October 17, 1907. 



The Weekly Florists' Review* 



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THE RETAIL 



FLORIST 



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FUNERAL VORK. 



Trimmiii£ a Guket With Loose Flowers. 



Before going into details in regard 

 to the making of casket covers, I will 

 suggest and describe a w^y of triinming 

 a casket that will appeal "to the smaller 

 pocketbook. The plan I would , suggest 

 is trimming the casket loosely with 

 flowers at the funeral house. Select 

 about six or eight dozen roses, carna- 

 tions or almost any flower of medium 

 size, and a suitable green, then take 

 some green silkaline and some strong 

 pins and proceed to the funeral house. 



First form a garland around the glass 

 plate with the flowers and green, fasten- 

 ing these firmly in place with the pins, 

 which you can stick under the cloth cov- 

 ering of the casket. Then cover the 

 lower end of the casket in the same 

 manner, arranging the flowers as loosely 

 as possible. To hold them more securely 

 in place, draw a piece of silkaline across 

 them about every eight or ten inches, 

 fastening the silkaline on each side with 

 a pin. Stick the pin through the cloth, 

 allowing both the point and head to 

 show about a quarter of an inch, and 

 wind the string around this. 



In this manner you can trim a cas- 

 ket nicely for a small sum as compared 

 with the cost of the regular cover. Of 

 course, when a customer wants a cover, 

 do not suggest this substitute unless the 

 customer is unwilling or unable to pay 

 for the more expensive work. 



Casket G>vers. 



Now for a few words about casket 

 covers, or blankets, as they are often 

 called. These are made in much the 

 same way as panels, but of course on a 

 more elaborate scale. They are made 

 in various styles and almost any flower 

 can be used. 



Let us first consider the frame or 

 the body of the cover. For this purpose 

 wire frames are used by most of the 

 florists, but a better and less expensive 

 way is to use cloth or wire netting. 



When you desire to make a cover of 

 a small flower, such as the violet or sweet 

 pea, you will find that a piece of dark 

 green doth — denim or overall goods, 

 as it is commonly called — will work 

 well. 



Before going any farther, it will be 

 necessary to make, out of some pieces of 

 wood cut from strips 1x3 inches in thick- 

 ness, a frame upon which to stretch the 

 cloth. Leave the latter a little larger 

 than the desired size of the cover and 

 fasten it to the frame with a few 

 tacks. Then place one end of the frame 

 on the work-bench and the other end on 

 a high desk-stool or stand, so you can 

 get underneath with your hands. Have 

 one of your assistants put the violets 

 up into little bunches of about ten each, 

 tying a few violet leaves in with them. 

 Sew these small bunches to the cloth 

 with some green string, placing the 

 little bimches just close enough together 

 80 that they will cover well. Begin 



at the outside and work toward the cen- 

 ter. No extra green or ferns will be 

 necessary. 



A very fine cover of aU smilax can 

 be made by fastening the smilax to 

 some deni;l. In this style of cover 

 the cloth should hang well over the 

 sides of the casket. Sew or pin — with 

 safety-pins — the smilax to the cloth in 

 the full length of the strings. "Wire 

 netting is used in the same way, but 

 usually for larger flowers, such as roses, 

 carnations, asters, etc. You will find 

 it handier to fasten the flowers to the 

 netting with wire instead of sewing, 

 as in the cloth. For this purpose I 

 usually bend some 6-inch lengths of No. 

 24 wire into square-shaped fasteners, 

 similar to hairpins, but about two inches 

 wide at the top and square at the cor- 

 ners. These will enable you to fasten 

 several flowers at the same time. Always 

 insert the wire from underneath and tie 

 at the top, so as not to leave a lot of 

 ends to catch in everything. 



It will be well to lay a few fern 

 leaves between the fluwers and the net- 



30x46 inches you will find will be just 

 about right for covering the lower end 

 of a casket. 



Of course, if you are planning on 

 making a cover with galax leaves as 

 a background, you will have to use a 

 wire frame, for, as in the panel, you 

 will need moss to hold the fern-pins 

 or toothpicks. As the wire frames used 

 for the covers are usually made to ex- 

 tend over the edges of the casket, they 

 are somewhat diflScult to moss. The best 

 way is to moss the sides first and then 

 the top. 



For large flowers, such as lilies, large 

 chrysanthemums, etc., it is advisable, in 

 my estimation, to use a wire frame, as 

 you may experience trouble in fasten- 

 ing the flowers tightly on the netting. 



It is always advisable to make a 

 cover in two separate pieces — that is, 

 when a whole casket is to be covered — 

 as it is much easier to handle. "When 

 it is desired to cover a casket down 

 to the very edge or part-way down the 

 •sides, in using cloth or netting all you 

 have to do is to get the piece large 

 enough. Of course, in a stiff wire frame 

 it is desirable to have the side and 

 end pieces separate. 



As you go along making up panels 

 and covers, it is a good plan to keep 

 exact count of the number of flowers 

 required for the different sizes of pieces. 

 In this way you can soon manage to 

 have a sort of reference list to turn 

 to when asked the price of these de- 

 signs. Of course, the quantity of 

 flowers required depends to a large ex- 

 <^pnt noon the size and closeness of the 



The Casket Cover. 



ting. There are several reasons why the 

 cloth or the wire netting is preferable 

 to the stiff wire «over. One of these 

 reasons is the comparative cheapness 

 of the cloth or netting, and another rea- 

 son is the flexibility of these materials, 

 which allows them to conform naturally 

 with the top of the casket. 



In some cases customers have even 

 asked to have the cover laid crosswise, 

 thus giving more the effect of a rug 

 of flowers. 



A piece of cloth or netting about 



work; nevertheless, it is well to have 

 records to refer to. Hugo Schroeter. 



A SIGN OF THE TIMES. 



It must be gratifying to those en- 

 gaged in the commerce of floriculture to 

 notice how rapidly flowers are taking 

 the place not long ago occupied by imita- 

 tion monstrosities of paper and cotton 

 fabrics. The better-class hotels, of 

 course, are often beautifully decorated 

 with plants and flowers, but during the 



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