160 



The Weekly Florists^ Review. 



JULY 5. 1900. 



Plant Advertisers. 



Clorus says he was very much in- 

 terested in the experiences of C. H. G. 

 and intimates that he has had troiibles 

 of his own in this respect. He maizes 

 the following suggestions: 



"The buyer should remember where 

 he once got good stock and write to 

 the same place again, even if it is a 

 year later, asking if they can supply 

 the stuff, and if not, where it may be 

 had. They will gladly advise an old 

 customer. 



"Those who have had no previous 

 experience with a house offering stock 

 they need would do well to order a 

 small quantity first, examine closely, 

 and if satisfactory order more at once. 

 But never expect to receive good plants 

 for almost nothing. 



"Why cannot the Review make its 

 office a bureau of information, inviting 

 complaints regarding poor stock re- 

 ceived, and if the facts warrant it, put- 

 ting the offender on record as the col^ 

 lection agencies do as regards cred- 

 its? You would soon know who were 

 sending out poor stuff as a regular 

 thing and would be able to give in- 

 quirers good advice. You could make 

 a small charge to cover the expense. 



"About a year ago we ran short near- 

 ly 30.000 roses, 6,000 fuchsias. 10.000 

 Rex and flowering begonias, and a 

 good deal of other stock. We bought 

 20.000 to 25,000 roses and thousands of 

 other greenhouse plants and hardy 

 shrubs, etc.. from the Storrs & Harri- 

 son Co., Painesville, O., and always 

 found their stock clean, healthy and 

 full count, except once, and that was 

 evidently some error on the part of 

 their packer, which was promptly 

 remedied when we called their atten- 

 tion to it. Furthermore, they have 

 never substituted in any of our orders. 

 Whenever we sent them an order con- 

 taining items they did not have, they 

 always notified us promptly that they 

 could not supply them. 



"We were also greatly pleased with 

 all the plants sent to us by McGregor 

 Bros.. Springfield. 0.: Nathan Smith & 

 Son. Adrian, Mich, (their chrysanthe- 

 mums were extra fine), and E. G. Hill 

 & Co., Richmond, Ind. We received 

 some fine roses from the' Elizabeth 

 Nursery, Elizabeth, N. .T., but this firm 

 made a big mistake. They accepted a 

 very large order and sent us only a 

 quarter of the amount and kept us 

 waiting too long after we ordered be- 

 fore they sent anything. But the roses 

 they sent were strong, stocky plants. 

 Budlong, of your city, sent us a very 

 fine lot of American Beauty. 



"I have made free use of your classi- 

 fied advs. and have found them very 

 handy. And I have found some good, 

 honest men and clean growers, but I 

 have also found, I believe, the dirtiest 

 and most worthless stock in the Unit- 

 ed States. 



"One firm sent us 200 Manettia bi- 

 color that were so covered with scale 

 that thousands were laying in the 

 packing box. I had the whole place 

 where they were unpacked, soaked 

 with boiling water and returned the 

 plants, and they wanted to know why! 

 This same firm sent us Begonia Er- 

 fordia for B. Smithii. and six more 

 lots without a single name on any of 

 them. Also a microscopic lot of Rex 

 begonia rooted cuttings. They had 

 been propagated from leaves in the 

 usual way, but if the leaf cutting had 

 three or six sprouts they were divided 

 into separate 'cuttings' and every one 

 counted, whether it had roots or not. 

 And even this wasn't the worst. The 

 sprouts were put in bunches as you 

 would put potatoes in a sack. All this 

 rubbish was returned, and never in my 

 life will I recommend the place or or- 

 der anything there again. 



"We received 1,000 fuchsias from an- 

 other advertiser, which were ordered 

 to be in five varieties, one single, one 

 double white and three other double 

 sorts, no varieties being stated. The 

 plants were from 6 to 18 inches tall, 

 and the long ones had only two or 

 three leaves on the top, the others 

 had dropped off. The varieties were 

 too many to count and only 3.5 double 

 white among them. Three-fourths of 

 the plants were worthless for imme- 

 diate use to us. being too tall and 

 naked, and the remaining ones we did 

 not dare to send out. as we could not 

 find out what they were. They were 

 accompanied by a bushel of meal.v bug, 

 put in, we suppose, as extras and to 

 make full count. 



"We received 300 pelargoniums from 

 3 - inch pots at $10 per 100 (fancy 

 price), and as this was a large eastern 

 firm I thought I would have some nice 

 stock plants. But the tops had been 

 taken off a few days before they re- 

 ceived the order and perhaps the 

 stumps kept a little too moist or were 

 put under a bench for a few days. At 

 any rate, when we received them they 

 had fine yellow foliage. 



"You will find another lousy whole- 

 sale concern in your own city, and 

 some good ones, too. I visited many 

 places during an extended trip and my 

 observations helped me a good deal in 

 enabling me to later place my orders 



where I would have a fair chance of 

 getting decent stock when I needed it. 



"I want to get all the information I 

 can about people that are to be de- 

 pended upon for good stock. I have 

 contributed my experience. Now let 

 us hear from others." 



As we have said before, the Review 

 is ready to give the best kind of free 

 advertising to firms that are careful to 

 always send out good, clean stock. 

 Send in your experiences and give the 

 names of the concerns you have found 

 you could depend upon for quality. 

 And while we may not be able to start 

 such a bureau as mentioned by "Clo- 

 rus," we are ready to debar from the 

 advertising columns of the Review any 

 concern that makes a habit of sending 

 out measly stock. We may add that 

 some concerns have been already 

 dropped for this reason. Others will 

 follow if the facts warrant it. To 

 knowingly carry such we consider un- 

 fair not only to our readers, but to 

 those who do send out honest goods. 



Every reader can help in this good 

 work. Will you do your part? 



A Delicate Case. 



H. W. writes: "I would like the 

 opinion of The Troubles editor on the 

 following question: Suppose an or- 

 ganization, political or otherwise, com- 

 posed of quite a large number of indi- 

 viduals of your city, give a big banquet 

 or similar blowout and find when set- 

 tling time comes that there is not 

 money enough to pay the bills, so the 

 florist is stood off with a vague prom- 

 ise that if the members will chip in 

 maybe they can raise enough to pay up. 



"Will it be good business to enforce 

 collection if bill is not over $10, or for 

 any amount, for that matter? Some 

 of the members are pretty good busi- 

 ness friends and customers. Will the 

 fact that you collect by legal means, 

 when necessary in such a case, make 

 more enemies and lose more trade 

 than the bill is worth?" 



We are inclined to think that H. W. 

 had better not attempt to enforce col- 

 lection by legal means. It seems a 

 case for diplonTacy rather than force. 

 And again, unless the organization is 

 incorporated, a suit wouldn't stick 

 anyway. It looks bad that men of 

 standing in the community would al- 

 low such a small bill to go unsettled, 

 but people are queer in such matters. 



As the case now stands, each of the 

 men interested is under a certain obli- 

 gation to H. W. and we think he is in 

 a position to realize more than the 

 value of his bill from the situation. 

 He might strengthen this position a 

 little by seeking a suitable opportunity 

 to intimate in an offhand way to the 

 chairman of the committee, or the 

 most influential member of it. that 

 under the circumstances he doesn't feel 

 like pressing the collection of the bill, 

 and has no doubt that the members 

 will be able to make it good to him in 

 other ways. 



