting out your sur- 

 plus stock of callas in a papier-mache 

 pot, which is all well and good for stor- 



tl'an the others in a group win sell 

 quicker than the rest out of an appro- 

 [iriate pot cover. Gertrude Buue. 



Basket of Gdlas. 



age purposes, set the jar inside of some 

 such basket as is here pictured. Add 

 the foliage and ribbon and set in a 

 prominent place in the store, in front 

 of the door, or in the window. It 

 may at least sell the callas and per- 

 haps sell itself too, or some day a cus- 

 tomer will recall the design and order 

 one like it. It is a good plan to have 

 some kind of a display basket in sight 

 most of the time. If well arranged and 

 novel, they often sell on sight. Full 

 blown roses can often be used in this 

 way more than once. Don't throw them 

 away till they begin to drop their pet- 

 als. 



The same rule holds good in the dis- 

 ' play of plants. The one plant no better 



PUBUCATIONS RECEIVED. 



[The Gold Mine in the Front Yard and How 

 to Worli It. by C. S. Harrison; Webb PublUh- 

 ing Co.; $1.] 



C. S. Harrison has spent a long life 

 in the pursuit of horticulture and has 

 given no small part of his time to the 

 endeavor to bring the beauties of na- 

 ture home to the people. The volume 

 in hand is his most pretentious work in 

 this direction. The purpose of the book 

 is to show its readers that expenditures 

 of time and money in the horticultural 

 improvement of a property are repaid 

 many fold, not only in the pleasure af- 

 forded the owner if it be a home, but 

 in real dollars if the property is put 

 upon the market. The suggestions are 

 particularly applicable to conditions as 

 they exist on the prairie farms of the 

 great west, where the author asserts mil- 

 iums of dollars may be added to realty 

 values by a very small investment in 

 plants, supplemented by the employment 

 of a little time. 



Only a few of the 279 pages in the 

 book are devoted directly to the plea 

 that the life of the back yard is not 

 the sole object of existence; far the 

 greater part of the volume is taken up 

 with suggestions as to the treatment of 

 the front yard, methods of planting, the 

 care of plants and material to plant. 

 The tree agent comes in for an excoria- 

 tion. No writing of Mr. Harrison ever 

 failed to say a word for the peony and 

 an especially good one for some of the 

 excellent creations of western growers. 

 In this case eighty pages, or nearly one- 

 third the book, are given to the author's 

 favorite flower, including a list of rec- 

 ommended varieties so long that it could 

 not but be bewildering to the man who 

 wants to make a modest start in de- 

 veloping his front yard gold mine. But 

 the descriptions and comments are fuU 

 of interest to the peony grower, even if 

 much of the matter has already been 

 published in Harrison's Peony Manual. 

 However, exception must be taken when 

 one reads of Festiva maxima that plants 

 wholesale for $1 each and that it is im- 

 possible to supply the demand while, the 

 author is "informed that the cut blooms 

 bring $2 per dozen wholesale in Chi- 

 cago." Mr. Harrison has been misin- 

 formed. 



Far more than those gentlemen have 

 ever done for themselves, Mr. Harrison 

 does for Terry, Eichardson and Eosen- 

 field in exploiting some of the wonder- 

 ful peonies which have originated on 

 their places. For these modest western 

 growers, whose work is deserving of all 

 praise, Mr. Harrison lets no opportunity 

 to lend a helping hand go unimproved. 



Other chapters deal with many of the 

 other flowers from which in the front 

 yard pleasure and profit are to be de- 

 rived and it is to be hoped that the pub- 

 lishers are able to get the volume a wide 

 reading, for its purpose is most com- 

 mendable from whatever point of view. 



Sales fwmi the advertisement in the 

 Eeview have been very satisfactory. — 

 W. H. Newman, Akron, N. Y. 



EivES Junction, Mich. — ^E. E. Stew- 

 art has finished planting his gladiolus 

 bulbs, of' which he has an increased acre- 

 age. 



