The Weekly Florists^ Review* 



AnansT 13, 1908. 



class mentioned, with one or two good 

 features drowned in a host of storage 

 pieces; for example, a basket of beauti- 

 ful Killarneys was seen down among 

 jars of gaillardias, sweet peas, phloxes 

 and gladioli. 



The Lack of Connection. 



Another only half bad arrangement is 

 a number of vases or baskets set in a 

 ^ndow with no apparent connection. 

 * ' One thing at a time ' ' must be a maxim 

 ever in mind. You may use a hundred 

 different objects in your window at once, 

 but see to it that they are employed to 

 one common end or purpose. For in- 

 stance, suppose you are displaying a 

 little table decoration. Set the table 

 completely and confine yourself to 

 that alone. Do not set a basket 

 or vase off in the corner of the window, 

 no matter how empty that may look, 

 or how tempting the stock is that you 

 wish to show. Make your decoration 

 elaborate and beautiful, but stop short 

 with that feature, not inferring, how- 

 ever, that the decoration shall be of one 

 color and one kind of flowers. It may 

 or may not, but it must be one pic- 

 ture, and every variety or separate flower 

 must be a part of the whole. 



Suppose we give each of two people a 

 few hundred carnations, we will say of 

 one color, for a window decoration, and 

 give each the privilege of selecting the 

 receptacles and style of arrangement. 

 One may select ten or a dozen vases, 

 fill each one with carnations and green, 

 and set them indiscriminately in the 

 window. The other may put aJl of his 

 carnations into a large jardiniere and 

 set it in the window for his decoration. 



of help in the diligent study of the sub- 

 ject in general — ^plant life, habits, color 

 and design. It will stimulate a love 

 of the beautiful, and after a while sig- 

 nificant ideas will present themselves 

 without effort. 



It is no permanent help to a person to 

 have a window to copy from. That is 

 the most undesirable of all aids. Get 

 at the principle which the designer of 

 a good window presents and work out 

 another of its class, or still better, of an- 

 other class. 



The store has a character, like an in- 

 dividual, and the window is its face. Is 

 it an intelligent, thinking face, that wel- 

 comes a customer? Is it one that re- 

 flects something of the progress of the 

 world and the beauties of nature, or is 

 it a machine face that«-grinds out pretty 

 things? Geetkude Blaie. 



EQUINES' FLORAL TROPHIES. 



G. Van Bochove & Bro., Kalamazoo, 

 Mich., send a' photograph of a floral 

 horseshoe mounted on a chair draped 

 with smilax, and the following explana- 

 tion: 



We had the Grand and Western Cir- 

 cuit races here last week and as we had 

 the orders for three large floral pieces 

 we thought it might be of some interest 

 to Review readers. On the opening day 

 for the 2:09 trot we made a floral horse- 

 collar, which was presented to the win- 

 ning horse. On the following day, for 

 the $10,000 stake race, we made a floral 

 horseshoe six feet high, attached to a 

 chair. The winning driver in this race 

 was placed in the chair and the horse- 

 shoe above him and carried around, amid 



Trophy for the Winner of a Horse Race. 



Which is the better? The latter, for he 

 could, with the addition of a good, soft 

 background and a liberal allowance of 

 green, make a simple, elegant window 

 piece. ' 



Straining After Novelty. 



Some decorators are a step in advance 

 of those just mentioned. They worry 

 about the window. "What shall I put 

 in next!" They try, but can invent 

 nothing worth while, and their produc- 

 tions betray a straining after novelty, 

 instead of being clear, refreshing, life- 

 like pictures. For such there is plenty 



great applause, before the grand stand. 

 On the following day, for the 2:13 pace, 

 we made a floral blanket for the win- 

 ning horse. 



The floral pieces were all placed in a 

 down-town window, which was decorated 

 to represent a horse stall. It contained a 

 horse and all necessary equipments and 

 certainly was very attractive and was 

 viewed by thousands. 



Cincinnati, O. — Fred G. Blecher has 

 incorporated the Blecher Floral Co. with 

 $6,000 authorized capital stock. 



MORE ABOUT PECKY CYPRESS. ; 



They say experience is the ^eat teacher, 

 and the experience of certain growers 

 who bought pecky cypress from the low- 

 est bidder this season serves to give^ 

 others an opportunity to profit by the^' 

 expensive experience of the unwary. 



It appears that it has been possible 

 for growers to procure cars of this best 

 of all bench lumber at prices consider- 

 ably below those quoted by the firms 

 which make a specialty of the greenhouse 

 trade, but when the lumber has arrived 

 it has been found that the saving in cost 

 was more than consumed by the fact that 

 the stock was what is known in the lum- 

 ber trade as random widths. 



Eandom widths are anything from 

 three to sixteen inches wide; also, the 

 board is likely to be three inches wide on 

 one end and five inches wide on the 

 other; and they run from six to sixteen 

 feet long. Such lumber is decidedly ex- 

 pensive in the extra work it makes in 

 building the bench, and the bench is 

 never so good as where the material is 

 a uniform width — six inches in the case 

 of pecky cypress sold by those who know 

 what bench building requires. 



The saving of a dollar or two per thou- 

 sand feet does not justify anyone in 

 buying random widths, and by all means 

 know what you are going to get before 

 you place your order. Buy of someone 

 who makes a specialty of florists' trade. 



DISEASED ASTER PLANTS. 



By today's mail I will send you a 

 Crego aster plant. Can you tell me what 

 is the trouble with it? I planted some 

 in the old aster bed, and some in a new 

 bed where no asters had ever been grown, 

 but they are all affected the same way. 

 I can see no insect but grasshoppers on 

 them. It seelhs to me I will be without 

 blossoms this season. The plants were 

 grown from the new Crego aster seed. 



A.D. 



I am not familiar with the Crego aster, 

 except what I have seen of it growing 

 here this season; therefore I do not know 

 whether it is subject to the trouble you 

 are having with it or not. I suspect that 

 your trouble is not as aggravated as you 

 may fear and I think you may expect to 

 cut a good many good blooms from these 

 plants. They are not affected with the 

 common aster blight, but with a sort of 

 scald or bleach on the young growth. 

 We frequently see this on the Semple and 

 Carlson strains. It ruins the center bud 

 and, in fact, all the top of the plant, but 

 the lower branches come out and produce 

 as fine blooms as the top ones ever would 

 have produced. 



I cannot tell you what causes it, nor 

 how you can prevent it, unless it is from 

 the extreme heat we usually encounter at 

 this time of the year. Our Crego plants 

 do not show this trouble here, but we 

 have lost several from the blight. Re- 

 member that this is a late flowering va- 

 riety and that you will not get the best 

 blooms for some time. 



It seems to me this aster disease prob- 

 lem is one which is worthy of the closest 

 study by some of our good scientist 

 friends. The growing of asters has be- 

 come quite an industry and every year a 

 great deal of money is lost to the grow- 

 ers through these diseases. Especially is 

 the blight a most puzzling problem. So 

 far, we have been able to find nothing 

 which will check it after it once shows 

 itself in the field. Many . theories have 

 been offered as to its origin, etc., but we 



