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The Weekly Florists' Review* 



Apbil 27, 1911. 



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THE RETAIL 



FLORIST 



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HELPER FLOWERS, 



To Develop the Slender, Airy Ones. 



There is a host of slender petaled 

 flowers, showery and airy, to which no 

 one can deny a charming character>^ but 

 which need the more gorgeous flowers 

 to throw them into prominence, to say 

 nothing of the softening tone which the 

 frailer flowers lend to their more con- 

 spicuous sisters. Even though some of 

 the slender ones have the richer and 

 heavier color tones, they are so finely 

 cut that they melt into thin air without 

 the aid of a developer. If a whole col- 

 lection of them were dumped together, 

 they would never make a striking or 

 even noticeable appearance, but when 

 set against other flowers of the correct 

 color ahd style a most beautiful ettect 

 is produced. 



Some of these more delicate flowers 

 may be recalled, as the honeysuckle, lo- 

 belia, grass flowers, freesia, gypsophila, 

 mignonette, sweet alyssum, forget-me- 

 not, garden heliotrope, Cyprus vine, tree 

 catkin, the various kinds of asparagus 

 and smilax in bloom, and the madeira 

 vine, besides a halfway list containing 

 those neither especially dainty nor 

 quite decided, such as the swainsona, 

 genista. Clematis paniculata, achillea, 

 the flowering begonias, etc. 



Some Effective Contrasts. 



Mignonette hungers for yellow. Try 

 it with salmon pink or yellow snap- 

 dragons. Bridesmaid roses, daffodils, or 

 phlox of the salmon pink persuasion. 



Forget-me-nots are desirable with dull 

 orange, copper-colored, pink and white 

 flowers. 



The common honeysuckle may be as- 

 sociated with scarlet carnations, Kais- 

 erin roses, and nasturtiums in the orange 

 and red tones. 



Lobelia shows well against yellow 

 calceolarias or white and yellow snap- 

 dragons. 



The grasses in flower look well over 

 against asters, mums, dahlias, gaillar- 

 dias, coreopsis, clover, etc. 



Freesias combine well with violets, 

 yellow tulips, single daffodils, eattleyas 

 and cydripediums. 



Gypsophila lightens with a fairy 

 touch masses of pink and violet sweet 

 peas, marguerites, asters or hydrangeas. 



Sweet alyssum is true to its name 

 among white and violet peas, white car- 

 nations, marguerites or lilacs. Candy- 

 tuft needs about the same class of de- 

 velopers. 



Garden heliotrope makes a filmy 

 background for funeral sprays of Rich- 

 mond roses, violet and violet pink peas, 

 violet pink snapdragons and stocks, li- 

 lacs, irisis and asters. 



Tree catkins, with daffodils, lilacs, 

 Bride gladioli, irises and spirsas, are 

 real indices of spring and new life. 



The various kinds of asparagus and 

 smilax, when in bloom, make ideal bri- 

 dal and corsage showers; also casket 



fringes, interior decorative and cascade 

 wreath showers, with roses, lilies, car- 

 nations, snapdragons, etc. 



The Medium-fragile Sorts. 



Then there are the "betwixt and be- 

 tween" kinds, such as swainsonas, 

 genistas. Clematis paniculata and the 

 achilleas, which need the dignity of a 

 few larger flowers to settle them in 

 favorite places. An entire shower of 

 swainsona, hung over a few stalks of 

 candidums or choice white roses, makes 

 a fairy shower bouquet. Genista with 

 pypripediums or yellow tulips is a 

 charming armful for the bridesmaids. 

 Clematis paniculata will drape a mantel 

 or sideboard mirror, with a few choice 

 lavender asters or calendulas. 



A 'madeira vine in bloom, cut down 

 to the root, will drape wherever drapery 

 is needed and soften a dignified group 

 of gladioli in the distance. 



These are merely suggestions, which 

 should lead to scores of better combina- 

 tions, suited to the needs and the supply 

 of each locality. 



Many of these vines and cut flowers 

 are soft and perishable and it will be 

 found wise to use the whole plant and 

 root in some hidden dish of water. 

 Much depends upon the way they are 

 handled, at the time of cutting and 

 later. Not a minute should be lost in 

 plunging the roots and stems well into 

 water and keeping them there. 



Pack for dolivery with as little hand- 

 ling as possible. Frequently they can 

 be hauled to their destination in the 

 water and stored in a cool basement 

 till the last minute. 



Gertrude Blair. 



BENSON'S BUBBLE. 



The accompanying illustration shows 

 the Buick automobile used by Lesl^er 

 F. Benson, Indianapolis, for delivery 

 purposes. Referring to it, Mr. Bdn- 

 son says: "Operating between tpe 

 greenhouses at 2210 Park avenue and 

 the store at 334 Massachusetts avenue, 

 and making deliveries from both plac6s, 

 we have found that the automobile 

 does as much work as two delivery 

 wagons, in addition to making better 

 time than can be done with horses. 

 The cost is not so great as was the 

 case with horse delivery." 



Mr. Benson's auto is finished in 

 white, with gold trimmings. On each 

 side is a representation of the globe, 

 showing the western hemisphere with 

 the inscription: "We give the earth 

 with every plant." This is a feature 

 of all Mr. Benson's advertising, ap- 

 pearing not only in his newspaper ad- 

 vertisements, but on his business card, 

 letter-heads, envelopes and other printed 

 matter. 



GLADIOLUS BULB ROT. 



Experiments at Cornell University. 



About three years ago the depart- 

 ment of plant pathology at Cornell 

 University started some investigations 

 on the bulb rots of gladiolus. This 

 work was done by E. "Wallace, a 

 graduate student in the department 

 who undertook the investigation as a 

 thesis for his master's degree. Mr. 

 Wallace continued these studies for 

 about a year and a half and made good 

 progress toward the solution of the 

 cause of those various bulb rots. He 

 isolated and studied three or four dif- 

 ferent fungi and proved that they were 

 in each case the cause of different 

 types of bulb rots. However, for the 

 lack of funds we were not able to 

 continue these investigations further, 

 and while Mr. Wallace has quite clearly 

 shown that there are at least three 

 different kinds of bulb rots of the gla- 

 diolus in this country and that they 

 are in each case caused by a different 

 fungus, it has not been possible for us 

 to make further studies on these para- 

 sites to determine just how they get 

 into the bulbs, or to carry on experi- 



Delivery Cu Used by Lester F. Bensoo, Indianapolis. 



