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OCTOBKE 28, 190&. 



The Weekly Florists^ Review* 



i THE RETAIL «:^?^^^| 



FLORIST 



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AUrUMN TABLE DECORATION. 



Ill bis autumn table decorations Charles 

 Henry Fox makes liberal use of fruits, in 

 the early season combining them -with 

 dahlias in bright colors and, after the 

 dahlias have passed, employing chrysan- 

 themums in their stead. Many of the 

 decorations by Mr. Fox are of the daring 

 character. Not every florist could over- 

 turn the receptacles used on the table 

 and still produce an effect which would 

 be satisfactory to his customers, espe- 

 cially if that customer chanced to be of 

 the older aristocracy. 



FERNS, DECORATIVELY SPEAKING 



Thdr Neglected Postibilities. 



In the ordinary design, ferns are either 

 given a place as constructive material in 

 the background or are employed in 

 "feathering," as it is termed. There is 

 a more important place than either of 

 these for the fern plant or the cut 

 fronds, and one which is as important as 

 any occupied by the specimen flowers. 

 They should be just as much a part of 

 the art of a piece as the flowers them- 

 selves. Sometimes they will adorn the 

 piece decoratively, while the flowers serve 

 as a background for them. The practice 

 of scattering ferns promiscuously over a 

 piece is as crude as that of blindly dot- 

 ting flowers and colors over its surface. 

 Use as much thought and plan in placing 

 the ferns as is consumed in properly plac- 

 ing the flowers themselves. 



A Good Color Scheme. 



Because they lack giddy coloring is no 

 reason for their being assigned a minor 

 position in a design. We search for soft, 

 daintily tinted flowers, without half ap- 

 preciating our greens. The coloring of a 

 single adiantum plant is a study in it- 

 self. The darker green of the mature 

 fronds changing to the tints of the young 

 growth, streaked by the dark stems, is 

 seen in viewing the plant from above. 

 Looking upqn it from below, there are 

 the transparent dark and light fronds, 

 embroidered with the velvety spores and 

 supported by the fairy ribs of brown. 

 Good color scheme, ehf Next time you 

 have a chance, work this out in a new 

 decorative scheme. 



Speaking of promiscuously scattering 

 dots of color on ferns through a piece, 

 there might be times when this would 

 be creditable designing, but as a rule it 

 is not intended as a part of the design 

 plan, but goes in hit or miss. On a 

 large, solid pillow or a fabric drapery, 

 knots of flowers or foliage may be set on 

 as the decoration. In a case like this, 

 fern fronds, scattered about either con- 

 ventionally or irregularly, make a pic- 

 turesque design. , 



Femi in Centerpieces. 



No secondary value need be placed 

 upon fern fronds or plants as a feature 

 of the piece. They can be used as the 

 principal decoration or as a part of it. 

 Instead of throwing the fern fronds in 

 anywhere in a centerpiece of flowers, 

 break the outline of the piece somewhere 

 by a patch of fern fronds to represent a 



growing plant, and permit no other ferns 

 in the piece unless it is a very large one. 

 In the latter case repeat the fern patch 

 somewhere else, out of view of the first 

 one. If green is needed with the flowers, 

 use their own foliage. 



In another centerpiece border the en- 

 tire edge with a fringe of adiantum, 

 pteris or fancy nephrolepis fronds. In 

 another, where there is a group of flowers 

 distinct from the majority used, empha- 

 size that group and bring it out in relief 

 by surrounding it with a group of such 

 ferns as are best suited to its style, and 

 use them nowhere else in the piece. 



A Mantel Decoration. 



An entire centerpiece of ferns, or a 

 mantel banked, is an acceptable break in 

 a decoration heavy with flowers. Fill the 

 mantel shelf with closely set groups of 

 fronds, to resemble plants. From some 

 point over one end of the mantel sus- 

 pend a fern ball or a group of fern balls, 

 or a nice specimen Boston fern. From 

 below the mantel shelf, at the opposite 

 end, hang a similar fern ball or basket 

 80 that it just comfortably misses the 

 floor, and you have something worth look- 

 ing at and lingering over. At one of my 

 be^t luncheons I used a centerpiece of 

 A.diantum Farleyense, with fronds of the 

 same for favors. No rare flowers would 

 have taken better or been more highly 

 appreciated. 



As a part of the principal decoration 

 of a piece and to emphasize a group or 

 spray of flowers, let the fronds be 

 planted as though growing from the same 

 Hpot as the flower stalks, and be a part 

 of the imaginary plant. 



As the "whole thing" in the bouquet 

 for a maid of honor or bridesmaid in a 

 green and white wedding, adiantums do 

 shine. A hatful, a shower bouquet, an 

 armful or a muff, are all dainty and 

 graceful. See that they are not all used 

 too long-stemmed, else they will drop out 

 of place. 



Whole designs can be made from any 

 variety of adiantum, from the heavy, 

 rich fronds of the Farleyense to the 

 dainty gracillimum, either with a cluster 



An Autttmn Dinner Decoration, Fruits and Flowen. 







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