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Decfmbek 22, 1010. 



The Weekly Florists' Review* 



9 



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I THE RETAIL 



|«^^^ FLORIST 



1 



ADVEBTISING FOB RETAILERS. 



William Henry Evans, of the Pikes 

 Peak Floral Co., Colorado Springs, 

 Colo., is a believer in the use of print- 

 ers' ink, and since he has taken over 

 a retail business in his town he has 

 done some original advertising. Thor- 

 oughly convinced that the best adver- 

 tisement is the one which makes a spe- 

 cific offer of something the people are 

 buying at the moment, he nevertheless 

 finds it good business to occasionally 

 drop the straight business talks and 

 use in his space something on the car- 

 toon order, of which the advertisement 

 reproduced herewith is an excellent 

 example. 



HOW TO BANK A MANTEL. 



Without Defacing Marble or Woodwork. 



It is undoubtedly true that wet flower 

 pots should not be placed on a mantel, 

 hard wood or any other kind. Yet, 

 strange to say, this is about the last 

 thing that many florists think about, 

 rather than the first consideration. I 

 have seen sad ruin of walls and wood- 

 work in place after place, which was 

 caused by unthinking and careless peo- 

 ple who posed as decorators. Neither 

 wet pots nor dry pots should ever touch 

 wood, brick, marble or other finishing 

 material. When beginning work in a 

 new customer's house I have been met 

 with cautions to be careful of linen, 

 polished wood and expensive walls, 

 which mentally I resented as an insult 

 to my training and principles, and yet, 

 for which I could scarcely censure her, 

 considering her former experiences with 

 shoddy workmanship. 



The tin or, still better, galvanized 

 box is the most substantial protection, 

 and while it will increase the expense 

 of the first mantel decoration, it will 

 repay the expense a hundred fold in 

 convenience and safety for almost any 

 mantel decoration. Eealize twenty or 

 twenty-five per cent of the cost of these 

 accessories on the occasion of the fltst 

 decoration in which they are used, if 

 possible. Add a little each succeeding 

 time until they are paid for, then a 

 small amount for wear and tear and 

 finally for profit, in the lump estimate 

 of the decorations. 



An Outfit of Mantel Pans. 



In order to make this plan adapta- 

 ble to any size of mantel, make two 

 pans for a mantel, instead of one, say 

 one pan four feet long and one two 

 feet long. The one four feet long will 

 be sufficient for a small mantel and 

 the two together will do for a larger 

 mantel. If thus equipped for several 

 mantels, you could scheme for any size 

 of mantel whatever, for window seats, 

 above window boxes, for porch railing 

 decorations, for sideboards, buffets, or 

 any such thing outside the store or 

 greenhouse, and for window, balcony or 

 counter use in the store. In fact, the 



mantel pan is one of the most useful 

 articles about the whole estaolishment. 

 Four inches of depth and eight to ten 

 inches of width would be the other 

 dimensions for a convenient size of pan. 

 If several mantels are to be decorated 

 at once, which you find will tax your 

 supply of pans, piece out here and there 

 with a jardiniere, covered with moss or 

 ferns. Faint the outside and inside, 

 too, with black or dark foliage green. 



Oeneral Usefulness of the Pans. 



These pans can be used for potted 

 plants, plants out of pots, cut flowers 

 or cut greens. You will not often find 

 it practical, considering the best ap- 

 pearance of the decoration, to use the 

 plants in the pots, and while it is true 

 that the roots will be more or less dis- 



escape. Have the plants damp, but well 

 drained, before shifting from their pots 

 into the pan, to avoid having water 

 standing in the pan, which, even if it 

 does not leak through, will make its 

 presence felt on the woodwork beneath 

 in a white scum. 



Grouping the Plants. 



Unless the plants have unusually 

 abundant foliage or wide - spread 

 branches, the root balls should be 

 packed snugly together, and the small 

 vacancies between should be filled with 

 sphagnum or other light moss. Cover 

 the top of the soil, the edge and out- 

 side of the pan with fern leaves or 

 green or gray moss. Tip at least a 

 part of the plants over the ends and 

 front of the mantel pan. ' Eelieve the 

 monotony here and there with cut fern 

 leaves. Culls from the specimen plants 

 will often serve this purpose. 



Do not fill the back of the pan 

 densely; the foliage and flowers are not 

 graceful when against a solid surface. 

 If there is a mirror behind the mantel, 

 flowers or foliage will reflect to much 

 better advantage if several inches away 

 than they would if exposed to a close 

 view in the mirror. 



Do not have the top surface of the 



Advertisement Cartoon Used by Pikes Peak Floral Co., Colorado Springs, Colo. 



turbed by being shifted out of the 

 pots and back again, it is better to do 

 this than to have the decoration suffer. 

 Then, again, they will recover in time 

 in the greenhouse. Withal, the plants 

 do not suffer, on the whole, any more 

 than they would if handled separately 

 and exposed to all kinds of breakage 

 in foliage, stems and flowers. 



Cover the bottom of the pan with a 

 layer of dry moss, to absorb any 

 slight amount of moisture that may 



mantel group of plants too even. Break 

 it in several places Pierce the space 

 above with a bold, striking group of 

 lines at or toward one end, and have 

 a contrasting group of lines, by means 

 of a plant that takes a decided droop, 

 either at the base of the tall plant or 

 at the opposite end of the mantel, or 

 both. In other words, climb, fall and 

 average with your lines and groups 

 of lines. Take advantage of pillars, 

 posts and other projections, as a spider 



