168 FRITZ BAHR'S COMMERCIAL FLORICULTURE 



on which boards are placed to keep the light out, or use mats and 

 boards. Bring it in as you want it and no faster. In that way you 

 will always have good Boxwood on hand. 



Not only for wreaths do we use Boxwood, but often some of 

 the short branches wiU come in handy as a sort of fiUer for plant 

 baskets, where it will usually last as long as almost anything else 

 in the arrangement. By its use you can often save expensive ferns 

 or other plants. 



Boxwood Balls and Centerpieces 



A Boxwood centerpiece with Winterberries is not only a most 

 appropriate thing for decorating the Christmas dinner table, but if 

 you have several on display a week or so before Christmas some of 

 your patrons will prefer them to cut flowers or flowering plants; 

 while to you the profit wiU be at least double that on almost any- 

 thing else you sell. 



Make a moss pad about six inches in diameter and three inches 

 high on stiff cardboard, cut the Boxwood in six-inch-long pieces 

 and stick them into the moss pad, with a few nice branches of 

 Winterberries in the center. On the lower side fasten with wire 

 hairpins (such as you use for Magnolia wreaths) a double thickness 

 of wax paper or set the centerpiece on an ordinary plate so that it 

 wiU not soil the table-cloth. If such a centerpiece is kept in a cool 

 place overnight arid sprinkled once in awhile it will last until 

 after New Year's. 



Boxwood balls also will often take the place of cut flowers or 

 plants to be offered as gifts. Either purchase the wire frame of a 

 ball about five inches in diameter and fill it with sphagnum moss or 

 make up a ball without the frame and stick it full of Boxwood 

 about four inches in length. An easier way is to stem the Boxwood 

 on toothpicks; after this is completed trim the whole into a perfect 

 baU. But, before you put the green into the moss, attach a 

 12-in.-long wire so that you will be able to hang it up when finished. 

 A few short Winterberries in the green and a red ribbon fastened 

 onto the wire hanger will make it stiU more attractive. 



Wild Smilax and Other Greens 



It is always weU to stock up with Southern or Wild Smilax, 

 for the reason that there is nothing quite so graceful for decorative 

 purposes. This you cannot say of Holly. This green should also 

 be kept in a cool place; but frost will ruin it. If it should freeze 

 — if not frozen too hard — it will come out all right if kept in a dark, 

 cold place afterward and well watered. 



Ther,e are times when one runs short of Holly — that is, good 

 Holly for, decorating^and usuaUy there isn't much trouble in per- 



