20 



The Weekly Florists' Review* 



May 19, 1910. 



FILLING CEMETERY VASES. 



An Important Item With Many. 



Memorial day will soon be here and it 

 brings a busy time. Not only do our 

 customers want their vases filled in the 

 cemeteries, but there is often the desire 

 expressed: "I want our flower beds and 

 veranda boxes filled by Decoration day. ' ' 

 Those who do what we call a cemetery 

 business, and fill 300 or 400 vases, know 

 jvhat a laborious business it is. Some 

 years ago there were several kinds of 

 vases and baskets used for this purpose. 

 There were cast-iron vases, wire gaskets 

 or stands and rustic baskets. Now there 

 are few of any kind but the iron vases 

 and they certainly have the best ap- 

 pearance, as well as being practically 

 everlasting. A coat of paint annually 

 and they are always new. 



There is rather too much sameness in 

 the painting. Ninety-five per cent or 

 more are painted white. While any 

 gaudy color would be quite out of place, 

 if more were painted a deep green and 

 others a stone color it would relieve the 

 monotony. 



Do It at the Greenhouses. 



Time was when we used to send wag- 

 ons loaded with plants to the cemetery 



iron vases and, of course, some large 

 stone vases that have to be filled at the 

 cemeteries, but nearly all iron vases are 

 of the reservoir type and the top, or 

 bowl, can be lifted off and brought to 

 the greenhouses and much more satis- 

 factorily filled. The work can be done 

 much better, with no waste of plants, 

 and you have the contents of the whole 

 greenhouses at your back. There may be 

 a little more teaming this way, but, all 

 things considered, it is by far the better 

 plan. 



The Profit. 



We never considered that there was 

 much margin of profit in this vase filling 

 business, yet a change in style of late 

 years has been somewhat in our favor. 

 Ten years ago, with few exceptions, the 

 vases were filled with a mixture of plants, 

 with vines around the edge. Often have 

 we counted the plants and found that 

 at wholesale prices they would cost as 

 much as we got for the filling, soil, moss 

 and labor thrown in. But remember that 

 in those cases we largely used what we 

 had and so cleaned up on everything, 

 and that makes a wonderful difference. 



Did you ever think of the difference 

 in the profits of a place where all the 

 stock is in salable shape and the benches 

 emptied and one where one-third or one- 



Bedding Plants at a Rochester Residence. . 



(Garden walk edged with Mmo. Sallerol Keranliim; back of these Gen. Grant greranluni, delphiniums, 



phloxes, etc., and shrubs.) 



and other wagons with soil, and a gang 

 of men, and attempt to fill fifty vases in a 

 day. We have got over that, for there 

 was too much waste of material. Plants 

 were broken and wilted and the battered 

 plants that came back made too big an 

 item. There are a few old-fashioned 



half the plants, for some reason or other, 

 are left unsold! It is the difference be- 

 tween success and failure. Every foot 

 of your bench room must yield you some 

 profit. If it does not, it has dragged 

 down the profit of the space that did 



pay. 



Red Geraniums Mostly Wanted. 



But to return to the vases. The great 

 majority are now filled with one kind of 

 plant, mostly geraniums. There are sev- 

 eral reasons for this. They are always 

 in bloom, are neat and compact and do 

 not suffer from a little neglect of water. 

 They make a bright, gay spot. S. A. 

 Nutt is such an admirable variety for 

 this purpose that it is overdone. The 

 individual owner of a cemetery lot may 

 be charmed with his brilliant mass of 

 scarlet blooms, but when there are forty 

 similar ones within 100 yards, the effect 

 is not "pleasant. There should be more 

 pink, white and salmon. Beaute Poite- 

 vine, Mrs. Frances Perkins and John 

 Doyle are all fine for the purpose. The 

 green vinca is good for edging the scar- 

 lets and the variegated vinca for the 

 pink and salmon shades. A dwarf white 

 geranium is fine for Mrs, Perkins and 

 Mme, Salleroi is often wanted as an edg- 

 ing for Nutt. A combination that many 

 want is a pink geranium for the center 

 with an edging of the pink ivy-leaved 

 geranium. 



Other Good Material 



Large vases are sometimes filled with 

 dwarf, free-flowering cannas of one va- 

 riety, such as Tarrytown, the Express, 

 or Souvenir de Antoine Crozy, Large 

 stone vases are sometimes filled with 

 Caladium esculentum, but these vigorous 

 rooting plants should never be used in 

 combination with other plants, for they 

 quickly starve theip out. Begonias of the 

 Vernon type make pretty vases and 

 where there is some shade during the 

 hottest hours we have filled vases with 

 tuberous-rooted begonias, and rich and 

 choice they look. 



This doesn't pretend to have exhausted 

 the list of available plants for this pur- 

 pose, but always recommend the filling to 

 be of one kind of plant. There is iqpre 

 profit for you and it isi sure to be more 

 satisfactory to your patron. If your 

 customer wants scarlet geraniums, it will 

 have to be so, but encourage variety. 

 It is not the beauty of one lot that 

 should please the visitor to the city of 

 the dead, but the generally pleasing ap- 

 pearance of the whole grounds. 



Mixed Plants. 



If the mixed vase is still preferred, 

 there is considerable choice of material. 

 For a center plant there is nothing equal 

 to that cast-iron plant, Dracaena indivisa. 

 It not only exists, but it grows and en- 

 dures the fierce sun and drying winds. 

 Then there are the geraniums, coleus, 

 achyranthes, variegated geraniums. Be- 

 gonia Vernon, acalypha, Boston fern, 

 centaurea, fuchsias (in the shade), pe- 

 tunias, etc. , About the only palm that 

 would be good for a center plant in 

 place of the dracsena would be the phce- 

 nix. They will stand the sun and the 

 wind. 



It is neither fair nor wise to put in 

 plants that will make a fine show for a 

 week or two and then be out of bloom 

 for the whole summer. Such plants as 

 the white feverfew or show pelargonium 

 will not do, or any plant the flowering 

 season of which is short. Nearly every 

 cemetery has situations where any plants 

 will thrive and other bleak, windy posi- 

 tions where only the hardiest plants will 

 preserve a decent appearance. This must 

 be studied. 



Drooping Plants. 



All these mixed vases will want an 

 assortment of drooping plants and there 



