December 14, 1905. 



The Weekly Florists^ Review^ 



2J9 



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THE RETAIL 



FLORIST. 



CHRISTMAS PLANTS. 



Plants Instead of Greens. 



Every florist who sells at retail has 

 a call at Christmas for plant arrange- 

 ments of one kind or another and of 

 varying degrees of elaborateness. The 

 holly wreath was once the best selling 

 item of the florist's Christmas stock; it 

 is still popular with the people, but in 

 most places holly has lost much of its 

 value to the florist; it is now the chief 

 Christmas specialty of the Greek on the 

 curb, of the Italian who runs the pea- 

 nut stand, and holly is handled in large 

 quantities by the produce commission 

 men, who supply it to every village 

 grocer and butcher. Consequently many 

 florists are finding holly less and less 

 profitable, while those who are still able 

 to get a fairly satisfactory price for it 

 are, with few exceptions, selling smaller 

 quantities each year because of outside 

 competition. They are devoting their 

 energies to plant arrangements, leaving 

 the holly wreaths and the paper Christ- 

 mas bells to other if less kindly hands. 



The Kind That Sell. 



Plant arrangements call for some sort 

 of basket, hamper, pot cover or ribbon 

 for each and the supply houses have 

 not been slow to provide a wide assort-, 

 ment of these accessories. In the 

 wealthier communities the leading re- 

 tailers have, with their aid, and with 

 the aid of the plantsmen's best prod- 

 ucts, builded some fearsome things; also 

 others rich, rare and delicate, fit exam- 

 ples of the best work of the craft. The 



Review has printed many pictures of 

 the plant and cut flower arrangements, 

 sent out by the bon-ton stores, but to 

 show these New York ' ' creations ' ' to 

 the average florist is frequently to fail 

 to interest him; he does not have the 

 stock for their construction, and if he 

 had these large or expensive arrange- 

 ments in his store he could not find any- 

 body to buy them. 



Even in Pittsburg, Cleveland, Phila- 

 delphia, Boston and Chicago the largest 

 stores find themselves in the main de- 

 pendent upon the patronage of people 

 who will not spend more than a moderate 

 amount on a single purchase and their 

 stocks are arranged accordingly. The ac- 

 companying illustrations are from photo- 

 graphs made last Christmas at one of 

 the best stores in an inland city, a 

 store which has the patronage of the 

 wealthiest class. They "^show, not the 

 display pieces, the things one admires 

 but does not buy, but the things which 

 were actually being sold. 



Primulas Popularly Priced. 



The most popular arrangement was 

 the basket or hamper of primulas. Thesu 

 sold at from $3 to $5, according to size 

 and the amount of material required, 

 and it was no uncommon thing to sell 

 several to a customer, to be delivered 

 on Christmas morning to separate ad- 

 dresses. Probably the best liked was 

 the long, narrow, zinc-lined raffia ham- 

 per containing eight to twelve primulas, 

 with no ribbon or any other accessory. 

 Another form was the low round basket 

 with its zinc pan, containing primulas 



and asparagus, adiantum or occasionally 

 low poinsettias. A very good seller was 

 the small brass receptacle, some solely 

 for hanging, others with legs, like the 

 one illustrated. These contained only a 

 single plant and could be retailed at a 

 price which would lead to many salea 

 and still leave a good profit. Every 

 store should offer something of this 

 kind; it takes only a moment to fill 

 them as needed. 



Poinsettias. 



Of course the poinsettia is to Christ- 

 mas what the lily is to Easter, but it is 

 a somewhat more expensive plant than 

 can be sold freely in the smaller stores. 

 The bright red bracts of a good poin- 

 settia to be sold in the pot should be 

 as wide as the plant is high. They are 

 not usually of these proportions, but 

 the lower they are the better they lend 

 themselves to making up in pans of 

 various sizes. They need no embellish- 

 ment other than a pot cover. Dark 

 green is best, sometimes tied with holly 

 red ribbon. 



By far the larger number of poin- 

 settias are used in planting baskets or 

 hampers in combination with other ma- 

 terial. Those which have lost a part of 

 their foliage can be employed in this 

 way with good effect, the other plants 

 serviii;; to cover their nakedness. A few 

 Roman hyacinths serve to brighten by 

 contrast the red of the bracts and a 

 pandanus is a favorite center plant. 

 With poinsettias, Farleyense and Ro- 

 mans almost any kind of a basket or 

 zinc-lined hamper may be filled, allow- 

 ing for a wide range of style and price. 

 If ribbon is used it would better be 

 heavy, not too wide and green to match 

 the foliage of the poinsettia, especially 

 if tied on the upper part of the arrange- 

 ment. 



Otaheite Oranges. 



Otaheite oranges sell well at Christ- 

 mas. They are frequently planted in 

 hampers with other material, but last 

 year thousands of well fruited plants 

 were sold in good stores when shown 



Primroses in a Zinc-Lined RaKia Basket 



