28 



The Weekly Florists^ Review* 



Dechmbeb 15, 1910. 



:^ 



tery, buying in special quantity for the 

 Christmas and Easter demand, but it is 

 a mistake to buy too much of one line; 

 it is far better to buy a few pieces 

 from each of many lines. By this 

 course it is possible to show the poin- 

 settia, ever present at Christmas, in 

 dozens of different receptacles. Wilrh 

 a stock of no more than a few kinds 

 of plants it is possible to have infinite 

 variety in the Christmas display, there- 

 by giving the customer a wider range 

 of choice and leading to a larger num- 

 ber of sales than would otherwise be 

 possible. In those stores where the 

 buyer is always on the lookout for 

 unique receptacles, it is quite the com- 

 mon experience to have the customer 

 make selection from the showing of 

 baskets and pottery quite regardless of 

 the plants that are in them. 



Ribbons also add largely to the sal- 

 ability of the Christmas plants, the 

 addition of red ribbon giving the 

 Christmas touch that is necessary to 

 find favor in the eyes of many pur- 

 chasers. 



THE CHRISTMAS FLOWER. 



It may almost be said that what the 

 lily is to Easter the poinsettia is at 

 Christmas. Fear has been expressed 

 that the cloth poinsettia sold in great 

 quantities by the supply houses in re- 

 cent years would adversely affect the 

 sale of the real article, and it may 

 have done so to a certain extent with 

 the cut stock, but certainly not with 

 the growing plants. These are more 

 popular than ever. They are produced 

 in immense quantities and of every 

 size and quality. The little plants, not 

 more than four or five inches high, have 

 their uses, and the larger stock sells in 

 great numbers made up in combination 

 with other plants and in such guise as 



shown in the illustration on this page. 

 Here are five plants, none of them more 

 than a foot high, planted in a tomato- 

 colored bowl, the foot-piece of which 

 was green of almost the shade of the 

 poinsettia foliage. As a Christmas 

 seller last year this arrangement proved 

 the equal of anything in the florist's 

 stock, only he was wise enough to have 

 no more than one on display at a time. 



CHRISTMAS BELLS. 



The Wire Bell Frames. 



Bells offer a variety of arrangement, 

 singly or in groups. Many different 

 materials can be employed in their con- 

 struction and decoration. With the 

 passing of the paper bell we turn to 

 our wire bell frames and see visions of 

 their various sizes, covered with sheet 

 moss, cheesecloth and chiffon, immor- 

 telles, gilded leaves of leucothoe, laurel, 

 magnolia or galax, holly, lycopodium, 

 or other materials, according to the 

 location and its variety of cheap native 

 greens. 



Sheet moss can be laid on the frame 

 and wrapped with silkaline or green 

 florists' twine. Edge with stemmed 

 holly. Cover the clapper with scarlet 

 ribbon and suspend with a scarf of the 

 same. 



For a cheap scarlet bell, cover the 

 bare frame with red cheesecloth and 

 drape with chiffon of the same color- 

 Among a number of green bells this 

 makes an agreeable break. Immortelles 

 in sphagnum make good appearing bells, 

 although more expensive and rather 

 tedious to make. 



Gilded foliage bells are easily made 

 and decidedly effective. Fill the bell 

 frame with sphagnum and stem leaves 



as for cut flower work. Lycopodium in 

 bulk can be used in the same waijy, or 

 laid on in layers and wrapped as di- 

 rected in the description of the sheet 

 moss bell. All these colors mentioned — 

 scarlet, green and gold — can be used 

 together. 



Bells for Window Decorations. 



A bell window preceding Christmas 

 would make a good feature. The ar- 

 rangement and grouping will have as 

 much to do with the attractiveness as 

 will the material of which the bells are 

 made. Do not hang many vertically 

 and inactively. Tip them, swing them, 

 and turn them upside down, as if in 

 the act of ringing boisterously. Secure 

 them in the correct position by a fine 

 guy wire, stretched to a convenient 

 ])oint at the side or top of the window. 

 Tie several bells together by the tops 

 and hang them from one ribbon. Leave 

 a long end, which shall reach nearly to 

 the floor. At the lower end of this sup- 

 posed bell cord tie a shower of smaller 

 bells or pine cones. 



For another group arrange a chime, 

 grading the size of the bells from the 

 largest to the smallest. Of the tiny 

 bells make festoons, and swing them 

 diagonally between the larger groups. 

 Drape the festoon with lycopodium, 

 laurel or other festooning. Have mistle- 

 toe in some of the clappers. On the 

 floor below set a large standing harp, 

 with a frame of holly around the front, 

 back and sides. Decorate the base with 

 large branches of some kind of conifer. 

 Wrap the strings with scarlet ribbon, or 

 gild them. Across the strings, diag- 

 onally, throw a festoon of the smaller 

 bells, tied with a sash of scarlet ribbon. 

 Red immortelles may be used for a 

 more brilliant piece. At convenient 

 distances about the harp, scatter any 

 good plant basket arrangements which 

 will harmonize in color. 



Gertrude Blair. 



The Poinsettia is the Special Christmas Plant. 



CHRISTMAS DELIVERY. 



One of the chief problems connected 

 with the holiday trade concerns the 

 delivery of stock. Especially in the 

 larger cities, persons buying for gifts 

 expect the florist to make prompt and 

 accurate delivery on Christmas morn- 

 ing. It is possible to spread the work 

 over a longer period by suggesting de 

 livery Christmas eve, but there is a 

 disadvantage in that because a large 

 part of the sales invariably are made 

 at that time, and the average florist 

 does not have a sufficient force to handle 

 a rush of customers, the putting up of 

 orders, and their delivery, all at one 

 time. Over the greater part of the 

 country Christmas weather conditions 

 arc such that careful wrapping is neces- 

 sary, which adds materially to the la- 

 bor. Also, extra delivery facilities are 

 in demand at this season and teams 

 command a premium that adds much to 

 the expense. Retailers in the large 

 cities in many cases find the cost of 

 Christmas delivery so heavy that they 

 cannot afford to sell articles which do 

 not return them a fair margin of profit. 

 For this reason at least one metro- 

 politan store has nothing in its Christ- 

 mas stock which does not give 75 cents 

 profit. 



The night before Christmas is a 

 strenuous one wherever a big volume of 

 business is done; usually the time after 

 the store is closed is taken for the put- 

 ting up of orders for the morning de- 



