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Mabch 6, 1913. 



'The Florists' Review 



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THE RETAIL 



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FLORIST... 



A NEGATIVE SUOaESTION. 



The Eeview has received a page from 

 the Public Ledger marked "From the 

 Philadelphia Publicity Bureau. Get the 

 trade busy on this negative suggestion. 

 Charles Henry Fox." The "negative 

 suggestion" is an item headed "Lower 

 the High Cost of Dying," under a Cin- 

 cinnati date line, and reads as follows: 



"A novel way to decrease the 'high 

 cost of dying' has been devised by the 

 board of managers of St. Xavier's 

 church, one of the largest Catholic par- 

 ishes in southern Ohio. An announce- 

 ment has been made that in the future 

 no funerals to which flowers are per- 

 mitted to be sent will be permitted held 

 in the church. It also was announced 

 that in the place of flowers the parish, 

 at its own expense, will issue memoriam 

 cards to all the friends of the deceased, 

 announcing the death and a brief biog- 

 raphy of the deceased. One of the man- 

 agers stated that it was the beginning 

 of a nation-wide movement that, has been 

 started in the last month." 



Every once in a while an item like 

 this finds its way into print, and almost 

 always The Eeview receives several cop- 

 ies, from florists who fear the worst is 

 about to happen. It is, as Mr. Fox says, 

 a "negative suggestion," and one not 

 to be advertised by opposition, but The 

 Review has several times stated its 

 opinion that no great amount of harm 

 can come of such efforts to do away 

 with flowers at funerals. The Eeview 

 told the trade not to get excited about 

 the fad of wearing artificial corsage 

 flowers; that it would soon die out; and 

 it did. Don't be alarmed at "Please 

 omit flowers" in funeral notices — they 

 won't help, but so long as flowers are 

 recognized as "messengers of senti- 

 ment" their use will not be curtailed 

 to any appreciable extent by the acts 

 of those whose only idea is to cut the 

 cost. 



EASTER PLANTS. 



Question: Will the early Easter re- 

 duce the number of good blooming 

 plants that will be ready? 



Answer: It will not. The plants will 

 he finer and there will be more of them 

 than ever before. 



. These are facts that foreshadow an 

 immense business this month, for with 

 the stock assured our retailers all over 

 the country have the energy and brains 

 to meet the unusual conditions of this 

 *^->*'"^ordinarily early Easter. The stock, 

 aided by cultural skill and excellent 

 weather, is in wonderfully fine condi- 

 tion. There has actually been no 

 lorcmg; the stock has been brought on 

 naturally. The idea that a plant must 

 "f nard enough to stand shipping, to 

 stand well in the store and then to 

 stand well in home or church has put 

 ^n^^" *^ I'igli temperatures in flower- 

 "?,/"0f.t high grade plants. 



I tie lily is first among Easter 



brought into general notice. There 

 are practically no diseased lilies on the 

 benches today. Giganteums form the 

 bulk of the stock, but there are a good 

 many multiflorums and a good many 

 Formosas. These three types give a 

 range of heights as comprehensive as 

 the different sizes afford variety in the 

 number of buds to each plant. 



The azalea once came next to the lily 

 in order of popularity as an Easter 

 plant. It does so no longer, through 

 no fault of its own. It has gone down 

 several places because it is less satis- 

 factory than formerly, both from a cul- 

 tural and from a monetary standpoint. 



The rose stands next to the lily to- 

 day. Its advance is due mainly to the 



plants 



* ^y, as it was when it was first 



Sweet Peas in a Funeral Spray. 



progress made in developing the Wichu- 

 raiana type. Crimson Rambler still stands 

 at the head of the varieties suitable 

 for Easter forcing. Next come the pink 

 ramblers, then the baby class — Phyllis, 

 Orleans, Mrs. Taft, and Mrs. Cutbush 

 are all coming forward as fine sorts. 

 The hybrid roses, led by Magna 

 Charta, Frau Karl Druschki and Soleil 

 d'Or, are also good. The hybrid teas 

 include Richmond, Killarney and a few 

 others. 



The hydrangea shows an advance 

 equal to that of the rose. The new 

 French varieties, seen in small num- 



bers last season, have taken their place 

 side by side with Otaksa. There are 

 eight or nine of these varieties. All 

 can be had in quantity. The flowers 

 are not quite so large as on Otaksa, but 

 the colors are simply exquisite. in their 

 soft clearness. The plants are, as a 

 rule, exceedingly well budded, making 

 them showy. The bulk of the hydran- 

 geas, both standard and novel, are in 

 salable medium sizes. 



Astilbe Japonica Gladstone, com- 

 monly called spirtea, has crowded out 

 nearly all other varieties. They are so 

 fine this year that there is little left 

 to desire. A few of the pink spiraea, 

 Queen Alexandra, are seen. 



Genistas in the larger sizes are supe- 

 rior to anything offered last season. The 

 best are remarkably fine, the result of 

 culture and a cool temperature steadily 

 maintained. 



Rhododendrons show the result of 

 skill on both sides of the water. The 

 plants were good when they came, and 

 they have had good treatment since, 

 with no need of fire heat to bring them 

 on and spoil them now. 



These are the principal Easter plants 

 grown in great quantity for wholesal- 

 ing. Daisies, deutzias, hyacinths, tulips, 

 -narcissi, valley, lilacs, etc., are grown 

 in smaller quantities and are less seen 

 in the big markets, although often 

 grown by the retailers on their own 

 places. 



The stock for Easter is so fine that a 

 good Easter is in sight, the battle half 

 won, for with good stock it is less dif- 

 ficult to command success. Phil. 



SWEET PEAS IN SPRAYS. 



Since the introduction of the winter- 

 flowering sweet peas, and the long- 

 stemmed varieties, retail florists have 

 come to use the flower for practically 

 every purpose, even for funeral sprays. 

 There are those who think the use of 

 sweet peas for funeral purposes will de- 

 tract from the popularity of the flower 

 for corsage and other finer uses, but this 

 seems an exaggerated view. At any 

 rate, the modern sweet pea makes a 

 handsome funeral spray, as is shown by 

 the accompanying illustration, prepared 

 from a photograph supplied by J. L. 

 Easke, a Chicago retailer. 



HER TWENTY-FOURTH BIRTHDAY. 



A recent issue of a newspaper pub- 

 lished in Muskogee, Okla., tells a story 

 — presumably a true> story— about a 

 florist in that city who unintentionally 

 entered into -conflict with Cupid and 

 almost upset the little love-god's plans. 

 The florist in the case was Oscar 

 Werner, proprietor of the Hyde Park 

 Greenhouses. Another leading charac- 

 ter in the tale was a young man who 

 had frequently purchased flowers from 

 Mr. Werner. Still another character 

 of consequence was the young l^dy to 

 whom many of the roses had been sent. 



On the occasion referred to in the 

 story, the young lady had ^attained 

 her twenty-fourth birthday. Of course, 

 there was nothing peculiar or remark- 

 able about that; twenty-fourth birth- 

 days are common enough, since every 

 person of mature years must have had 

 one. Still, it is important, in this in- 

 stance, to remember the lady's age, 

 for the young man resolved to send' 

 her just two dozen roses, one for each 

 year of her life. 



So he sent the order for the two 

 dozen roses, with the address to which 



