March 25, 1909. 



The Weekly Florists' Review^ 



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THE RETAIL 



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FLORIST 



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ANOTHER PILLOV. 



The accompanying illustration of a 

 pillow is another of the funeral designs 

 by Charles Henry Fox, at the Sign of the 

 Kose, Philadelphia. The striking feature 

 of this illustration is Mr. Fox's happy 

 touch of individuality shown in the cor- 

 ner pieces. The pillow, made of white 

 carnations, is relieved by four loose 

 bunches of pale pink roses at the four 

 corners. The lettering, demanded in the 

 order, does not meet with Mr. Fox's ap- 

 proval. Phil. 



CORRECT DESIGNING. 



The Commercial Side of Artistic Work. 



After toiling half the night and con- 

 suming a goodly quantity of stock in 

 planning an attractive set piece, a house 

 or store decoration, the ambitious de- 

 signer is often tempted to ask himself, 

 "Does it all pay? Does my neighbor, 

 Mr. Drudge, who fills his designs in 

 mathematical rows, packs his flowers in 

 vases like cabbages in a bin, and every 

 morning fills his windows with samples 

 of his entire stock, hit or miss, day after 

 day without variation — ^does he make as 

 much money, save more light bills and 

 carry around fewer gray hairs than I?" 

 The solution of this problem, for the 

 average dealer, means removing one of 



the greatest sources of anxiety which he 

 must confront. 



Two Competitors. 



Scarcely a day passes but what some 

 phase of this question comes to the sur- 

 face. One day the man who plans his 

 work carefully and takes a j)ride in his 

 attainments, which he knows are com- 

 mendable and original to some degree, 

 is able to secure some satisfactory job 

 on the strength of his reputation, and 

 on the next day he finds himself in the 

 trough of the wave, while his competitor 

 rides on the crest. 



Mr. Drudge finds the days long while 

 he fills every pillow-like cross, makes all 

 his sprays alike, has a set rule for every 

 decoration, and makes every window what 

 we will call, for lack of a worse name, 

 a stock window. The other man plans 

 each piece individually, does not aim to 

 repeat his decorative scheme except by 

 request, and puts in art windows while 

 he laments the flight of time and tears 

 himself from work at night by main 

 force. 



Stock Windows and Artistic Windows. 



Mr. Drudge, with his stock windows, 

 exhibits everything he has and impresses 

 the public with the fact that he has 

 fk)wers and that is about all. The other 

 man impresses the people with the fact 

 that he has flowers, and, best of all. 



that he has the one kind or several 

 kinds of flowers that he exhibits prom- 

 inently and most desires to sell, to- 

 gether with the fact that he knows how 

 to arrange them. But does he at the 

 same time attract the non-flower-buyer t 

 He has every chance to do so, by all the 

 wiles of natural charm which he em- 

 })loys in his arrangements. A distinct 

 imj)ression is made upon the passers-by, 

 wliich may be recalled months after- 

 ward, and the better a decorative idea is 

 worked out in the window or in a design, 

 the more distinct will be this impression. 



The Beaten Path. 



But somebody says, ' ' How is it that 

 the great majority of florists exhibit 

 their flowers in stock windows and do 

 their design work after the same style 

 year in and year out?" It is most em- 

 phatically not because they have sat down 

 and figured out that it pays in dollars 

 and cents. They have never given it this 

 much thought. It is because they can- 

 not do any better, or perhaps we ought 

 to be more considerate and say that they 

 are too indolent to develop or improve, 

 rather than that their wits are so short. 



Leastwise, the one who follows the old, 

 beaten path is allowing himself to be 

 classed, not with old-fashioned, out-of- 

 date peoj)le, but with poor designers, even 

 though they be hopelessly in the ma- 

 jority. Gertrude Blair. 



Wichita, Kax. — The state inspection 

 laiw exempts greenhouse stock except 

 where the greenhouse is adjacent to 

 nurseries or orchards infested with San 

 Jose scale. 



Bangor, Me. — Mrs. ' T. Allen has 

 opened a store at 9 Hammond street, 

 new Western Union office, to be supplied 

 by the Court street greenhouses. The 

 now store has modern fixtures and two 

 large show windows. 



The Pillow. 



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