January 30, 1913. 



The Florists' Review 



17 



The Btst Selling St. Valentiae's Day Specialty, a Violet Corsage Bouquet Delivered in a Heart-shaped Box. 



only make one sale, with never a chance 

 of getting the customer back into the 

 store; it cuts the field down fast. 



But to go back to illustrating adver- 

 tisements: most of the large daily news- 

 papers make illustrations for adver- 

 tisers and charge only the cost. They 

 will make the illustration from the 

 article itself, from a photograph, or 

 from a picture which has appeared in 

 the text columns of The Eeview. In 

 sending the advertisement reproduced 

 in the lower right-hand corner of page 

 16 Bertermann Bros. Co., Indian- 

 apolis, say: "We enclose proof of an 

 advertisement we used successfully for 

 St. Valentine's day. You will recog- 

 nize the picture as one which originally 

 appeared in The Review in one of the 

 January issues. The clipping was given 

 to the newspaper artist, who resketched 

 it with the successful result shown. 

 "We find the pictures in The Review 

 most useful for reproduction in news- 

 paper advertisements." Help your- 

 selves, gentlemen. The Review is pub- 

 lished for the purpose of being of assist- 

 ance to the trade. 



COBSAGE BOUQUETS. 



While a great number of boxes of 

 loose cut flowers are sent out each 

 St. Valentine's day, an extremely large 

 business is done in corsage bouquets. 

 Probably the sales of corsage bouquets 

 February 14 exceed those of any other 

 day in the year by a considerable mar- 

 gin. Retailers who are not content to 

 settle down and wait have found they 

 can devise means of getting advance 

 orders for St. Valentine's day delivery. 

 Most of these orders are for corsages 

 of sweet peas, orchids or violets, the 

 latter largely predominating. 



In this issue there are illustrations 



of three typical corsage bunches. One 

 shows the use of violets. Sometimes 

 such a bunch is sent out with no other 

 flowers in it, but usually in the center 

 of a bunch of violets there will be a 

 single bloom of cattleya or gardenia, 

 or a few spikes of valley, sometimes 

 of Roman hyacinths. The orchid cor- 

 sages are all more or less similar, vary- 

 ing more in size than in character. 

 With the cattleyas, valley usually is 

 combined. Some retailers still use 

 adiantum for the green, but others use 

 Mexican ivy exclusively. The adian- 

 tum-users argue that the Mexican ivy 

 is too coarse for the purpose, whUe the 

 devotees of the hardy California prod- 

 uct maintain that the adiantum wilts 

 so quickly that it destroys the appear- 

 ance of a bouquet before its usefulness 

 otherwise would have departed. 



At this season sweet peas are popu- 

 lar. In corsage bouquets they make a 

 fine showing for the money and can 

 be sold in quantity. 



The sales of corsage bouquets have 

 become so large an item in first-class 

 stores that a capable man must be 

 expert at making them up. The 

 bunches nowadays are usually backed 

 by a shield of more or less elaborate- 

 ness, according to the price of the 

 bouquet. Usually the stems of violets 

 are wrapped in violet or green foil, 

 but the best workmen use ribbon. It 

 is surprising how quickly one accus- 

 tomed to the work will wrap and fasten 

 the ribbon and attach the shield. Then 

 comes the tie, which may be one of 

 the ready-to-wear affairs now offered 

 in such great variety by all the supply 

 houses, or it may be a bow of wide 

 ribbon cut off the bolt. The box then 

 is lined with white tissue, not waxed 

 paper, for there is little moisture. With 

 the advent of the better grades of 



boxes the outside wrapping of paper 

 has been discontinued. The box is too 

 fine to conceal. The tab makers now 

 supply special designs for St. Valen- 

 tine's day, and all other special flower 

 days. 



In the big stores where corsage bou- 

 quets are made by the hundred for 

 such an occasion as St. Valentine's 

 day, the work is systematized most in- 

 terestingly. The orders are accumu- 

 lated so that the workers know just 

 what is to be done before they begin, 

 in the early morning. Sorting out the 

 orders for one kind of bouquet, as of 

 violets, each man is given one part of 

 the work to do, that part for which his 

 talents are best suited. The first man 

 does nothing but bunch the flowers, 

 passing the bunches to the one who 

 covers the stems, who sends it down 

 the line to the worker who applies the 

 ribbon or shield and hands it to the 

 next in line to be decorated with the 

 tie; thence to the clerk who selects an 

 appropriate box, then to the packer, 

 and finally to the order clerk, the work 

 being divided up so that each one has 

 about an equal amount of time for his 

 task. 



THE POPULAB PACKAGE. 



The St. Valentine's day calls are 

 largely for corsage bouquets, the lead- 

 ing stores in the large cities accumu- 

 lating orders for hundreds to be de- 

 livered February 14. 



The popular pdckage is the heart- 

 shaped box. For several years these 

 boxes have .been offered in bright red, 

 but some of the high-class stores have 

 not cared to use the same thing that 

 was to be seen in other windows and 

 have had their own boxes made, corre- 

 sponding in style to the boxes ordi- 

 narily used by the store. The accom- 



