JUNE 12, 1913. 



The Florists' Review 



^HE RETAIL '^^^^l 



FLORiST...... I 



WEDDING FLOWERS. 



The Backbone of June Business. 



As in other Junes, the demand for 

 welding flowers is proving the life of 

 i!ii> business. It is not true that the 

 i.tailers sell nothing but wedding flow- 

 I'ls during June, but it is the fact that 

 tlic ca.U for bouquets and decorations 

 I (institutes so large a part of the busi- 

 ness done that were it not for these 

 .lime would not hold its present place 

 as one of the best months in the year 

 tor the capable retail florists. With 

 the advance in wealth and refinement 

 as much as with increasing population, 

 tlio demand for wedding flowers be- 

 comes heavier each year. More brides 

 must have bouquets, and better bou- 

 quets. There are more church decora- 

 tions, and larger decorations. The busi- 

 ness improves from year to year both 

 in number of orders and in size of 

 orders. 



The June business is not the easiest 

 of work for the retailer to handle. Fre- 

 quently it seems to call for his pres- 

 ence in several places at once. Those 

 retailers whose forces are large enough 

 to include a number of skilled men may 

 welcome orders for several decorations 

 for the same time, but to the man 

 who must do all the work himself the 

 spasmodic character of the orders some- 

 times presents a difficult problem. Most 

 of the weddings corae in the first part 

 of the week. There also is the fea- 

 ture that it is easy to lose customers 

 through any mishap on a wedding job. 

 Where almost anything will pass mus- 

 ter on funeral work, no bride will ex- 



cuse any shortcoming in her wedding 

 flowers. The florist whose stock does 

 not stand up as it should in wedding 

 work can see trouble ahead; he loses his 

 old customers, the bride 's parents, and 

 he loses the prospective hew customer, 

 the new family^also the friends of 

 both parties. It never pays to use in 

 wedding work any flower that is open 

 to the slightest suspicion. Let the wed- 

 ding flowers be like Carsar's wife, even 

 if it costs a little extra money. 



Because this is the season of wed- 

 dings, this issue of The Review con- 

 tains illustrations of some recent wed- 

 ding flowers that were the work of re- 

 tailers of the front rank. It will be 

 of special interest on that account. 



The Church Decoration. 



The church decoration shown in the 

 illustration .on this page was the work, 

 June 3, of the Fleischman Floral Co., 

 Chicago. The scene is St. James church 

 and the nuptials were those of a grand- 

 daughter of the St. Louis Busch fam- 

 ily, of Anheuser fame. It is said to 

 have been the most elaborate decora- 

 tion done in Chicago thus far this sea- 

 son. The principal flowers used were 

 white peonies. Unfortunately, the aver- 

 age church is not built with a view to 

 photography and the illustration does 

 the decoration scant justice, serving 

 only to show the general disposition of 

 the stock. 



The Wedding Bouquets. 

 The illustrations on pages 8 and 9 

 are reproduced from photograph's of 

 wedding bouquets made at the estab- 

 lishment of David Clarke's Sons, on 



ujtper Broadway, New York city. These 

 are the conventional bouquets, one of 

 valley, the other of sweet peas. One 

 of the noticeable features, aside from 

 the general excellence of the bouquets, 

 is the use of ribbon. The New York 

 florists, probably more than those of 

 any other city in the Uniteil States, 

 use ribbon freely. 



REAL FLOWERS ON COSTUMES. 



Natural flowers have been use«l as a 

 trimming for hats and gowns for several 

 years by many NeW York women. They 

 were introduced by a florist from Vi- 

 enna, according to a society authority. 



Several New York brides have used 

 the natural gardenia and- orange blos- 

 soms, not only on their veils, but alsa 

 as a trimming for their gowns. Natural 

 flowers have been used to make fasci- 

 nating hats for garden parties, and one 

 of the most charming uses of these 

 fragrant and delicate blossoms was at 

 H New York wedding where the brides- 

 maids' hats were trimmed with long 

 sprays of Dorothy Perkins rose. Big 

 picture hats similar to those worn by 

 the bridesmaids, and trimmed with the 

 same lovely roses, formed the center- 

 pieces of the fifty tables at which the 

 guests were seated. At the end of the 

 affair they were worn away by fifty 

 pretty girl friends of the bride. 



*'I always trimmed my hats with 

 natural flowers when I was living in 

 Europe, ' ' says a Viennese woman now 

 in New York. ' ' My husband insisted 

 upon it. There were no other hats in 

 which he liked me so well. We had a 

 large garden and greenhouses and each 

 morning I ordered the gardener to bring 

 the flowers I was to wear for the day. 

 Roses, carnations and pansies were al- 

 ways lovely and serviceable. Sweet 

 peas were a little more difficult. It was 

 necessary to wear more of them, and 

 they are delicate and more liable to 

 wilt. 



"All the spring flowers are beautiful 

 for hat trimming. Yellow tulips are 

 charming on a yellow hat with a big 

 bow of gauze ribbon of <lifferent colors 



Church Decoration by the Fldschman Floral Co., the Largest Wciiiaz Job in Chicago tbui far thit Year. 



