84 NEBRASKA STATE HORTK.'ULTUKAL SOCIKTV. 



incidentally actually performed or at least personally directed the multl 

 tudinous duties necessary to the successful achievement thereof. 



We fondly hope we have earned the proud title of retail florist, but 

 when the livery stable keeper or the hardware man comes to the green- 

 house with his wife in the. spring for a dozen geraniums and a couple of 

 dozen pansies for the flower bed by the porch, and solves for us offhand 

 half a dozen problems that we have been worrying about for quitf^ a 

 while, we wonder. 



It is not my intent icm at this time to enter into details of the 

 methods of conducting a retail florist's btisiness. A great many people 

 imagine that raising flowers is a nice comfortable occupation for an 

 old lady to spend her time at. This is true up to a certain extent, but 

 doubt not that flower growing on the scale that is necessary as a bus- 

 iness proposition is a man's size job. 



Neither \s it so remunerative that there is a mad scramble to get 

 into it by speculation who want to get rich quick. I believe that any retail 

 florist will agree with me that it requires more ability to separate a 

 dollar from the general public by this means than by any other known 

 method. Well, maybe not to get it, but to keep it. 



Still there are compensations. There is in itself an attraction about 

 the business that is so resistless that once a man becomes thoroughly 

 interested he usually makes it his lite work. 



The retail florist in a community not so large but what he is" per- 

 sonally acquainted with all or 'most of his customers, is a spectator to 

 many interesting incidents. 



The language of flowers is becoming more and more used in daily 

 life and a beautiful expressive language it is. 



How can one better express the sentiments appropriate to any occa- 

 sion than through the medium of a bunch of fresn, fragrant flo\\ers'.' 



Never fear that that message will not be understood, be it joy or 

 grief, sympathy or congratulation, or penitence. ' Many an incident we 

 note that is beautiful to see. And many a one that is so ludicrous that 

 we grin inwardly for a week. 



For instance, Johnny Jones stops sending flowers to his regular 

 Susan Sue, and has them delivered to some swell girl who is visiting 

 here. Pretty soon we notice orders from that other fellow going to 

 Susan. The visiting girl goes home. Then one day Johnny orders a 

 great big bunch of violets sent to Susan Sue. Could anything be 

 plainer? Preferment, fascination, jealousy, encouragement, penitence 

 and reconciliation, expressed as unmistakably as if bawled out from 

 ihe housetops. 



The census estimate of the gross business of the retail florists of 

 the United States for the year 1900, shows a total of nearly $20,000,000. 

 Thinl. of it, you florists, when you arc hustling to get the amount of your 

 month's coal bill together. Nor is this vast sum representative of any- 

 thing like the amount of business done during 1910, for the business 

 Is really in its infancy and is increasing by leaps and bounds. As the 



