May 7, 1914. 



The Florists' Review 



19 



The Diamond Design for Bedding on a' Single Grave. 



the higher-priced contract; indeed, the 

 greater risk is one of the* sound, just 

 reasons for the greater profit, but the 

 shrewd, wide-awake florist makes pro- 

 visions against the risks and minimizes 

 them. That is where the brainy, ener- 

 getic florist has the advantage over the 

 other sort of florist. 



Carpet bedding may be too expensive 

 for customers of scanty means, but if 

 the people in a florist 's neighborhood 

 are fairly prosperous, if th^ are 

 neither poor nor penurious, there is no 

 good reason why carpet bedding should 

 not be popular and profitable in such a 

 community. Let the florist do the 

 planting in such a manner as will in- 

 crease his reputation and increase the 

 demand for the work, and let him 

 charge such prices as will insure him a 

 satisfactory profit. Many of his pa- 

 trons are so constituted that they will 

 pay the money more willingly if the 

 prices are high enough to prevent Tom, 

 Dick and Harry, the poor neighbors, 

 from presuming to indulge in the same 

 luxury. 



The Plants Used. 



One of the most noticeable and pleas- 

 ing characteristics of the grave plant- 

 ing at Eosehill is the small number of 

 varieties of plants that are used. The 

 stock of materials for the Rosehill car- 

 pet bedding consists principally of al- 

 ternantheras iu two colors, santolinas 

 and echeverias; the last named plants 

 are frequently known as hen and chick- 

 ens. The bulk of the work, of course, 

 is done with alternantheras. Tihe san- 

 tolinas and echeverias, with their whit- 

 ish or neutral colors, are used mostly in 

 the form of borders or edgings or trac- 



ings, graceful little lines of boundary 

 or demarcation. In no other part of 

 the ^ork, perhaps, is there greater op- 

 portunity for effective display of skill 

 than in the use of these slender, grayish 

 whit^, silvery green or bluish green 

 lines of santplinas or echeverias, which 

 enlivpn and enrich harmonious colors 

 and separate discordant colors to keep 

 .them! from quarreling and screaming. 



In 'the majority of the Bosehill beds 

 only . two colors of alternantheras are 

 used, red and yellow. Besides the red 

 and yellow sorts, two other varieties. 



Alternanthera rosea and A. versicolor, 

 occasionally appear in the planting, but 

 the occasions are rare. The favorite 

 red alternantheras at Rosehill have usu- 

 ally been A. paronychioides major and 

 A. brilliantissima. The so-called yellow 

 ones are A. aurea nana, the color of 

 which, as most of the readers know, 

 really shows varying proportions of yel- 

 low and green, according to the season 

 of the year and the amount of sunshine. 

 In the Bosehill beds the large echeverias 

 — the hens, let us say^are usually E. 

 metallica. The small ones — or chickens 

 — are E. secunda glauca. 



Blanket Design, for Two Graves. 



Describing the beds in the order in 

 which they occur in the illustrations, 

 the first one is what is termed a blan- 

 ket design, for two graves. It is sup- 

 posed to represent a green groundwork, 

 with a reddish colored blanket thrown 

 over it. Hence the triangular spaces in 

 the four corners, outside the lines of 

 echeverias, are filled with greenish yel- 

 low plants, Alternanthera aurea nana, 

 while the main part of the bed is filled 

 with red alternantheras. In the middle 

 of the large space, however, is a design 

 in the shape of a four-leaved clover, 

 filled principally with Echeveria se- 

 cunda glauca, though it has an E. me- 

 tallica in the center and one E. De 

 Smetiana or E. Peacockii in each of 

 the four leaves or lobes. The bed, as 

 a whole, is enclosed by a triple border 

 — echeverias on the outside, next red 

 alternantheras and then santolinas. 



At the farther side of this carpet 

 bed is a round bed planted with cannas 

 and two varieties of geraniums. On 

 the outside are Mme. Salleroi gera- 

 niums, next are 8. A. Nutt geraniums, 

 and in the center are King Humbert 

 cannas. 



Diamond Design, for One Grave. 



The second bed to be described is 

 so simple in design that it scarcely 

 needs description. It is what Mr. 

 Fruetz calls a diamond design for one 

 grave. The diamond in the center of 

 the bed is edged with santolinas and 

 filled with red alternantheras, surround- 

 ing the single Echeveria metallica. The 

 half diamondii^r triangular spaces at 

 each end of the bed are also<.AUed with 

 red alternantheras. The other four 

 triangles, with the santolinas on one 



The Maltese Cross Design G)vering Two Graves. 



