May 17, 1906. 



The Weekly Florists' Review* 



1853 



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THE RETAIL 



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THE DECORATOR'S TOOL KIT. 



How many times, when out on some 

 large or even minor decoration, have you 

 had to trouble the people in the house 

 for some tacks, pins or the loan of a 

 hammer, with the poor excuse, "I forgot 

 mine"? This not only causes unneces- 

 sary delay but makes a poor impression. 



All tkis can easily be avoided by keep- 

 ing, ever ready and under lock and key, 

 a small tool kit similar to a carpenter's 

 tool box, Dut of such proportions as 

 to be easily carried, on the car if need 

 be. About twenty inches long, one foot 

 wide and five to six inches deep is a 

 good size. 



You can construct the box yourself, 

 of light, strong boards. Along one side 

 make a compartment to hold an 18-inch 

 saw and a medium weight hammer. The 

 balance of the box should be a " double 

 decker." The lower part should be 

 divided up for holding tacks, pins, two 

 sizes of nails, staples, spools of green 

 thread, straightened wire, pliers, etc. In 

 the upper half you will find room for 

 a coil of wire and a pair of overalls, 

 although some decorators will prefer to 

 wear an apron. 



The cover of the box should hold the 

 two parts in place, so that the small 

 articles will remain in their respective 

 places. 



Put a good lock on the box and keep 

 the key in your pocket. See that every- 

 thing is in its place and every place 

 filled, and instead of having a dozen 

 things to remember when starting on a 

 job, aside from plants, greens, etc., you 

 have just one other thing to carry, ithe 

 tool kit. Hugo Schroeter. 



SEASONABLE SUGGESTIONS. 



The use of fruit with flowers is rather 

 uncommon, and for that reason quite de- 

 sirable. One centerpiece of daisies and 

 strawberries took well. Strawberry 

 plants in blossom and fruit in all stages, 

 from the whitish green to greenish red 

 and fully ripe, were used as the foliage 

 part of the piece. In among the plants 

 were placed two or three short vases con- 

 taining cut daisies. The plants were 

 taken out of the pots and sphagnum 

 packed around held them in place. The 

 runners were allowed to ' ' run ' ' outside 

 of the centerpiece proper, and clusters of 

 extra berries were wired on, so as to 

 give the idea of their having grown 

 there in clusters. This on a Battenberg 

 centerpiece made an attractive luncheon 

 decoration. 



Later fruits could be used with season- 

 able flowers, such as cherries with white 

 sweet peas, black raspberries with deli- 

 cate pink-tinted sweet peas in a twig 

 basket, peach blossoms with Chatenay or 

 Golden Gate roses. 



For an informal luncheon try a twig 

 hamper containing a small vase or two 

 of Kichmond roses. Let the lid fall 

 back and the roses scatter over it from 

 the inside of the basket. See that the 

 vase or small bowl is concealed with 

 extra rose foliage or ferns. Stiff, long- 



stemmed roses cannot be used in this 

 way. It is a good arrangement to sug- 

 gest for using short and weak-stemmed 

 roses. 



A seasonable window for yellow and 

 white snapdragons was devised by using 

 a brown, square handled, rather rustic 

 basket containing a pan or large vase 

 full of these tall, graceful stalks, with 

 the addition of a little Sprengeri as cen- 

 ter. The background was a 2-inch bed 

 of sphagnum covered with ferns laid 

 flat, and yellow and brown pansies 

 stemmed two or three to a pick in- 

 serted through the ferns into the sphag- 

 num. Pansies were set in about as 

 thick as when found growing in a bed. 



To change the color and keep the same 



BASKET OF CHATENAY. 



The accompanying illustration is from 

 a photograph of a cornucopia-shaped 

 basket of roses arranged by the Drumm 

 Seed and Floral Co., Fort" Worth, Tex. 

 The horn of pienty was particularly ap- 

 propriate to the occasion, which was the 

 opening of the new Touraine hotel. The 

 roses used were Mnie. Chatenay. The 

 arrangement of the basket was excellent. 



FLOWERS POLLUTING WATER. 



I lately came across a note which 

 stated that a French florist had discov- 

 ered tliat roses and mignonette would not 

 live together in the same vase. This is 

 entirely contradictory to my experience, 

 says a writer in the Horticultural Ad- 

 vertiser; yet I have found that migno- 

 nette very soon pollutes water, especially 

 if the leaves are not stripped off above 

 wiiere the stems reach the water. 



It is remarkable that many of the 

 sweet-scented flowers pollute the water 

 in a very short time. Take stocks, lily 

 of the valley, wallflowers, heliotropes, 

 sweet peas, especially where foliage of 

 the latter is used with the flowers. It 

 may not be confined lb sweet-scented 



Basket of Mme. Chatenay Roses. 



(Arran>.'('d by the Drumm Seed and Floral Co.. Fort Worth, Tex.) 



scheme, a green basket was used with 

 pink snapdragons and purple pansies. 



Full blown roses often accumulate at 

 this time of the year. They need not 

 mean loss. Get some advertising out of 

 them. Make loose garlands and trim a 

 window mirror with a line of drapery 

 composed of the garland. Set a large 

 Boston fern and trail a garland across 

 the front to fall to the floor, with a few 

 loose roses. Gertrude Blair. 



flowers that the water so soon becomes 

 offensive, but it certainly occurs more 

 witii them than it does with many other 

 flowers. 



In all cases .water should be changed 

 frequently. And there is a twofold ad- 

 vantage in stripping off the foliage on 

 the lower portion of the stems, for it 

 adds to the pollution of the water, and 

 no flowers keep so well with much 

 foliage left on the stems. Take chrys- 



