MAitCH 23, 1911. 



The Weekly Florists' Review. 



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yv^rmr- 



11 





THE RETAIL 



FLORIST 



SOME SIMPLE COLOR LAWS. 



The Colors of the Spectrum. 



If neither the growing nor the whole- 

 sale branch of the business seems to 

 attract the beginner as the retail and 

 decorative department does; if, more- 

 over, he has passed the few simple 

 tests of ability in designing and color, 

 as presented in my last article, he may 

 now profit by a system of color study 

 planned somewhat in the following 

 condensed form: 



White sunlight, as seen in a rainbow 

 or spectrum, contains these colors: 

 Violet, red, orange, yellow, green and 

 blue. They are so blended by inter- 

 mediate tints and shades as to be 

 rather difficult to distinguish, but we 

 can indicate them to ourselves by a 

 straight line on which the names repre- 

 sent the colors in the spectrum ray. 

 Divide the line into six equal parts, 

 placing the names, in the order already 

 given, in the proper places on the line. 

 Now we will play that we are bring- 

 ing the two ends of the line together, 

 forming a circle. The sections which 

 the colors occupy will be extended to 

 the center, and the colors will follow 

 in this order, violet, red, orange, yel- 

 low, green and blue, from left to right. 

 By selecting any two opposite colors 

 you may combine them correctly, as 

 violet and yellow, red and green, orange 

 and blue. Those which follow each 

 other are the least harmonious com- 

 binations. Yellow and blue, when 

 mixed in paints, form green. Red and 

 yellow make orange. Blue and red 

 produce violet. 



Primary or Unmixed Colors. 



Yellow, red and blue can not be pro- 

 duced from combining other colors, 

 and they are called by color manufac- 

 turers the primary colors. Other au- 

 thorities place the number of primary 

 colors anywhere between these three 

 and the six colors of the spectrum. 

 But a settlement of this question is not 

 essential to our . department of color 

 work, for we seldom have to do 

 with pure colors. By pure colors are 

 meant unmixed colors. There are no 

 flowers of one pure, normal color. One 

 which approaches a pure red is the 

 Roosevelt carnation, and for purposes 

 of comparison it will serve as a type. 

 The single California violet will serve 

 as an example of the violet color; an 

 orange may be instanced as orange 

 colored, a lemon as yellow, grass as 

 green, and Lobelia compacta as blue. 



If it were only a question of even 

 as nearly pure color combinations as 

 might be possible with the foregoing 

 examples, the work of color combina- 

 tion might be easily acquired. But 

 when we consider that all these color 

 types, which at first glance appear to 

 be pure, are iij. fact mixed with two or 

 more colors, the question becomes ex- 

 tremely complex. No rule or set of 



rules could cover every case or possible 

 combination. 



A Guiding Principle. 



When we consider tliat red mixed 

 with yellow becomes scarlet, as seen 

 in Beacon and America carnations, and 

 that red diluted with white becomes 

 pink, as found in Enchantress carna- 

 tions, it is easily understood that the 

 one type of green which is the color 

 opposite to red in our color circle will 

 not combine with all of the reds, but 

 that the green, being capable of as 

 many variations as the red, will fur- 

 nish some one correct tone for every 

 variation from the normal type of red. 

 The selection of just this correct tone 

 of green for any given tone of red 

 depends iipon your native color sense, 

 which can be aided, but not entirely 

 supplanted, by a principle which we 

 are now ready to formulate, namely: 

 A combination of colors must be based 



sense comes to the rescue, and, if of 

 considerable strength, is practically in- 

 fallible. Color affinities, however ob- 

 scure are true to one another, and what 

 your eye chooses as harmonious may 

 afterward, by patient examination, be 

 found true to accepted formulas. 



These hints on color laws will be 

 continued in another issue of The Re- 

 view. Gertrude Blair. 



A BRIDGE IN FLOWERS. 



Retail florists may be divided, rough- 

 ly, into two classes: one class includes 

 those who seek to lead their customers 

 away from the unique or bizarre in 

 funeral flowers, and the other class 

 embraces those who welcome with wide 

 open arms the man, or committee, with 

 the order for the unusual — the un- 

 usual usually means a little extra 

 money for the florist. Kansas City re- 

 cently has produced an unusual num- 

 ber of these orders for special designs. 

 The Alpha Floral Co. thinks that every- 

 thing that conies to the mill is grist 

 and that these orders are exceptionally 

 well worth grinding, for they run into 

 larger money than can be had for 

 wreaths or sprays, however fine. There 

 is this to be said for the big and un- 

 usual pieces: usually they are oidered 

 as the result of a dead man's fi lends 

 or associates taking up a collection; 

 when a committee has from $jU up- 

 ward to spend for a design, something 



A Railroad Bridge in Flowers. 



on a strain common to both colors 

 which are parties to the combination. 



Thus, a Prince Camille de Rohan rose 

 will coihbine most happily with a Sun- 

 set rose, on account of the red strain 

 so dominantly present in the Rohan 

 and noticeably evident in the Sunset. 

 This is a simple example of the princi- 

 ple, but it would take no wide search 

 to find two different flowers whose 

 subtle and delicate strains of color 

 harmony could be traced in several dif- 

 ferent lines. And we might add that 

 the more complex these lines of har- 

 mony are, the more delightful is the 

 result. Her^ is where the native color 



showy is required; it will not suffice 

 to put the money into orchids in a 

 wreath, for the display is not apparent 

 to those who do not know the value of 

 flowers. In such a case a big piece is 

 i;ece?sary, whether or not it may have 

 try artistic qualities. When a com- 

 mittee has more money to spend than 

 really is necessary for the purpose, the 

 result is almost always an order to 

 make something in a way to typify the 

 occupation of the deceased. An Illi- 

 nois florist not long ago was required 

 to make for a glass-blower a bottle in 

 white carnations, the piece standing 

 more than six feet high. In the same 



