Febbuabx 18, 1900. 



TTic Weekly Florists* Review. 



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THE RETAIL 



FLORIST 



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STAR AND CRESCENT. 



Those who make the star and crescent 

 with a solid groundwork of white carna- 

 tions or pthier flowers should be especially 

 interested in the accompanying illustra- 

 tion, showing the design as made by 

 Charles Henry Fox, at the Sign of the 

 Rose, Philadelphia. The arrangement is 

 as graceful, Mr. Fox thinks, as such a 

 design will permit. White flowers were 

 used, but with plenty of green, and 

 made up loosely. Both the star and the 

 crescent are made up lying flat on the 

 counter and afterwards attached in their 

 proper positions. In this way work can 

 be done much more readily and exactly 

 than were they placed in position first. 



Phil. 



COLORS IN FUNERAL VORK. 



White Flowers Not Essential 



It was only a few years ago that noth- 

 ing but white flowers were used in fu- 

 neral work, and even at this date there 

 are people who almost insist that white 

 flowers only be used in making up their 

 designs. These latter are mainly the 

 country orders, or perhaps from people 

 who, fortunately for them, havQ little 

 occasion to buy or see funeral flowers. 



With the growth of the florists' busi- 

 liess the use in funeral work of most of 

 the various colors in which flowers are 

 available is steadily becoming more pop- 

 ular. Bright colors are not barred. In- 

 deed, there is no finer funeral flower than 

 the Beauty, peerless for presentation to 

 the living, made up in bunches differing 

 only in form. The casket cover, most 

 expensive of all funeral arrangements, 

 can in no way be more effectively made 

 than of blue — the violet. And the less 

 costly designs may, most of them, be 

 made up with more o? less color and re- 

 main in perfectly good taste. All florists 

 should be duly appreciative of the many 

 advantages the trade gains from this use 

 of colored stock and everyone should do 

 his part to help the tendency along. 



Boon to the Country Florist. 



Florists in the large cities, who have a 

 variety of stock at their disposal and 

 have the commission houses to fall back 

 upon, hardly know what diflSculties con- 

 front the retail florist in the small town, 

 or the growers in the rural districts who 

 receive occasional calls for funeral pieces. 

 Even in the large cities there come times 

 when a florist is at his wits' end, not 

 knowing where to obtain stock for a de- 

 sign of specified colors or flowers. So 

 you can easily imagine the predicament 

 in which a florist of limited resources 

 will find himself at times. 



No doubt necessity, the mother of in- 

 vention, is in a large measure responsible 

 for the use of colored flowers in funeral 

 work; still those of our profession who 

 are continually endeavoring to make 

 something just a little different from 

 the ordinary should receive a share of 



the credit for the recognition of the suit- 

 ability of colored stock for this use. 



A design or spray of flowers in all- 

 white is beautiful and always proper or 

 appropriate, that is true; still with a 

 little study and care we can so blend 

 colors that the most artistic effects can 

 be procured. In fact, it is mostly in the 

 arrangement that the art lies. 



White's the Thing in the Country. 



One would think that the buyers of 



fashioned customs and the minute the 

 florist tries to deviate from the rut," by 

 which they also will benefit, they become 

 suspicious — and then the real trouble 

 commences. If possible, never let your 

 prospective customer know that you have 

 not or cannot get certain flowers called 

 for. Few buyers really know what they 

 want in the way of funeral flowers — ex- 

 cept that it is human nature to want 

 anything they can't get — and it is only 

 the exceptional one that is not open to 

 suggestion. 



A Pillow in Hok. 



Say, for instance, a customer comes 

 into a store in a small town, wishing a 

 funeral design for a departed relative. 

 Perhaps she has thought of a pillow of 

 all white flowers, with the inscription 

 "Our Dear Brother" across it. All the 

 flowers available are a few lilies, some 

 white roses. Enchantress carnations, a 

 few Romans and perhaps some forget-me- 

 nots. Probably there also is a light pink 







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The Star and Crescent. 



flowers in the smaller places would not 

 be so particular as the people in the big 

 centers, who see and use more flowers, 

 but I really believe it is just the oppo- 

 site. . The, country* people stick to old- 



azalea nearly through bloom. The first 

 thing to do is to get the customer out of 

 the notion that she must have all white. 

 Tell her that while white is pretty, it is 

 customary to use a little color to take 



