June 30, 1910. 



The Weekly Florists' Review^ 



i 



THE RETAIL 



i 



FLORIST.., 



IS THIS THE BECOBD? 



How many weddings did you ever 

 ^ 'furnish ' ' in one day? Did the number 

 exceed seventeen? 



That's the record to date. 



H. H. Kuhlmann, of Houston, Tex., 

 does not claim to hold the record — 

 only that his record of one day's work 

 exceeds the best so far published. Here 

 is what he says: "I read in one of the 

 recent issues of The Eeview about a 

 retail florist who had made 'a record' 

 for the number of wedding3 for which 

 he had furnished decorations or bou- 

 quets in any one day; the number was 

 eight or nine. I think that I can 

 beat that badly, as on Wednesday, June 

 8, T had seventeen weddings to furnish 

 bride and bridesmaid bouquets for, 

 some of them being shipped out of 

 town, but most of them were used in 

 town. For about ten of them we fur- 

 nished palms and ferns, etc., as well as 

 the bouquets. I think that was going 

 some." So does The Review, and will 

 be glad to tell about it if anyone went 

 some more on any one day this June. 



PANDANUS UTILIS. 



The late Peter Henderson, whose 

 wemory is revered by all good gardeners, 

 ajad whose judgment was of the highest 

 order, in passing a plant of Pandanus 

 utilis in the hall of his residence once 

 remarked to William Scott: "The best 

 house plant I know of." All dealers in 

 palms and decorative plants find it 

 among the most popular of the 

 foliage plants used in dwellings. 

 "They are especially suited for fern 

 pans and table decoration," accord- 

 ing to Wilhelm Miller, who was Prof. 

 Bailey's right-hand man in compiling the 

 Cyclopedia of American Horticulture, and 

 who took for that monumental publica- 

 tion an account of pandanus written by 

 W. H. Taplin for the Bevebw, in which 

 Mr. Taplin said : * ' The specific name of 

 his pandanus, utilis, which signifies use- 

 tul, seems to be especially applicable to 

 'he plant. As a florist's plant it is most 

 isef ul in small sizes, for example, in pots 

 uf 4-inch to 8-inch sizes, there being but 

 I limited demand for plants larger than 

 •hese." 



The accompanying illustration gives 

 he idea of a specimen of large size, but 

 iuch was not the case. Receptacle, plant 

 tnd all stood not more than twenty-four 

 •nches high, the plant itself being in an 

 ordinary flower pot, which was slipped 

 vithin the miniature garden vase, the 

 pot and soil being concealed by green 

 ••phagnum moss. One of the principal 

 merits of the plant is its ability to en- 

 'lure neglect in the matter of watering. 

 Indeed, under average dwelling-house 

 conditions it appears to do fully as well 

 when kept fairly dry as when given fre- 

 quent waterings. Under greenhouse glass 

 it requires warm, moist treatment and 

 makes rapid growth and gives little trou- 

 ole, unless spot develops. This spot i» 



caused by the boring of a minute insect 

 in the leaf, and its progress seems to be 

 favored by overwatering. Propagation is 

 generally by seeds, which are a regular 

 commodity with all seed houses catering 

 to the florists, and which germinate weU 

 if planted in light soil and placed in a 

 warm house. The seed should preferably 

 set with the bottom end up, this being 

 the end from which the germs emerge. 

 The seeds are a little peculiar, being 

 closely set in a more or less globular 

 mass that hangs down on a stout stem, 

 while the individual seeds, or rather 

 fruits, are compound and often contain 

 eight or ten germs, the latter being en- 



tions and asparagus. He was tying up 

 the box wherewith to delight a hospital 

 patient. It was an easy, "straight" 

 order, but the cut flower man casually 

 inquired: 



"You gave them plumosus?" 



The youngster gaped. 



"Plumosus," reiterated the packer. 

 "Like this," he continued, pointing to 

 a string of the popular fern. 



"I gave them asparagus," stoutly 

 asserted the novice. 



"Let me see." The box was opened, 

 and there, snugly resting upon some 

 Enchantress, were two prim bunches of 

 parsley! 



What the recipient, on his bed of 

 sickness, would have said had the car- 

 nations been served with "dressing," 

 may be variously conjectured. 



W . J. H. 



HOW ABOUT IT? 



When your customers step into your 

 nice, clean, well-appointed retail store 

 do they find you or your clerks puflSng 

 on a cigar — or worse? 



With what class of flower store do 

 you associate the signs printed with 



Pandanus Utilis. 



closed in cells of a tough, horny sub- 

 stance within the fruit. Some growers 

 soak the seeds before planting them, but 

 others have found no gain in the time of 

 germination through this practice. P. 

 utilis is a native of some of the South 

 Sea islands, where it reaches a height 

 sometimes as great as sixty feet. 



DISCOVEBED IN TIME. 



Even the state in which this hap- 

 pened shall be nameless! 



He was a raw hand and in the busy 

 cut flower season he was pressed into 

 service. The order called for carna- 



rubber stamps on strips of paper, such 

 as you see pasted on the windows of 

 cheap -restaurants? 



If it is true that "fine feathers make 

 fine birds," what sort of an appearance 

 should a flower store present? Does 

 vours do itf 



THE BBIDE'S BOUQUET. 



The wedding season is on the wane, 

 for June is preeminently the bride's 

 own month, but interest in the subject 

 of bride's bouquets is perennial — the 

 retail florist is called on to make fewer 

 of them in the hot months, but that 



