■}^niipl(i)ie>it  to 
Mfvreii  13,  1S02.  .JOURNAL  OF  HORTICULTURE  AND  COTTAGE  GARDENER,  225 
/Is  a  florist. 
The  business  of  a  cultivator  of  plants  usually  known  as 
r  lorists  blowers,  for  sale,  is  a  very  old  and  honourable  one.  It 
business  I  mean  to  pen  a  few  notes,  but  of  that 
■of  florist,  in  the  more  modern  acceptation  of  the  term;  starting 
a  florist  s  shop  for  the  sale  of  flowers  and  all  that  goes  to  con¬ 
stitute  a  florist’s  business.  This  business  has  several  grades,  vary¬ 
ing  from  the  selling  of  a  few  flowers  by  the  ignoramus  to  the 
highest  development  of  floral  art.  The  ignoramus  often  finds  the 
flower  business  an  unprofitable  one,  for  the  obvious  reason  tliat 
no  business  worthy  the  name  can  be  conducted  without  know¬ 
ledge,  and  the  little  ca,pital  on  hand  to  start  with  frequently  takes 
Mings  ere  the  requisite  knoM'ledge  is  attained.  Some  have  a 
greater  aptitude  for  business  than  others,  and  soon  acquire  the 
art  of  successful  trading;  but,  as  a  general  rule,  anyone,  either 
male  or  female,  vdio  means  to  succeed  as  a  florist  should  take 
means  to  acquire  a  knowledge  by  serving  in  a  good  established 
business  a  regular  apprenticeship. 
Assuming,  then,  a  preliminary  knowledge  of  the  requirements 
•of  the  business,  the  first  step  is  the  choice  of  a  shop.  This  is  a 
most  important  ste^i,  as  it  is  of  the  very  first  consequence  that  it 
^  ^  suitable  locality,  and  often  a  few  yards  make  a  M'onderful 
•difference.  If  possible,  it  should  be  near  a  good  residential  dis- 
hrict,  but  yet  in  a  busy  thoroughfare,  where  business  may  come 
or  its  own  accord,  Mdien  an  attractive  display  is  made  to  tempt 
the  passer-by.  The  class  of  flowers  kept  must  depend  a  little  on 
the  neighbourhood  chosen,  as  what  might  be  popular  in  one 
locality  might  be  the  very  reverse  in  another.  Of  the  very  first 
importance,  however,  is  to  keep  the  best  in  season.  Don’t  be 
adding  every  new  floMer,  after  you  see  it  in  another  shop,  but 
see  that  if  you  are  not  the  first  to  have  a  novelty,  not  to  be 
behind  otliers,  and  always  prefer  quality  to  cheapness.  First- 
rate  fresh  flovers  M’ill  always  prove  a  pleasure  to  vour  customers 
and  they  will  be  sure  to  talk  of  them  to  their  friends.  If  ladies 
are  tempted  to  buy  poor  quality  for  mere  cheapness,  they  are 
sure  to  be  disgusted,  and  probably  next  time  tliey  purchase,'  they 
Mull  go  to  another  shop,  and  there  give  a  better  price,  and  lay 
the  entire  blame  on  the  unfortunate  florist  who  has  sold  them 
the  cheap  ones.  Nobody  ever  makes  a  really  successful  business 
by  mere  cheapness  :  first-class  floM'ers  at  a  moderate  price  will  in 
the  end  ensure  success.  The  seeming  success  of  mere  cheaiiness 
is  evanescent. 
The  next  important  point  for  beginners  is  to  beware  of  keep¬ 
ing  too  large  stocks.  Keep  up  an  attractive  and  varied  display, 
but  make  it  an  unbending  rule  to  have  fresh  stock  daily,  and  this 
•can  only  be  done  by  stocking  moderately.  Customer, V  will  soon 
find  out  where  the  freshest  flowers  are  to  be  had.  They  are  more 
beautiful  when  purchased,  and  keep  beautiful  for  much  longer 
time.  In  these  days  of  auction  sales  there  is  often  great  temp¬ 
tation  to  buy  largely,  as  cheapness  is  sometimes  thereby 
attained,  as  M'ell  as  the  semblance  of  doing  a  large  business.  Be 
not  deceived,  .  hoM  ever ;  your  opponents  in  business  can  form 
their  0M;n  opinions  pretty  accurately,  and  nothing  will  sooner 
•bring  failure  than  imitation  of  the  frog  blowing  itself  out  to  look 
like  the  ox. 
The  success  or  failure  of  a  florist  will  largely  depend  on  the 
ability  for  “  making  up.”  The  mere  sale  of  cut  flowers  is  not  a 
very  profitable  concern,  and  a  reputation  for  skill  and  artistic 
taste  in  making-up  will  soon  spread,  and  cause  a  business  to  grow 
from  less  to  inore.  Experience  in  this  is  the  lest  schoolmaster, 
and  the  beginner  must  set  a  high  ideal,  and  never  lose  an  oppor¬ 
tunity  of  improving  by  careful  study  of  the  best  examples  that 
are  to  be  seen.  The  making  up  of  wreaths  and  other  memorial 
designs  is  the  chief  and  most  constant  part  of  a  '•  making-up  ” 
trade,  and  the  beginner  will  do  well  to  make  everything  con¬ 
nected  with  this  department  a  special  study  ;  but  while  picking 
up  ideas  from  all  good  examples  that  can  be  seen,  never  slavishly 
copy  other  people’s  work,  and  the  more  of  originality  the  artist 
possesses  the  better,  'though  mere  originality  should  never  be 
.sought  after,  as  it  is  often  attained  by  sacrifice  of  elegance  and 
beauty.  Remember,  too,  that  very  satisfactory  effects  are 
often  attained  by  the  skilful  use  of  common  flowers.  Many  people 
prefer  them  to  choice  exotics.  Here,  too.  avoid  mere  cheapness: 
no  lasting  reputation  M'ill  come  of  it. 
A  nice  specimen  of  memorial  flow^er  work  should  alvays  be 
exhibited  in  the  shop  M'indow.  This  is  invariably  a  profitable 
investment,  as  though  a  sale  may  not  alv'ays  be  effected,  nice 
Mork  alM-avs  stimulates  business.  We  now  come  to  bouquet 
making,  about  which  pages  might  be  written,  but  must  be  dis¬ 
posed  of  in  a  sentence  or  two.  Here,  too,  seek  after  the  higliest 
attainments — be  up-to-date,  miss  no  chance  of  seeing  the  best. 
Read  notices  of  social  functions  vdiere  descriptions  are  given, 
and  always  be  able  to  show  your  customers  you  are  conversant 
Mith.  and  can  execute,  the  latest  ideas.  The  number  willing  to 
pa  •  for  the  best  that  can  be  done  may  be  fev',  but  those  willing 
to  buy  at  an  up-to-date  establishment  are  many.  Perhaps  in  no 
department  more  than  in  bouquet  making  is  a  thorough  practical 
knowledge  of  flovers  advantageous.  Customers  will  be  sure 
sometimes  to  vant  bouquets  of  floM'ers  that  are  not  in  season. 
The  floral  adept  Mill  know  at  once  to  .say  so,  and  suggest  some¬ 
thing  that  Mill  .suitably  fill  the  gap,  M’hile  the  ignoramus  Mill  look 
stupid  and  piobably  lose  the  order.  Remember  that  in  the 
floM'er  trade  there  is  no  advertisement  equal  to  a  thoroughly  well 
executed  Medding  bouquet  order.  The  bouquets  may  be  seen  by 
hundreds,  and  quality  and  style  are  sure  to  tell. 
I  fear  that  space  Mill  not  admit  of  more  on  the  important 
.subject  of  starting  “  as  a  Florist  ;  ”  but,  before  closing,  a  Mmrd  or 
tu’o  inay  be  added  on  table  decoration.  To  many  florists  this  is 
an  important  busine,ss,  but  often  comes  sloMer  to  the  new 
beginner  than  the  departments  already,  mentioned  ;  but  the  florist 
young  to  business  should  seek  every  available  opportunity  of 
seeing  good  examples  and  profit  by  them.  I  think  that  at  the 
present  time  there  are  no  points  of  greater  importance  in  table 
decorations  than  elegance  and  simplicity,  lightness  of  touch, 
pleasing  shades  of  colour  to  harmonise  M’itli  the  surroundings. 
Avoid  laborious  designs,  such  as  arches,  crystal  lakes,  &c. ;  in 
fact,  the  perfection  of  a  florist’s  table  decoration  should  be  to 
leave  it  so  that  the  guests  would  not  see  the  hand  of  the  profes¬ 
sional  florist — “  the  trail  of  the  serpent  is  over  them  all  ” — but  be 
led  to  imagine  that  the  education  and  simple  refined  taste,  of  "the 
hostess  had  inspired  the  arrangement. 
It  is  hoped  that  these  few  incomplete  remarks  may  be  useful 
to  beginners.  They  are  suggested  by  a  quarter  of  a  century’s 
experience,  but  everyone  must  knoM'  that  they  must  “  M  ork  out 
their  own  salvation.”  Do  not  be  led  avay  by  the  idea  that  the 
business  of  a  florist  is  an  easy  and  pleasant  one.  It  is  a  hard, 
laborious  business ;  pleasant  to  those  m  Iio  find  labour  a  pleasure 
apart  often  from  profit,  but  profitable  only  where  trouble  and 
labour  are  never  grudged  if  so  be  that  the  highest  artistic 
attainments  are  achieved.- — Old  Flobist. 
JBeiters  from  (Bid  c^riends. 
The  rats  and  myself  are  still  friends — on 
Rats,  and  occasion.  I  have  a  number  of  shallow,  wooden 
Potatoes.  boxes,  M’ithout  lids,  distributed  openly  upon 
the  floor  of  a  coM'house — disused  pro  tem. — 
containing  my  new  North  American  hybrid  seedling  Potatoes. 
IMr.  Rat  is  a  connoisseur  amongst  these  “  Cinderellas  ”  of  Nature, 
and  makes  his  choice.  But  if  I  did  not  take  the  precaution  to 
have  the  boxes  placed  in  gradation — big  upon  little — vertically 
by  nine  o’clock  or  so  in  the  evening,  there  would  be  none  pro¬ 
bably  of  Mr.  Rat’s  selection  left  for  me  to  M'ork  with  in  the 
future,  and  make  a  “  note  of.”- — R.  Fenn. 
I  have  read  recently  in  the  Journal  of 
a.  Morning  tlorticulfure  an  article  M'ith  both  pleasure 
with  Loudon,  and  profit.  It  recalled  to  my  mind  a  very 
pleasant  moiming  I  once  spent  with  the  late 
J.  C’.  Loudon  anct  family — whom  I  had  the  honour  of  reckoning 
among  my  earrt  friend.s — at  his  charming  villa  at  Baysvater. 
I  have  all  his  M'orks  in  my  library — two  rows  of  them — and 
frecxuently  use  them  as  Mmrks  of  reference.  In  doing  so,  I  have 
often  thought  vdiat  valuable  extracts  might  be  made  from  them 
to  fill  up  any  odd  nooks  and  corners  of  our  gardening  periodicals. 
They  are  old,  as  things  go  noM\  but  not  out  of  date,  and,  contain¬ 
ing  as  they  do,  w'ell  ascertained  truths,  never  will  be. — Wm.  Paul. 
*  *  * 
Clevedon  is  not  Cliveden,  as  some  people  and 
clevedon  postmarks  seem  to  imagine,  but  a  very  charm- 
and  its  ing  place  in  Somerset,  which  dommates  the 
Rose  Gardens.  Bristol  Channel  and  looks  far  and  wide  over 
the  great  plain,  Mdiere  doubtless  once  a  much 
vaster  estiiary  of  the  Severn  M-ashed  the  bases  of  the  Mendips.  Its 
gi'cat  feature  is  the  hanging  gardens,  dropping  doMii  the  steep 
sides  of  its  limestone  ifidges,  terrace  falls  to  terrace  until  the 
broad  fertile  expanse  opens  out  to  the  Quantock.  Time  and  space 
will  but  permit  of  my  mentioning  t-MO  localitie.s — The  Knott 
and  Clevedon  Court.  At  the  former  the  upper  terrace 
embraces  the  almo.st  illimitable  views,  vdiilst  the  gardens  drop 
down  the  hillside:  on  the  house  are  luxuriant  climbing  Ro.se.s — 
Madame  Falcot  being  conspicuous  for  height  and  bi’eadth.  Myrtles 
here  ai'e  magnificent,  recently  made  beds  of  Teas  promise  great 
Things  next  summer,  whilst  the  standards  on  the  highest  terraces 
seeni  fearless  of  drought  in  prospect  of  the  usual  rainfall  of  over 
30in  annually.  But  tlie  glory  of  Clevedon  is  beyond  compare 
Clevedon  Coiirt.  Backed  up  by  its  ancestral  heights,  the  grand 
old  house — parts  dating  from  the  fourteenth  century — Muth  the 
sea  at  its  back,  looks  out  on  sunny  inland  slopes.  On  the  south  wall 
is  a  Pomegranate  which  fruits  yearly,  I  believe  the  only  examide 
in  England.  Terrace  after  terrace  rises  behind,  the  liigh  M'alls 
clothed  with  climbing  Roses  of  wide  expansion  and  great  vigour, 
whilst  large  round  binls  of  the  choice.st  fi'eas  occupy  places  in  front 
on  the  beautifully  kept  lav  ns.  Sir  Edmund  Elton.  Bart.,  is  the 
OM-ner  of  this  earthly  paradise,  knoM'n  far  and  wide  for  the  lovely 
