Mabch 7, 1912. 



The Weekly Florists^ Review. 



13 



Casket Cover of Roses by the Art Floral Co^ Sao Francisco, CaL 



Gentlemen, I have no panacea to 

 offer for this or any other of the evils, 

 real or imaginary, which we may have, 

 but I am convinced that with proper 

 forethought we can,' by means of the 

 special sales, actually turn defeat into 

 victory. This is our mission, our op- 

 portunity; this is the means by which 

 we can place flowers within the reach 

 of every family; this is the means of 

 educating the poor as well as the rich 

 in the love of flowers. Do you realize 

 that if flowers were bought by only 

 the wealthy people, fifty per cent of 

 the florists in the city of Washington 

 Would have to go out of business? 

 Here, and likewise in many other cities, 

 the running expenses and the bread and 

 butter of the florists and their families 

 come from the poor and the moderate- 

 ly well-to-do classes. 



Thus it is not only our necessity but 

 our duty to find a means of distributing 

 this bountiful supply which nature has 

 placed in our hands. It is our mission 

 and our opportunity to educate the 

 people, to instill in the hearts and 

 minds of the young and the old, the 

 rich and the poor, the love of nature 

 and all her works, the love of trees and 

 shrubs and every flower that blooms. 



This is the mission of the florist in 

 the generations to come, and we can 

 utilize the special sales as one of the 

 means to this end. 



CHICAGO RETAIL ADVEBTISINQ. 



The retail florists of Chicago are 

 pushing along so rapidly that the flower 

 business is coming to hold a place of 

 importance in the list of the city 's mer- 

 cantile interests. It is advertising that 

 is bringing the business into the public 

 eye. All four of the advertisements 

 reproduced on page 12 were in the 

 Tribune Saturday morning, March 2. 

 In the original they were double column 

 spaces, and therefore in the aggre- 

 gate they made nearly half a page of 

 the big daily. Now, no one needs evi- 

 dence that an industry that is good 

 for a half page of the highest priced 

 space in the country, possibly except-- 

 ing New York, has a real importance in 



the eyes of the managers of the big 

 organs of publicity. The florists' inter- 

 ests are well worth catering to, 



The advertising florists are not 

 charging fancy prices, but they arte 

 moving a tremendous lot of stock and 

 making a great number of new flower 

 buyers who become an asset for the 

 growers. 



THE CASKET COVER. 



It used to be said that the supreme 

 test of a florist 's abilities as a worker 

 with cut flowers came with the orders 

 for brides' bouquets, but of late the 

 nature of the test has been changed — 

 nowadays the real showing of ability 

 is made on casket covers. The accom- 

 panying illustration is a good example 

 of a pall of roses made by a competent 

 cut flower worker. The original was 

 from the Art Floral Co., San Francisco, 

 P. Vincent Matraia president and man- 

 ager. 



There are several ways of making a 

 cover of flowers for a casket. Flowers 

 of any variety or a number of varieties 

 can be used, but upon the type of flower 

 depends the frame or body of the 

 cover. The stiff wire frames, as made 

 by the wire workers, are perhaps used 

 as a framework more extensively than 

 any other. For large flowers, such as 

 lilies, chrysanthemums or Beauties, this 

 wire frame is best. After lightly cov- 

 ering the frame with green, the usual 

 way is to fasten the flowers with No. 

 20 to 24 wire, bent like long hairpins. 

 It is always advisable to bring the 

 wires up from underneath, so as not to 

 leave a lot of ends, which would mar 

 the casket. Some florists moss the wire 

 casket cover frames as in other design 

 work, but this others consider useless. 

 Only when using galax leaves as the 

 background, is moss required. 



Mosquito netting adapts itself nice- 

 ly for use in making covers out of roses, 

 carnations, nafcissi or other flowers of 

 medium size and not too stiff stem. A 

 cover made in this way conforms read- 

 ily .to the shape of the casket. The 

 flowers are attached in the same way 

 as to the wire frame; a number can, 



of course, be fastened at one time if 

 the stems are long. 



When making such small flowers as 

 violets, sweet peas, Roman hyacinths, 

 etc., into a casket cover, many skilled 

 workers sew or pin the flowers to a 

 piece of moss-green denim. This makes 

 a graceful cover. The flowers are first 

 made up into small bunches of about a 

 half dozen with the stems cut short, 

 and these small bunches fastened to 

 the cloth. Only a little extra green is 

 required; of course, the bunches must 

 be fasitened close together. In order 

 to facilitate matters, one will find it a 

 good plan to lay the cloth or wire net- 

 ting over one of the regular stiff wire 

 frames while working on such a cover. 

 Until one knows from experience 

 ^bout how many flowers are required 

 for a cover, it is a good plan to keep a 

 record of those you make. Note the 

 size and kind of flowers and the num- 

 ber used. The size and quality will, 

 of course, change the figures somewhat, 

 as will also the spacing of the flowers; 

 still, one will find a record a great 

 convenience when asked to estimate 

 the cost of a cover of a given size. 



SOCIETY OF AMERICAN FLORISTS. 



Directors' Meeting. 



The meeting of th') board of directors 

 will be held in the Auditorium hotel, 

 Chicago, Wednesday, March 13, at 10 

 a. m. 



A Letter from England. 



The following letter has been re- 

 ceived by the secretary from the man- 

 agement of the Royal International 

 Horticultural Exhibition in London: 



"Bear Sir: I beg to tbank you for your letter 

 addressed to Mr. Geo. J. Ingrain, and have been 

 Instructed to write and tbank tbe Society of 

 American Florists and Ornamental Horticulturists 

 for their kind offer of three silver and three 

 bronze medals to tbe exhibition, to be awarded 

 at tbe International Exposition In London for 

 plants and flowers of American origin. 



"Our directors very much appreciate the kind 

 gift, and have requested me to ask that the said 

 medals be forwarded as soon as possible, In order 

 that they may be exhibited with cups and other 

 trophies prior to the exhibition, and, If possible, 

 should they arrive in time, figure in the coming 

 Souvenir Catalogue. — Yours faithfully, Geoffrey 

 W. Henslow, M.A., Organizing Secretary." 



