Throughout history, flowers have accompanied the deceased to their final resting place. At first, flowers were carried in the hearse with the casket, or in a separate carriage. With the advent of the automobile funeral, flowers were transported to the church or cemetery in big touring cars with their tops let down. But in the1930s an entirely new kind of funeral vehicle -- the Flower Car -- blossomed in America. Flower cars were built on all makes of chassis, from luxury Packards, Cadillacs, LaSalles and Buicks to Pontiacs and Chevy El Caminos. The only book ever dedicated to these unique professional cars documents the evolution of the flower car from the 1930s to the long, low coupes de fleur still being built today. A bonus feature includes a section on the other workhorse of the funeral home fleet, the Service Car, which transported the deceased from home or hospital to the funeral parlor and hauled caskets and other funeral service paraphernalia to the church or cemetery.

Macabre tales of death and mourning in Victorian America.

Funeral flowers are many things - a tribute to the deceased, a comfort to the bereaved and a source of joy for all at a sad time. The challenge is to design sensitive, personalized creations for the client at a competitive price. This book is full of ideas and inspiration for the client to select, for the funeral director to use and for florists to follow. This beautiful and practical book sets out many options for the florist so their funeral work can provide a personalized and thoughtful tribute. It starts with a visual feast of designs, organized by season and colour, and then explains in detail how to make key floral tributes, to best serve the client and to build a successful business. It showcases over a hundred full-colour floral tributes, and demonstrates twenty step-by-step examples of how to make key arrangements. It explains how to create original designs, from initial planning and sketching to final ideas. Finally, advice is given on efficient ordering and costing for profitability and reduced wastage, as well as environmental considerations. Written by a leading florist, it demonstrates tenderness and care in every aspect of a sensitive and emotional final journey, so that funeral flowers can best mark the loss and celebrate the life of a loved one.

When Meredith Mitchell bumps into her old schoolfriend Rachel Hunter at the Chelsea Flower Show it doesn't take Meredith long to realise that she and the effortlessly self-confident blonde have even less in common now than they had as teenagers. Apart from one thing - Meredith's companion, Chief Inspector Markby. For to the embarrassment of all concerned, except of course the self-possessed Rachel, Meredith's old schoolfriend turns out to have been Markby's former wife, from whom he was divorced years before in less than friendly circumstances. The meeting with Rachel is not the only surprise the Flower Show has in store for Markby - before the afternoon is out he has a death on his hands. All too quickly he and Meredith find themselves drawn into the plush, apparently well-run world Rachel and her second husband created for themselves in their Cotswold home, Malefis Abbey, a world which Markby becomes increasingly convinced harbours a highly skilled murderer ...

An Illustrated Guide to Design Knowledge, Techniques, Styles, and the History of Floral Design

An American artist discovers how to make organic colors from plants in a small shop in Dhaka, Bangladesh. She learns to make inks by hand, from indigo, herbs and bark. This process becomes a metaphor for understanding nature, art and life. Beginning to paint with natural color, along with other artists from India and Bangladesh, allows powerful natural forces and patterns to emerge in her paintings. These paintings become the basis for her work in the Indigo Show. In the workshop where color is made, the ingredients take on an almost mythic presence, where process and timing emerge as key ingredients in ancient craft. Living color, color made from sustainable sources, opens her to an awareness of plants and herbs, and their backgrounds. This mysterious process helps her to reach back into the past, to other countries, history and her own life. This richly textured and engaging memoir of color will appeal to artists, naturalists and Asia enthusiasts. Artists will learn to use plants in new and traditional ways. In chapters such as Summer Meadow - Bay - Curry - Basil - Apple Trees - Mint, the artist shares her memories of color, traced through gardens, the use of herbs, and travel. The history of colors unravels the shadowy story of Indigo in Bengal, and the pre-Civil war American South. She shows readers the slow, careful process of making color from natural materials, musing on nature, art and the way to a balanced life. The book offers reflections on using herbs to sustain health, color in art, enlightening encounters with plants, and the lessons left us by pre-industrial attitudes. In Colors: Passages through Art, Asia and Nature Sutro has created a unique and fascinating study of nature's processes, the origins of color and the birth of paint.