FEBRUARY Id, 1S99. 



The Weekly Florists' Review* 



279 



It is only a matter of time until no 

 carnation will be offered to the trade 

 without being registered, as it is al- 

 most impossible to avoid duplicating 

 names without a record being kept. 

 Schleys and Deweys would have been 

 duplicated three and four times this 

 season it we had no registration. 



Members who know of a name being 

 used commercially should suggest to 

 the user the necessity of registering it. 

 The cost is only one dollar and the car- 

 nation that is not worth a dollar for 

 registration is not worth offering to 

 the buyers of new varieties. 



A complete alphabetical list of 

 names will be printed in this year's 

 proceedings, with the descriptions of 

 those registered, and the names of the 

 introducers, so that it will be well to 

 fall into line at once. 



ALBERT M. HERR, Secretary. 



THE FLORISTS' REVIEW 



G. L. GRANT. Editor and Manager. 



PUBLISHED BVBRY THURSDAY BY 



THE FLORISTS' PUBLISHING CO. 



520-535 Caxton Building. Chicaeo, 



334 Dearborn Street. 



Subscription, $i.oo a year. To Europe,'' $2.00. Sub- 

 scriptions accepted from those in the trade only. _. 



Advertising rates: Per incn, $1.00; J^'page, ?i3-5o; 

 full page, 5?7.oo. Discounts: 6 times, 5 per cent; 13 

 times, 10 per cent; 26 tiroes. 20 per cent; 52 times, 30 

 I)er cent. Discounts allowea only on consecutive inser- 

 tions. Only strictly trade advertising accepted. Adver- 

 tisements must reach us by Tuesday to msure insertion 

 m the issue of the following Thursday. 



Copyright iSgq. 



CUT FLOWERS VERSUS PLANTS. 



It has been more or less intere.sting 

 to read the several contributions to 

 horticultural literature which have 

 arisen from the remarks of Mr. Herr. 

 1 have read and reread the latter's let- 

 ter and cannot see any Just cause for 

 such a harsh but witty reply from the 

 sage of Cottage Gardens. 



The control or character of the trade 

 in plants or flowers at the season of 

 great demand, Christmas principally, 

 next Easter and again to some extent 

 at Decoration or Memorial day, will be 

 little influenced by what florists write, 

 but will be guided by the taste and, 

 much more, the business sense and ob- 

 servation of our customers. People, 

 particularly our best flower buyers, 

 have learned, at these times when ev- 

 erybod.v wants a flower of some sort or 

 kind, that they have to pay a high 

 price, receive an inferior article, a de- 

 layed delivery, altogether an unsatis- 

 factory bargain, and, as a burnt child 

 avoids the fire, so they have learned 

 that for the price of a dozen second 

 class roses or 100 violets, or even half 

 the price, they can get a pretty plant 

 that in condition will be perfect, will 

 last six times as long and be altogether 

 more acceptable to the recipient. 



I am assuming that the great bulk 

 of our trade is in purchases which are 

 bought to send to friends. Now, I have 



noticed tbat constant good, and I may 

 call them perennial flower buyers, 

 those who want roses, carnations, lily 

 of the valley, violets in their season, 

 and the best quality always, will 

 switch at the times above mentioned 

 and select plants, or largely so. They 

 know they will get more for their 

 money and be better served when there 

 are ten customers for every flower, but 

 just as soon as these few days of 

 famine are over they return to their 

 steady love of cut blooms and ask for 

 nothing else. How evident it should 

 be to the cultivator of cut flowers and 

 the plant grower as well tbat it is a 

 blessing that the wants of our custom- 

 ers can be filled satisfactorily, if not 

 with cut flowers then with a plant at 

 these seasons of great demand. It is 

 not extravagant to say that if our 

 sales at Christmas were confined to the 

 regulation cut flowers we handle a 

 majority of the would-be purchasers 

 would be obliged to do without any of 

 our product and be compelled to satis- 

 fy their good nature in a package of 

 candy or Christmas cards. The ex- 

 traordinary demand at the holidays 

 and a few other days in the year has 

 led .sevei-al men to think they were 

 warranted in increasing their area of 

 glass so that they could supply all de- 

 mands every day in the year. 



The most rudimentary knowledge of 

 the florist business impresses us with 

 the fact that if we had enough carna- 

 tions, roses, violets, etc., to supply our 

 customers, either wholesale or retail, 

 at Christmas we should certainly have 

 an overwhelming supply to go to waste 

 many other weeks of the year. We can 

 produce no more roses, violets or car- 

 nations in the dark days of December 

 than we can in October, and everybody 

 knows to the contrary, much less. It 

 is true that a few of our leading flow- 

 ers could be produced in unlimited 

 quantities, for instance, valley for 

 Christmas and bulbous stuff for East- 

 er, but these do not fill the bill and the 

 man who forced immense quantities of 

 these for certain occasions would run 

 a great chance of losing money. 



The public expect to pay an ad- 

 vanced price on certain occasions, but 

 with the good round price expect a 

 good article, and that is often more 

 than they get. The curse of the holi- 

 day trade is the hoarding up of flowers 

 for the last day. We are all more or 

 less afflicted with this foolish weak- 

 ness, but I know of a few who intend 

 to do better in the future. For a week 

 before and at least a week afterwards 

 flowers bring as good a price as they 

 do Christmas eve; then why disap- 

 point your customers who want to use 

 them when they desire, not when it 

 suits you to pick them. Sell them 

 when you can, you will never give 

 great offense to a customer by being 

 unable to fill, or rather refuse, an or- 

 der when sold out, but all of us in our 

 time have lost patons by taking orders 

 that we were unable to fill satisfac- 

 torily. 



Our experience in prices in regard 



to the three leading cut flowers, roses, 

 carnations and violets, is that we have 

 to pay our commission man for the two 

 weeks round the holidays about dou- 

 ble the rates of the usual winter prices 

 and we are under the impression that 

 the grower gets these advanced prices; 

 if not, why not; and if he does not 

 then the commission man is not what 

 his name implies, but a dealer, and has 

 no right to his 15 per cent. The plants- 

 man runs some risk that his goods may 

 not all sell, but if he is a man of ex- 

 perience and judgment he will have his 

 stock well balanced. 



To conclude these rambling observa- 

 tions, the plant trade at the several 

 seasons of great demand is a blessing 

 all around. The storekeeper likes the 

 trade, it allows many thousand feet of 

 glass to be profitably occupied that are 

 not adapted to growing high class 

 flowers. It gives the public, whether 

 endow-ed with a large or small purse, 

 a chance to gratify its wish in a satis- 

 factory manner, and it has not the 

 slightest effect on the occasional or 

 regular cutflower buyer at any time, 

 except when the demand is abnormal; 

 and the plants are no more likely to 

 displace the demand for cut blooms to 

 the extent that it will in the slightest 

 hurt the grower than that we will all 

 emigrate to Borneo and grow Phalaen- 

 opsis flowers for the New York market. 

 WM. SCOTT. 



THE BOSTON TRADE EXHIBIT. 



The annual trade show of novelties, 

 of carnations, and other florists' stock, 

 which takes place at the flower mar- 

 ket in Boston on Satarday, February 

 25, is under the able management of 

 Mr. Nicholson, the president of the 

 jimerican Carnation Society, and Mr. 

 Stickel. president of the Boston Cut 

 Flower Grower^" As.'-ociation. They 

 are making preparations for a grand 

 show and visitors from the western 

 and middle portion of the country to 

 the Philadelphli convcntsou should 

 start out with the intention of visiting 

 New York and Boston before they re- 

 turn home, and if they have anything 

 to show to bring it on, also. 



Cut blooms should be sent so as to 

 reach Boston on Friday, the 24th. This 

 will give same ample time to recover 

 from the effects of a long time on the 

 road. Have all shipments made to Mr. 

 John Walsh, manager of the Floi-al 

 Market. 1 Park street, Boston, Mass. 



Blooms of novelties unaccompanied 

 by the owner or his representajtive will 

 if so instructed by the owner, be sold 

 by the management of the market for 

 the benefit of the exhibitor, a small 

 commission being charged to defray 

 expenses. 



Intending exhibitors will please no- 

 tify the secretary and state number of 

 blooms and varieties they expect to 

 ship, and if they intend to compete for 

 the prizes offered. All information and 

 circulars will be given upon applica- 

 tion to the secretary of the committee; 

 also articles of competition for the 



