The Weekly Florists^ Review^ 



-'■*■' ''. . 

 Jolt 29, 1909. 



yet, in the strictest sense, he who copies 

 is no designer. After getting the scheme 

 of the lines which a plant or a branch 

 and foliage make, he may follow it ex- 

 actly, but if he has individuality he will 

 extend some of the lines, shorten others, 

 leave out some, change the curves on 

 some, add some lines, but all will con- 

 form to the original grouping. 



To illustrate: He may need a new de- 

 sign scheme for a rose spray, and, as he 

 looks about in the garden, a small shrub 

 with long, slender branches appeals to 

 him as a graceful suggestion. It may 

 be a shrub of not over three feet in 

 height, with as many as seven branches, 

 and all told it may be no larger than an 

 ordinary casket spray. If he is a blun- 

 dering designer he will try to make 

 seven branches to his spray, all headed 

 the same way, and he and everybody else 

 will be dissatisfied with the result. He 

 will probably go back to some old 

 scheme which he has used before. But, 

 on the other hand, if he is a clever de- 

 signer he will remember that the bush 

 has an all-round space in which to 

 spread itself, but that his spray has 

 only a flat surface on which to disport 

 itself. He will then sensibly cut out 

 about one-half of the branches and 

 shorten another, and his product will be 

 a loose spray with two or three tips of 

 uneven length, well separated, and it will 

 be fresh and attractive. 



Where Taste Enters. 



Where to draw the line, what to adopt 

 and iiow much to reject, is where some 

 halting opinion may cause trouble. But 

 just at this point. Taste enters and in 

 her luminous presence things appear as 

 they should be. Taste may be culti- 

 vated, but a germ of the blind instinct 

 must be inborn in the designer. To 

 illustrate by other examples: A clover 

 head as a design is beautiful of itself, 

 but when we come to transplant it bod- 

 ily into a design plan, there is another 

 puzzler. If one attempts to construct a 

 hand bouquet like a clover head he will 

 carry out a ridiculous extreme, but if he 

 singles out the outline of a single flow- 

 eret from the clover head and makes a 

 spray of small flowers after its pattern, 

 he will have a piece of most dainty de- 

 sign. 



Again, make an outline of an oak leaf 

 and use it as above for an aster or mum 

 spray. Add a few oak leaves with the 

 flowers, to complete the uniformity of 

 the design. 



Simplify, then; take a fractional part 

 of a natural form as a starter for a de- 

 sign. Because a pine cone is a natural 

 form is no reason why it should become 

 the ideal for a bride's bouquet, but it 

 is a suggestive idea for a drop decora- 

 tive feature in a festoon or other wall 

 decoration. 



The Intricate Design. 



Intricate forms should seldom be 

 adopted bodily. The question some- 

 times occurs, "Can a decorative piece 

 be too elaborate if the designing is cor- 

 rect?" "When you examine some of the 

 details of the carving on a few of the 

 famous buildings of the old world and 

 hear their praises sung by the best 

 critics of all ages, you are tempted to 

 cultivate an appetite for complicated de- 

 sign. But most flowers are complicated 

 designs, to begin with, and except in 

 cases where the space is large and the 

 view clear for a long distance, the com- 

 plicated designing had better be ruled 

 out. A warrant for elaborate designing 



is found, however, in the complicated 

 series of color markings of many flowers. 

 Many people object to massing flowers 

 and solid funeral pieces, as being un- 

 natural. Most emphatically, it is not 

 unnatural. It is quite natural and one 

 can easily see examples of it every- 

 where. Trees are clustered together in 

 groves. Flowers belonging to the com- 

 posite order are fairly packed together, 

 as in the clover, sunflower and corn- 

 flower. Massive work can be made 

 beautiful if properly decorated, but a 

 designer should not allow himself to fol- 

 low this style to the neglect of others. 



Freedom and Its Limits. 



The fact of the existence of untrue 

 corresponding sides of leaves and plants 



NOTICE 



, Certain florist? of this city in sofictt- 

 Ing orders for flowers for funerals are 

 so lost in tlicir zeal to obtain business as 

 to fail to appreciate the aineriities due 

 the grief -stricken, and mconsidetatcly 

 intrude themselves or their grasping 

 rfepresentativcs' on families suffering 

 from the shock incident to the loss of 

 those near and dear to them. These 

 ghouls of the business are frequently 

 rebuked hy the indignant mourners and 

 friends of the deceased, but their ac- 

 tions sometimes tend to create a false 

 impression of the methods employed in 

 the flowed business, and those of us 

 who conduct our eflforts along legiti- 

 mate lines are often unjustifiably criti- 

 cised. We appreciate that flowers as a 

 gift ai^ usually the best external evi- 

 dence that persons have of showing 

 their sentiments towards the departed 

 and their family, but wd most emphati- 

 'cally disapprove of the tactics employed 

 by the inconsiderate clement referred 

 to.' Their importunities have grown 

 akin to i common nuisance, and my 

 pitrpose in writhig this letter in behalf 

 of my fellow -florists is to ask the public 

 to aid the reputable dealers in our ef- 

 forts to correct the abuses by giving 

 short shrift to these objectionable 

 solicitors. Your* truly, 



Newspaper Advertisement Against 

 Crepe Chasers. 



encourages freedom in designing and 

 trimming. However, there must be 

 found in every floral design a certain 

 balance and poise, even although it may 

 not be evident at first glance. But where 

 a prominent feature bends out to one 

 side, a corresponding part should project 

 somehow in the opposite direction. The 

 fulcrum should be at the center of the 

 piece, and the tips of the opposite points 

 should be somewhere near equal dis- 

 tances from the center. 



The principal difficulty, then, is adapt- 

 ing the correct design to the occasion. 

 No rule for this can be found except 

 that rare gift, common sense, guided by 

 at least a glimmer of natural taste. 

 Gertrude Blair. 



GALVIN ON CREPE CHASING. 



The Thomas F. Calvin corporation at 

 Boston purposes to discourage the prac- 

 tice designated as crepe chasing. In an 

 open letter, published as an advertise- 



ment in the Boston dailies, Mr. Gal.in 

 says the practice has grown until ;he 

 importunities of the soUcitors have be- 

 come akin to a common nuisance. He je- 

 lieves that the light of publicity let in on 

 the practice will serve to correct he 

 abuse and at the same time will reli: ve 

 the better grade of florists from he 

 stigma which attaches to all florists be- 

 cause of the despicable methods pi ic- 

 ticed by those on the fringe of the trai e- 

 no florist deserving of the name obtru ies 

 himself upon any family in time of 

 death; he must wait until he is called. 



THE SIOUX CITY GATES. 



The gates ajar shown in the accom- 

 panying illustration was made at the 

 store of Eocklin & Lehman at Sioux C ty 

 for the recent funeral of a railroader, 

 and one of the florists' hardest probkms 

 was how to dispose of the inscription 

 which was demanded. The committee 

 that collected the money for the design 

 insisted upon the inscription: "Sym- 

 pathy of the employees of the Omaha 

 shops," which is a whole lot to put on 

 any floral piece. Eocklin & Lehman ac- 

 complished the task by using gold let- 

 ters on a long streamer of ribbon, as 

 shown in the picture. The conventional 

 gates design was varied by adding a star 

 at the top and by perching a dove on one 

 of the gates. The flowers used included 

 roses, carnations, sweet peas and lilies, 

 the piece measuring five feet from base 

 to star. 



July 22 Michael Eocklin bought out 

 the interest of his partner, Julius Leh- 

 man, and will continue the business in- 

 dividually, but will retain the firm name 

 vsithout change. The second illustration 

 shows the store front as it appeared one 

 day last week. The habitues of the 

 Chicago market wiU recognize Mr. Eock- 

 lin. He was for fourteen years with E. 

 H. Hunt and for two years with Bassett 

 & Washburn before going to Sioux City 

 about a year ago to engage in business 

 for himself. 



ASTER DISEASE. 



We are sending a diseased aster plant. 

 Please state what the disease is and its 

 cause and cure, if possible. Since we 

 have sent the entire plant it is hardly 

 necessary to make any remark as to tlic 

 eflfect of the disease upon the plant, esjie- 

 cially as we take it that this is probaMy 

 a common disease of this flower. As ym 

 see, it absolutely destroys the flower a id, 

 after it takes hold upon them, does aw ly 

 with all chances for flowers. C. A. D. 



There are three principal diseases »f 

 asters. First, root lice of a bluish co t 

 attack the roots and cause the plants fo 

 wilt and die; second, stem-rot, shown ly 

 the wilting and final dying down >f 

 affected plants, the stems appearing >f 

 a dark color just above the surface if 

 the ground; third, the yellow diseii e, 

 which latter appears to be the trou le 

 you have. For any of these diseases it 

 is doubtful if there is any real rem( ly 

 once the disease has appeared, nor if^ 't 

 known with any certainty what can os 

 either the stem-rot or yellow disease. 



The last named trouble causes = i" 

 plants to have a somewhat stunted :< "J 

 abnormal appearance. Any floW' rs 

 formed usually are of a sickly yell 'W 

 color and come malformed. Occasio al 

 plants will be found affected in this w ly 

 all over a bed and in practically ev< ry 

 kind of soil. Investigations at the ag'i' 

 cultural experiment stations of quite an 



