I've known about this gaudy mess for awhile but I've also known that it is based on a truly beautiful and old effect (learned through the books of wonder). Where can I find the original method? I'm a card worker but I really want to see this effect and maybe someday perform it. Thanks for the help.

"gaudy mess"

I'm wondering what effect you have seen, or whose product.

Are you talking about a tube and flower production? This has existed for centuries (literally), with the more mechanical versions being more "recent".

B

(P.S. Save me time and give the ref. in the B of W to which you are referring, perhaps I can give you more info.)

He talks about it in his essay "Practical Thinking" on page 271. He describes the original as follows. "A pot is filled with earth and covered with an empty cone. When the cone is lifted , a small sprout is seen to have grown. The pot is again covered, and eventually the sprout becomes a full grown rosebush. At the conclusion of the effect, the roses are cut off and given to members of the audience." The essay is about how the more popular 'botania' sprang from this effect, explaining how practicality had created a much worse effect. I am talking about the tube and flower production, but I can only find the modern mechanical versions. I am looking for a resource on the older effect which uses a real rosebush and allows the performer to show the tube as empty. I have seen the common botania and a few ones which had prettier and less cheap looking load, but I don't want to buy such a thing as even the nicest looking ones are a far cry from the effect I'm looking for. I am woefully ignorant of stage illusion, so thanks for bearing with me.

Page 271 of volume 1 that is

The Growth of Flowers has been a popular plot for a long, long time. Many magicians performed this and most had their own spin on it. You will have to look for some older books for the most part to find references to these.

You might find info or leads online if you search for, Mango Tree, or Kellar Flower Growth, or Germain Flower Growth.

Without looking myself, I am pretty sure there will be some info in books by Hoffmann, Goldston, and others.

The large book on Karl Germain has his version described in good detail.

I was going to suggest Germain also, another reference may be those Chinese acrobats that also did magic with flowers and bowls of water etc.

B

P.S. PM sent

Thanks for all the help, I'll definitelly be hunting down the versions you've listed.

The Kellar version is well explained in Fitzkee...probably as a lesson of sorts in Magic by Misdirection./

Regards
J.Neal

I'll have to take a look there also! Can you indicate which volume as a reference for this thread?

B

Thought ya'll might wanna see this, if you haven't already, http://www.stevensmagic.com/index.php?ma......0aetvln4

LOL Now Serrodash has a visual of the method I described to him in a PM!!

B

There is also this version http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CRUflIIFJ7U

~M~

I think we have to look at flower growths/productions versus botania productions. When you say botania, I think of the mechanical mechanism that allows a bush about 1/3 to 1/2 taller than the production tubes. The first actual botanias were made in Germany near as I have been able to trace.

Flower Growths can be traced back to the Hindu fakirs of India. Kellar's routine is also in Elliot's Last Legacy.

Richard

Check an interesting version in HoYam's book.

Mmmmmm....I will! Loved some of his effects.

B

I got to see several of them up close at the History Conference in LA. Pretty crude but in his hands a work of art.

Jay Leslie did a lot of work restoring the act. The flowers were still all original Marshall that had been reworked.

Richard

I built a version of his flower bush, although my production method was different. At the time, I was making my own feather flowers, so I used his method to make a production bush. It was almost four feet high when fully opened. The mechanics are quite simple. I stole the load similar to a stack of bowls, but using a silk fountain that has a 6 footer in the center. Plenty of cover.