■•,,-v;.-,. 



April 21, leiO. 



The Weekly Florists^ Review* 



Dinner-table Decoration^ with Seventy Candles Surrounding the Birthday Cake« 



lies than some one at a distance can. I 

 presume you have gone all over the mat- 

 ter with the builder of the box? 



Using so much ice, the parts of the 

 refrigerator in which the flowers are 

 stored should be sufficiently cool to keep 

 flowers nicely, provided the box is built 

 80 as to allow the cooled air to circulate 

 properly. 



In a retail store, where a variety of 

 flowers are kept in the same cooler, the 

 temperature should be from 50 to 55 de- 

 grees. Many flowers — roses, for instance 

 — would keep longer in a still colder at- 

 mosphere, but this is not desirable. 

 Flowers stored in too cold a place will, 

 when transferred to a warm living-room, 

 •quickly wilt. 



Is the air pure in your new refrigera- 

 tor? Pure, fresh air is as essential in 

 keeping cut flowers as in keeping plants 

 and the cooler must be properly venti- 

 lated, so the air will not become stag- 

 nant. Too much moisture is bad for 

 f-arnations, having a tendency to put 

 them to sleep. 



I doubt whether my answer to your 

 question will be of any material aid in 

 solving your problem. Perhaps some 

 other reader of the Keview can offer 

 some suggestions. H. S. 



nCUS PANDURATA. 



The fiddle-leaved rubber is not much 

 in vogue in Europe, but in commenting 

 on its rapidly increasing popularity in 

 America a correspondent of the Horti- 

 ■cultural Advertiser (English) says: "As 

 a means of rapidly increasing a stock of 

 the plant it might be grafted on roots 

 of the common fig (Ficus carica), or cut- 

 tings may be made from short pieces of 

 the stem, each with a leaf and a bud at 

 the base attached. These should be 



placed on a moist bottom heat of 80 de- 

 grees and top heat of 70 degrees. ' ' 



Aside from its bold and striking char- 

 acter, the chief merit of Ficus Pandu- 

 rata is that it will stand a great amount 

 of abuse and will endure dwelling-room 

 conditions for fully as long as any other 

 plant. 



AN ODD SIDE LINE. 



Pretty nearly every retail flom^ heats 

 iiis winter delivery vehicle with olie-er 

 the wagon heaters that burn a specially 

 prepared coal. Out of this one leading 

 retailer has built up an unusual winter 

 side line. 



A large number of his customers are 

 owners of automobiles or carriages and 

 have wagon heaters of their own for 

 foot warming purposes. Of course the 

 automobile supply concerns sell the foot 

 warmers and the coal to use in them, but 

 some of the florists' customers found it 

 more convenient to get the coal from the 

 florist. More with a view to accommo- 

 dating his customers than for the small 

 profit there was in it, the florist printed 

 a little card announcing his ability to 

 supply the foot warmer fuel, and sent 

 out the card with packages and bills. It 

 brought enough people to the store so 

 that the card was mailed to every auto- 

 mobile owner in the city. Perhaps it was 

 as much the peculiar combination of get- 

 ting coal of the florist as anything else 

 that brought the people to the flower 

 store. But a good many retail florists 

 have found that everything pays which 

 brings people to the store on any legiti- 

 mate errand. Get people in and they 

 buy flowers. 



New Canaan, Conn. — Mrs, Crawford, 

 of this place, will open a greenhouse in 

 Darien, Conn. 



A BIRTHDAY TABLE. 



Seventy candles is a rather unusual 

 number on a birthday cake, and the 

 decoration for a septuagenarian's anni- 

 versary would naturally call for an un- 

 usually good decoration. The accom- 

 panying illustration will show what F. 

 M. Brownell, of the retail cut flower de- 

 partment of the Livingston Seed Co., Co- 

 lumbus, O., did when he received such 

 an order. The table was laid for eight- 

 een covers and arranged in the form of a 

 square. In the center was a mass of 

 pink hydrangeas, their blooms extending 

 over the table. Above this, and seem- 

 ingly resting on the blooms, was an im- 

 mense cake surrounded by seventy large 

 pink candles. The chandelier above the 

 table is supported by heavy chains, which 

 were wound with smilax and studded 

 with pink sweet peas. Some ties of 

 three-toned green ribbon also were used. 

 At each corner of the table stood tall 

 cut glass vases filled with roses, the 

 stems of the vases being wound with As- 

 paragus plumosus and sweet peas. The 

 place cards, which were suspended from 

 the wine glasses, were tied with pansies, 

 and at each place was a large corsage 

 bouquet of pink sweet peas tied with 

 pink and green cords. 



SPECIAL DESIGNS. 



When one's customer is set on having 

 some special design in funeral flowers — 

 a railroad train or a floral dynamo — 

 what is the florist to do? Why, take the 

 money, of course. 



The customers came to P. Pearson, at 

 hia place in Chicago, and would have 

 nothing but a ship. You see, the de- 

 ceased was a sailor. Since Mr. Pearson 

 could not induce the customers to take 

 something more conventional and a little 



