JOLY 8, 1900. 



The Weekly Florists^ Review* 



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THE RETAIL 



FLORIST 



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GRAVE DECORATIONS. 



A field for business capable of much 

 development is that of grave decorations. 

 Did you ever notice in the daily papers 

 of the big cities, that at the head of the 

 obituary column there frequently is a 

 space devoted "In Memoriam" to those 

 ■who died on that date in years gone byt 

 Actuated by the finest of sentiments, 

 people pay good money for the privilege 

 of printing there verses dedicated to their 

 departed relatives. How much better 

 that they should lay flowers on the 

 graves 1 



The accompanying illustrations show 

 two views of a grave decoration arranged 

 by the Bell Floral Co., Franklin, Pa. 

 The family wished to show its remem- 

 brance of the birthday of the deceased 

 and took this excellent way of doing 

 it. The florist made a large flat bunch 

 of Enchantress carnations and Sprengeri, 

 large enough to cover the entire grave. 

 This was placed with the tip of the 

 spray at the foot of the grave. At the 

 head there stood a large basket of lilies 

 and variously colored antirrhinums, 

 backed by palms and ferns. The illus- 

 trations show two views. 



Sentimental persons can find innumer- 

 able occasions for the use of such decora- 

 tions; anniversaries of birth, marriage, 

 death, etc., and there can be no better 

 public manifestation of unforgetfulness. 



In winter when the weather makes it 

 undesirable to use cut flowers for such a 

 purpose, a design of boxwood, or leu- 

 cothoe, or laurel may be used. The 

 widow of one of Chicago's leading citi- 

 zens at Christmas each year places on 

 his grave a great cross of boxwood. 



VARIETY IN FLORAL WORK. 



Beware of Monotony. 



It is all very well to have favorite 

 styles in flower arrangements, but to have 

 one favorite style is all very ill. To 

 have an individuality is an enviable dis- 

 tinction, but to keep thrusting any one 

 creation continually before the eyes of 

 the public marks the designer as a shal- 

 low faddist. One design for a pillow, 

 one for a wreath, one for a star, one for 

 a crescent, and so on down the list, is 

 better, of course, than one fashion for 

 all, but dozens of ways for each is the 

 introduction to hundreds of ways for 

 each. 



Every house to be decorated is worthy 

 of a design of its o\yn. Some features, 

 of course, may be repeated, but this 

 thing of contracting and expanding the 

 same scheme for wide and narrow doors 

 and high and low ceilings is creditable 

 to a hack. Any building of character 

 should be studied and understood, and 

 in attempting to decorate it the designer 

 must fall in with and follow the archi- 

 tectural lines, just as he should follow 

 the design lines of a simple funeral 

 piece. 



By this is not meant that he must 

 always outline a mirror frame or a win- 



dow, but that he must not ignore its 

 place and style, any more than he must 

 load it with decorative material to hide 



Anniversary Decoration of Grave. 



it completely. In festooning a mirror he 

 will remember to return to base occa- 

 sionally; that is, to catch his garland to 



one of the corners, and not roam "any 

 old way ' ' across the surface of the glass. 



DiKoverios New Ways. 



His first venture in this field will not 

 be the^nly route by which he will travel 

 in the future, but he will find new ways 

 each time, and by conforming to the 

 lines of the building will find himself 

 not in bondage to a rule, but free, with 

 ever widening opportunities. Discover- 

 ing new ways does not come by working 

 the same old scheme "just this once" to 

 save time, but by discerning the form and 

 plan and adding touches to further de- 

 velop the picture. 



A selective study of the various fur- 

 nishings of a house is not a diflScult mat- 

 ter. A wide-awake person would not set 

 a full, heavy vase of American Beauties 

 on a slender, spindle-legged table, but he 

 would choose a slender vase of delicate- 

 tinted roses for it, while he would cast 

 about for a massive mission piece on 

 which to rightly display the Beauties. 



In Harmony With the Furnishings. 



If called upon to decorate a mantel in 

 a bungalow where the findings were un- 

 cut stone, the discriminating person 

 would add a twig or birch basket, with 

 brakes and wild flowers. Or, if it were 

 in order to decorate a fairy-like mantel 

 of elaborate carving, he would bring out 

 a cut glass basket or crystal bowl, filled 

 with daintily colored hothouse beauties. 



A stairway finished with slender ban- 

 isters in white may be interwoven with 

 dainty strands of green, while a mas- 

 sive, broad staircase, with a heavy newel 

 post, will require plants of expansive 

 foliage and generally ponderous appear- 

 ance. If a wide hall corner is to be 

 screened off for musicians, it may be 

 properly done by the use of large foliage 

 plants, but for a narrow passageway, so 

 often reserved for the musicians' cor- 

 ner, try a curtain of diamond-shaped 

 meshes of smilax, broken at one side by 

 a tall vase of a half dozen or so speci- 

 men flowers. It looks reasonable to place 

 a long, slender centerpiece on a long 

 table, rather than a solidly built one in 

 the center, crowding the middle section 

 of the table and leaving the ends with 

 no decoration. 



The Wedding Bower. 



There is no best way to decorate a 

 wedding bower. According to the place, 

 use a bell or chime of bells, a shower, 

 a ball or number of balls, an umbrella, 

 a canopy, a basket or a cluster of bas- 



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Spray o! Camatioiu to Completely Cover a Grave* 



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