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DBCBMBEB 14, 1011. 



The Weekly Rorists' Review. 



Corner Windows of the Wienhoeber Store, Chicago, Showing Christmas Decorations. 



for the decorator. You can sell a lot 

 of these, either in the altogether, as 

 the painters" say, or dressed. There is 

 scarcely any limit to the elaborateness 

 of the trimming. Florists who have 

 wealthy trade have put the trees in 

 handsome baskets and rigged them up 

 with electric lights, etc., to the point 

 where the selling price was that of a 

 good basket of blooming plants. 



THE STORE WINDOW. 



There are two distinct types of win- 

 dows, not to take into consideration 

 the windows that are intended to illus- 

 trate some special event. So many de- 

 partment stores have Santa Claus in 

 the window the week before Christ- 

 Unas that the florist around the corner 

 usually prefers to leave that sort of 

 thing alone at the holidays and stick 

 to the straight flower display. Then 

 he has the two choices: He may either 

 <;rowd it full of stock, or he may put in 

 only a little. There seems to be no 

 middle ground; either the window must 

 be simple in the extreme or it must be 

 80 full that it strikes the eye as a riot 

 of color. 



The simple window is a difficult prop- 

 osition, for it takes a real artist to so 

 arrange one that it does not look bare 

 rather than attractive. Also, there is 

 the somewhat general belief that the 

 simple window does not sell goods the 

 way the well filled one does. For these 

 reasons the average florist fills his win- 

 dow as full as it well can be filled. He 



crowds it. This is specially true of the 

 downtown stores, where many people 

 pass. They usually have a good share 

 of the stock-in-trade in the windows, 

 and quite a few have the windows 

 fitted up for refrigeration, using them 

 just as the ice-box is used. The man- 

 agers of these stores are thoroughly 

 convinced of the truth of the saying 

 that in this business you can not sell 

 what you haven't got, and they aim 

 to show the people that they have got 

 the goods. This class of window could 

 not be any fuller at Christmas than 

 it is at other times — the chances are 

 that it is not so full, for some of the 

 cut flowers probably have been removed 

 to make way for the display of Christ- 

 mas specialties, bright and gay. There 

 are bells and more bells, wreaths and 

 more wreaths, balls and ribbons and 

 mats — and don't forget the lights! It 

 takes a good eye to fill up a window 

 and avoid a clash of colors, but at 

 Christmas everything is so red that 

 the danger is reduced to a minimum. 



VAPOR ON STORE WINDOWS. 



Please learn for us if you can, 

 through your columns, how the florists 

 in the north build their store windows 

 so that sweat and frost will not form 

 on the glass. T. S. C. 



Nothing is more discouraging to the 

 window trimmer in a retail flower store 

 than to find that all his efforts are ob- 

 scured by a coating of moisture or frost 



on the plate glass. In almost every 

 line of business this same trouble is 

 experienced, but we florists get the 

 worst of it, on account of the presence 

 of so much moisture in the air. The 

 trouble, however, can be prevented to 

 a certain extent. I say, to a certain 

 extent, for it is practically impossible 

 to prevent steaming of windows on 

 some days. 



A circulation of air on the inside of 

 the glass is one of the best remedies. 

 In order to obtain this, various methods 

 of construction are in use. In the first 

 place, the air must have some means of 

 entering just below the glass, either 

 through holes in the sashes, or by 

 means of ventilators, or sashes specially 

 constructed for this purpose. The cool 

 air, on entering, becomes warm and 

 rises, passing out through an outlet 

 above the show window, and thus a 

 continuous flow of air is produced. The 

 opening above is usually in the form 

 of a transom, built into the prism glass 

 now used so extensively. In extremely 

 cold weather, however, there is danger 

 of freezing your window display, espe- 

 cially during the cold nights; this dan- 

 ger necessitates the checking of the cur- 

 rent of cold air, and there is a subse- 

 quent steaming of the glass. 



Some flower stores have a 1-inch or 

 2-inch opening between the floor of the 

 window and the sill, so that the warm 

 air arising from a steam or hot water 

 pipe may prevent the moisture from 

 freezing or entirely obscuring the view. 

 Double glass, I believe, has been used 



