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JANUARY 5, 1911. 



The Weekly Florists^ Review* 



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THE RETAIL 



FLORIST 



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A NEYEON WREATH. 



How Georgia retailers can rise to 

 the demand for large funeral designs 

 is shown by the accompanying illus- 

 tration. This is a wreath on easel 

 made by H. G. Evans, now in charge 

 of J. F, Ammann's store at Alton, 111. 

 At the time, he was employed as de- 

 signer by the Idlehour Nurseries at 

 Macon, Ga. The roses are Paul Ney- 

 ron, grown outdoors. The deep rose 

 color of the flowers and the green of 

 the cycas made a pleasing combination. 



MAKING THE STORE ATTRACTIVE. 



Some Decorative Hints. 



The general appearance of the store, 

 inside and out, has as much to do with 

 local trade as with transient customers, 

 and the new flower buyers are sure to 

 be attracted to the place which has 

 the most inviting aspect and the great- 

 est individuality of method in display. 



There is as -much in attention to 

 numerous small details about the place 

 as in any one prominent feature. Some 

 time ago the writer visited a number 

 of stores in succession in different 

 cities, and the most common fault of 

 all was the lack of the requisite clean- 

 liness and neatness. Either the window 

 or some portion of the store was neg- 

 lected or dirty. Empty pots, or vases 

 of old water, or discarded boxes are 

 enough to spoil the looks of the whole 

 place. And it takes the help of the 

 whole force to keep the store looking 

 trim and neat. This much accomplished, 

 how shall we, with a moderate outlay 

 of time and material, make our store 

 the most attractive in the place? For 

 a flower store, of all places, ought to 

 be always beautiful, at least the front 

 room. 



Seasonable Helps at Slight Cost. 



There are two commodities which 

 will contribute to this improvement of 

 the premises, at the same time reducing 

 the expense to a minimum. One is the 

 use of flowers which are past their 

 prime, and the other is the liberal use 

 of native foliage and flowers, especially 

 the foliage in the various stages, ac- 

 cording to the season. To illustrate: 

 When the autumn foliage is in its 

 glory, the whole store can be decorated 

 for a day's work in gathering, trans- 

 porting and placing, and some of these 

 oxidized beauties will retain their color 

 and form for weeks. Then, later in the 

 season, at holiday times, there are the 

 various conifers, which can be worked 

 up in wreaths, garlands and forest ef- 

 fects. Then there are the cones them- 

 selves, which, in garlands and bunches 

 tied with scarlet ribbon, make fine deco- 

 rations for the wreath, while the tiny 

 ones in strings may be used for por- 

 tieres and tapestries. Holly berries 

 strung in this way keep their color till 

 nearly spring. 



Cover the unsightly spots and par- 



tition off the unseemly corners with 

 these decorative features. This work 

 will «erve a double purpose; besides 

 making the store more attractive, it 

 will suggest to people that you have 

 good ideas about decorative work, in 

 case they need some work of this kind 

 done. Fi'om the same material screens 

 for the back of the window can be 

 made, without much outlay of money. 

 Then there are cat-tails, wild grasses 

 and all such materials, on which we 

 trample any time we take a walk iu 

 the woods. 



Skillful Use of Left-over Stock. 



The other asset was left-over flowers. 

 According to their race, color, or pre- 

 vious condition of servitude, these 

 should be placed in more or less promi- 

 nent places about the store. After a 



I once knew of a store which had a 

 low partition separating the salesroom 

 from the workshop. There was a wide 

 ledge on the top of the partition, on 

 which could be set good sized pots, 

 jardinieres or baskets. It was kept 

 decorated all the time with plants or cut 

 flowers, and proved an attractive deco- 

 rative feature and a continual demon- 

 stration for customers. All of the full- 

 blown and weak-stemmed roses not 

 needed for other purposes were held 

 for this place and they certainly paid 

 for their keep. No one entering the 

 store could miss this display. Killarney 

 roses were one of the specialties for this 

 purpose, and their excellent keeping 

 qualities and extraordinary beauty of 

 color and form were displayed to ad- 

 vantage on this particular place. 



If the quality of this left-over stock 

 will not bear close inspection, wire it 

 and put it in some retired place or well 

 up above the eye-line. 



Window, Desk and Counter. 



Then there is the window, where the 

 best stock must be arranged in the 

 best way. Either one good feature 

 alone, or several which are parts of 

 the whole, may be a good plan for win- 

 dow displays. To illustrate: One large 

 basket of yellow chrysanthemums, with 

 a suitable background, is a better win- 



Wreath of Paul Neyron Roses. 



day's service as first-class stock, and 

 having suffered more or less from hand- 

 ling, roses and chrysanthemums are 

 ready for an over-night soak. If 

 plunged deep in water, flower and stem, 

 and left there for about twelve hours, 

 they may come out fit for sale next 

 day, or at least will do quito well for 

 store decoration. The chrysanlhemums 

 may need the outer petals trimmed, but 

 the roses, even if full-blown, will stand 

 for two or three days in some decora- 

 tive feature. 



dow feature than a number of medium 

 sized baskets of promiscuous colors, set 

 here^i^nd there merely to fill the space. 

 Or one large vase with a number of 

 tiny vases placed around it in a circle, 

 with light garlands or ribbons connect- 

 ing each small vase with the center 

 vase, all filled with choice flowers of 

 one kind and color, will attract a better 

 class of flower buyers than a window 

 which is simply filled with a lot of 

 vases of various colors and kinds of 

 flowers. 



'•-I- 



