• --T7* ^:f^T';w:"""jf"» 



'•^ '"T*.T»'Wr'?-fJ'K»5W ■''"'»"^!|f^^.^»»J'.-'ii'ii","«ii >i^.''^"w;i?ij^'|i'.w\fi(p|fi 



10 



The Weekly Florists^ Review* 



Apbil 20, 1911. 



or violet pink in a white flower, use it 

 with a decided tone of one of these col- 

 ors found in another flower and you will 

 not only have established a harmony, 

 but will havo developed the more deli- 

 cate flower. 



Traces of these tints may often be 

 seen toward the base of a petal outside, 

 or may be caught in .the light which op- 

 posite petals reflect against each other 

 down toward the base of the flower in- 

 side. Thus the tint has betrayed itself 

 through the reflection, though otherwise 

 its pre-sence could scarcely have been 

 detected. Or, as was suggested before, 

 trace the tints of the green along the 

 veining of the under and upper sides of 

 the leaves or the lines of the stems. 

 Whatever color tints the green will give 

 the key to the coloring of the flower. 



Coloring which would be permissible 

 in landscape gardening which has the 

 aid of soft backgrounds, sunlight and 

 atmospheric tints, might be unpleasant 

 indoors, where harsher details would 

 change the effect. 



Delicate Combinations. 



If you want to use creamy or yellow 

 white with a lighter white, introduce a 

 little blue; for example. Bride roses and 

 sweet alyssum will come together with 

 a better grace by the aid of some agera- 

 tums or forget-me-nots. 



When you can do so, combine your 

 yellow pink peas with your creams and 

 leave the lavender white to keep com- 

 pany with the crimson pinks. 



Smoke tree and tritoma make a com- 

 bination second onlv to blue lavender 



well as tints, or you will lean toward 

 the insipid. Throw the light colors 

 against the darker, after finding out one 

 or more of their common strains of 

 color. 



Queries: Have you observed the dif- 

 ference in color of the gray greens of 

 the mature carnation foliages, which 

 could be accounted for by means of any 

 of these color laws laid down in our 

 late series? Why would tritomas and 

 the yellow and yellow orange nastur- 

 tiums make a good bedding combina- 

 tion? Gertrude Blair. 



FBEE HELP. 



If there is any other class of busi- 

 ness men who get as much free help 

 from the newspapers as do the auto- 

 mobile makers it is those who make 

 their living through the sale of plants, 

 nursery stock and gardening imple- 

 ments. Every effort to encourage the 

 city beautiful idea is of direct benefit 

 to someone in the horticultural trades. 

 And every editor is for the uplift. 

 Hundreds, possibly thousands, of daily 

 and weekly papers are printing the 

 press stuff of the National Council of 

 Horticulture, they all are boosting the 

 local flower shows, and in many cases 

 they either have horticultural editors 

 or make a spring feature of a "best 

 lawn," "best back yard," or "best 

 window box" contest. It all helps the 

 seller of seeds, plants or nursery stock. 



As an example of the way the edit- 

 ors play up gardening in the spring, 

 the Des Moines Daily News has offered 



Alt Aboard for First Indoor Lesson 



On ^Cleaning Up Your Dirty Back Yard 



Cartoon with which an Iowa Paper Starts a Gardening Contest. 



wood smoke and the orange flame. 

 Here is a trace of a combination made 

 on the violet and orange theory of our 

 color circle, as described in my first ar- 

 ticle on color laws, in The Keview of 

 March 23. 



Make use of the dull copper tones in 

 dahlias and mums with the orange yel- 

 lows. They have a trace of violet in 

 them and crave the orange tones. 



Do not let your work run too much 

 to delicate coloring. Deal in shades as 



prizes for the best back yards and is 

 giving a series of lessons in back yard 

 gardening. Last week the first lesson 

 was introduced with the cartoon re- 

 produced herewith, beneath which was 

 printed the following: 



All readvl First class In back yard gardening, 

 iis<!. 



Are von all hero, father, mother, big brother, 

 kids and Towser? Of course you've filled out 

 the coupon and are KOing to Join the Dally News' 

 <lean-U|) party. So now you're ready for the 

 tlrHt lesson. And the first lesson Is to get busy 

 with the rake and weed out all the rubbish and 



tin cans and dead leaves from your yard, bo that 

 the tender green grass can have some show. 



Because, In deciding which yard in Des Moines 

 Is the neatest and cleanest, grass will cut some 

 figure. Kay Welrlck, city landscape engineer, 

 is going to give you a series of lessons through 

 the News on how to make an attractive yard. 

 'J'he ilrst lesson ■will appear within a day or two. 

 Mr. Weirlck will be one of the judges to decide 

 who has the most attractive yard on May 1. 

 So you can get some good pointers from his 

 lessons. 



All such work helps the florists. If 

 there's something of the kind doing in 

 your town, better help it along. One 

 way to get your full share of the bene- 

 fit would be to arrange for advance 

 information of what each day's paper 

 will recommend and to advertise the 

 same stock as close to the gardening 

 articles as you can get your advertis- 

 ing placed. 



THE PENUXjTIMATE DESIQN. 



In the collection of unique designs, 

 the one shown in the illustration on 

 page 11 is entitled to a place at 

 the front. It represents a derrick in 

 flowers, made by Lester F. Benson, an 

 Indianapolis florist, on the order of a 

 committee representing the Structural 

 Iron Workers of America, for one of 

 their members who was killed as a re- 

 sult of his gauntlet catching on the 

 hook as the engine started. The man 

 was lifted thirty feet from the ground 

 before his cry, "Slack down," was 

 heard, and before the order could be 

 obeyed the glove slipped from his hand, 

 resulting in a fall which broke his 

 neck. The design was made section- 

 ally, to work the same as a real der- 

 rick, and the committee insisted on 

 the florist placing a glove on the hook! 



Of course no florist maintains that 

 such a design is in anything but the 

 most execrable taste; such gruesome- 

 ness is an utter perversion of the idea 

 which prompts the sending of flowers 

 to a funeral. The flowers should carry 

 a message of sympathy, and by their 

 purity and beauty should speak of the 

 life beyond, should contain no sugges- 

 tion of mundane things, least of all 

 a reference to the route of departure 

 of "the late lamented." The derrick 

 design appears to be just one step re- 

 moved from the limit. The man who 

 wishes to accomplish the ultimate no 

 doubt will make for a murder victim 

 some such design as the following: 

 Take two clothing-store wire dummies; 

 fit them out with suits of flowers, in- 

 stead of cloth; raise the arms of each, 

 one figure leaning forward in the act 

 of firing a flower pistol; bring the left 

 hand of the other toward where a 

 man's heart is supposed to be, and the 

 right hand to his uplifted head; lean 

 this figure backward. Mount the two 

 figures, in the relationship that will 

 suggest itself, on a base of boxwood or 

 galax and there will be nothing fur- 

 ther that can be demanded of the flo- 

 rist, unless with such a. design the 

 widow fails to survive the shock. 



For the florist who makes monstrosi- 

 ties in flowers it is to be said: Hardly 

 any florist has so poor a conception 

 of the uses of flowers that he suggests 

 any such designs; the florist nearly al- 

 ways simply is carrying out the in- 

 structions he receives from his cus- 

 tomers, and must either do this or see 

 an order involving a goodly sum go 

 to a competitor. Florists are like 

 others — they are likely to do that 

 which they are best paid for doing, 

 but it is in line for every florist to do 

 something toward turning customers 

 to better things in flowers. 



