MABCH 11, 1909. 



The Weekly Rorists' Review. 



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THE RETAIL 



FLORIST 



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quality is not, as a whole, equal to the 

 flowers of home growth. 



EARLY DAYS OF THE BUSINESS. 



THE STANDING ANCHOR. 



The standing anchor is an especially 

 effective arrangement where a large floral 

 piece is desired. The lower portion of 

 the anchor illustrated is made entirely of 

 Easter lilies, and is bold and striking, 

 denoting strength. The lines of the 

 upper portion are relieved by the cycas 

 leaves at the back. Either Bride or 

 Kaiserin may be used effectively in the 

 upper half, with a few sprays of lily of 

 the valley to add a touch of softness. 

 This is one of the designs of Charles 

 Henry Fox, at the Sign of the Eose, 

 Philadelphia. Phil. 



MAY ?ELL FLOWERS AFTER TEN. 



The state of New York has a law 

 prohibiting the sale of merchandise after 

 10 a. m. on Sunday, but the law makes 

 two exceptions — newspapers and flowers 

 — which may be sold at any hour of 

 the day or night. At Buffalo the news- 

 stands that want to sell magazines, and 

 the delicatessen stores, have organized 

 to seek to have the law amended and 

 the retail grocers have united in oppo- 

 sition. 



AIR PLANT BASKETS. 



I am using a little idea in the way 

 of an air plant basket which I like 

 much better than any I have seen, and I 

 thought it might be of some interest 

 to others, as it sells readily in prefer- 

 ence to other arrangements. 



Get some nice, round, log-shaped pieces 

 of cork bark and saw them in pieces 

 about four or five inches long. Fill 

 these with prepared green moss and hang 

 them on a light brass chain. One or 

 more bunches of air plant, stemmed on 

 a toothpick and stuck in fairly high, so 

 as to give fullness to the center and 

 also hang over the sides, give a pleasing 

 as well as rustic effect. 



Odds and ends of cork bark can also 

 be used by taking some sphagnum moss 

 in a small lump and placing the pieces 

 of cork around it, fastening them with a 

 light wire and covering the tops and 

 bottom with the green moss. Logs of 

 cork bark eight to twelve inches long, 

 filled with sphagnum and covered with 

 green moss, hung on a brass chain and 

 filled with air plants, make a seasonable 

 arrangement, as well as a lasting and 

 pleasing one. R. A. Simmen. 



PURPLE LILAC POPULAR. 



Leading retail florists in London say 

 that lilac in its natural color has been 

 steadily increasing in popularity and the 

 demand for it this season would ap- 

 pear to be larger than in any previous 

 year. For a long period it was the 

 practice to import the whole of the lilac 

 flowers sent to Covent Garden during 

 the winter from France, and these were 

 invariably white. These flowers were 

 not, however, those of one of the white 

 lilacs, but of the common lilac, or of one 

 of the two fine forms Charles X or Dr. 



Lindley. The flowers of these, when the 

 plants are forced in a high temperature 

 and a subdued light, lose their normal 

 color and develop white. Of late years 

 the forcing of lilacs has been greatly 

 extended in England, and large quan- 

 tities of the fragrant blossom in its natu- 

 ral color, in addition to liberal supplies 

 of white lilac, are annually sent to the 

 flower markets. The soft coloring of 

 the flowers of such Varieties as Charles X 



The First Flower Store. 



It will be necessary, in order to show 

 the advancement in the florists' busi- 

 ness, to go back a number of years be- 

 yond my recollection. As far back aa 

 1858, was opened what was supposed 

 to be the first store in a city for the 

 sale of flowers only. Up to that time 

 the public was supplied by market gar- 

 deners, who had small glass houses for 

 starting early vegetables and who grew 

 a few flowers in the winter, rather than 

 keep their little houses idle. The variety 

 of the flowers was necessarily limited, 

 as they grew only those flowers that 

 could be thrown aside in the early spring, 

 to make room for the real business for 

 which their places were adapted. Their 





Staoding Anchor. 



and Dr. Lindley, when developed with 

 filU light and a moderate temperature, 

 soon became popular for decorative pur- 

 poses, and they have been largely used 

 for several years past. The French grow- 

 ers, quick to note the trend of public 

 taste, turned their attention to the pro- 

 duction of colored lilac, and now send 

 consignments to Covent Garden weekly, 

 but, the Gardeners' Magazine says, the 



principal output was a few sprays of 

 heliotrope, abutilons, tuberoses, candy- 

 tuft, camellias, a few roses and an oc- 

 casional geranium. These, with a small 

 addition from a few conservatories, the 

 owners of which were not amiss to sell- 

 ing a few flowers now and then to lessen 

 the expenses, were the only sources of 

 supply, and the trade in them, of course, 

 was limited. - ^ 



