JULT 29, 1909. 



The Weekly Florists' Review* 



S THE RETAIL 



FLORIST, 



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sc :eokter's decorated auto. 



. iitomobile parades are becoming so 

 fn uent that they deserve the attention 

 of retail florists, not only as a source of 

 re^ nue through the decorating work 

 do: 3 for others, but because of the op- 

 po'i unity for advertising these parades 

 afl' 'rd. 



\t Detroit there recently was an auto- 

 iipiiiile parade with over a thousand ma- 

 cli'iiCS in line. Many were decorated, 

 quite a number of florists getting a 

 shnre of the work, and the machines they 

 decorated winning the prizes, but B. 

 Sc'liroeter was the only florist who went 

 in for the available advertising. Not 

 being the possessor of an auto, he was 

 furnished one by the Cadillac people. 

 The car was one of the touring type. On 

 the back was mounted a large canopy, 

 entirely covered with wistaria; the bal- 

 ance of the machine was also trimmed 

 with this pretty flower, made of paper, 

 of course. On the bonnet of the engine 

 was mounted a large eagle. Ribbons, 

 etc., were so used as to produce quite a 

 pretty effect. In fact, it was later an- 

 nounced that had not Mr. Schroeter dis- 

 played his name on two small silk ban- 

 ners, he would have been given the first 

 prize. 



The accompanying illustration shows 

 the machine as the parade was about to 

 start. Many florists will recognize Hugo 

 Schroeter, the Review's Detroit corre- 

 spondent, on the left front seat, and Mrs. 

 Schroeter, also at the left. 



NATURAL FORMS IN DESIGNING. 



Discretion in Using Them. 



After analyzing natural forms and 

 leirning a few of their fascinating dis- 

 guises, an interested student is fairly 

 possessed with a desire to try his own 

 hnnd at creating, and if he is impulsive 

 ho may do some foolish and immature 

 tilings. A new world has opened up to 

 hi' I. He longs for opportunities to do 

 I;i' ;o things, often overlooking the many 

 li' -e things which must occupy the most 

 "f 'lis time. But these same little things 

 iti . after all, the best, for where every 

 f' or must count, details will be more 

 t'i' fully looked after. 



'i this discussion the term "design" 



sli lid be given the widest application 



I" ible. Any assembly of flowers or 



^' ge, be it a vase, bowl, basket, cor- 



**•' hand bouquet, funeral piece, a 



'' ire of a decoration, or even two or 



"' flowers put together, constitutes a 



''' 111- In no case, unless expressly 



*^'' 'I, does it apply to a funeral piece 



01. ■ 



' -''i same principles which apply to 

 I'l urangement of funeral pieces apply 

 t'J iouse decorations, centerpieces, bas- 

 "*' • all kinds of bouquets, and any 

 "''■ 1 fashion or scheme by which flow- 

 ^'•^ loliage or plants, or all together, are 



USi'il. 



Imitation and Invention. 



Following up the statement made in 

 the preceding article, where the subject 

 of natural form was discussed — that all 

 forms came originally from nature, the 

 questions naturally occur, "How, then, 

 can anyone do strictly original workf 

 Must Ave be copyists only? Although a 

 feast of color and form is spread before 

 our eyes continually, why cannot our in- 

 telligence evolve something new under 

 the sun; or must we be content with re- 

 producing what we can discover! Is in- 

 vention a scientific and never an artistic 

 accomplishment ? ' ' 



Various influences often cause two per- 

 sons unknown to each other to investi- 

 gate or invent the same thing at the 

 same time. The results are given to the 

 world at the same time, each person 

 rightly claiming the honor. So far as a 

 person's own knowledge and observation 



that one may invent designs of whose 

 existence he is not aware. Once I deco- 

 rated the front wall of a chapel with a 

 tapestry of holly berries in long strings 

 about a quarter of the distance across 

 the left portion of the space. On the 

 opposite side of the wall was a huge 

 spray of wild smilax, made of a number 

 of pieces of smilax fastened together 

 and having the appearance of being all 

 in one piece. The spray started quite 

 broad at the lower right-hand corner and, 

 after covering the most of the right side 

 of the wall, tapered to the upper left- 

 hand corner of the space, crossing the 

 lines of the holly tapestry. The form of 

 the design might be described as a se- 

 ries of straight lines parallel with the 

 left-hand edge of the rectangular wall 

 space, with a triangular spray of wild 

 smilax extending from the upper left- 

 hand corner to the lower right. 



So far as I knew, that decorative 

 scheme was my own invention, nor could 

 I ever remember having seen it used. 

 Some time afterward I saw a druggist's 

 window floor filled with moth balls. 

 They had not been there many hours 

 until crystals of naphtha began to form 

 upon the window glass and I was sur- 

 prised and delighted to see the form in 

 which they arranged themselves. Lines 

 of crystals formed like tapestry up and 

 down one side of the window, while a 

 collection of crystals formed a graceful 

 triangle, cut into by delicate traceries 



Automobile Decorated by B. Schroeter, Detroit. 



are concerned, he may do many things 

 that have never been done before, and in 

 that sense they are his inventions. He 

 may never have seen them in nature, yet 

 that does not prove that they do not ex- 

 ist somewhere, in some form or many 

 forms, for nature mimics herself, as in 

 the cases of resemblance between in- 

 sects and flowers. 



Some Personal Experience. 



A bit of personal ^perience will be 

 pardonable here, to iflustrate the fact 



of the crystals, all the way from the 

 corner where the tapestry lines started 

 down to the opposite lower corner, filling 

 in all the triangular space with its beau- 

 tiful, frost-like sprays. Shall we say it 

 was owing to the action of light or heat 

 that the central space 9id not fill, or 

 was it not some immutable law of design 

 which guided those tiny crystals in cor- 

 rect and orderly lines f 



The Artist and the Bungler. 



In one sense, design is copying, and 



