254 



The Weekly Florists' Review. 



AUGUST 2, 190«. 







TROUBLES 



e^* 5^* ^* ^w ^^ ^*' 



Conducted by 

 LEONARD 

 LAWTON 



(^* ^^^ ^*' ^*' ^* ^^ 



Buying Young Plants. 



Daybreak writes: "C. H. G.. in the 

 Review of June 21st, has a grievance 

 that is not common but at the same 

 time is too common and the writer 

 has been through the same mill not 

 once but time and time again, pay- 

 ing exorbitant prices tor a novelty the 

 plants of which were not worth the 

 time of planting them, let alone any 

 cost price. Sometimes there would be 

 out of a thousand plants bought two 

 hundred and fifty of them that would 

 make plants fit for stock the next sea- 

 son; sometimes the order would be 

 reversed, and occasionally they would 

 nearly all turn out all right. 



"One of the principal causes of this 

 poor stock is the 'tom-foolery' of send- 

 ing a novelty out at a certain specified 

 time of the year instead of sending it 

 out at any time during the year of 

 introduction that the stock is in good 

 shape for shipping. Take the carna- 

 tion as an example. Most novelties 

 are sent out, orders filled in rotation, 

 Feb. 15th or even as late as March 

 1st. If the orders are very few and 

 very small this may be all right, but if 

 the orders are coming in heavy the 

 grower wil start his propagating early 

 and hold the stock over until date 

 named for sending them out with 

 often the result of such stock being 

 stunted in growth or diseased by be- 

 ing planted in some undesirable por- 

 tion of the houses to be held over, 

 whereas if they had been sent out 

 right from the cutting bed good and 

 healthy the buyer might have had 

 good healthy stock for the next sea- 

 son. 



"The idea of a buyer not being able 

 to buy a thing when it is ready to 

 sell because the grower wants to hold 

 it until a certain date is both ridicu- 

 lous and a menace to the novelty 

 trade, for eventually the buyers will 

 get good and tired of the held over 

 stock and the overpropagated stock 

 often sent out with unexpected orders 

 coming in about date of delivery. 



"There is only one thing to do when 

 stock is received in such shape as that 

 named by C. H. G., and that Is to 

 promptly ship it back to the original 

 party and claim a return of your 

 money or credit for the full amount 

 plus the express charges. There is 

 one thing to be observed in this mat- 

 ter, however, and that is to be_ sure 

 and ship it back promptly and care- 

 fully packed so as to reach the orig- 

 inal party in good shape so that he 

 can make plants out of the stock, for 

 if it is returned to him in such shape 

 that it is worthless to him through 



your carelessness he will be perfectly 

 justified in holding you responsible for 

 the full amount of the bill. 



"The writer has had considerable 

 experience both as a buyer and a 

 shipper of novelties and has always 

 made it a rule to allow a buyer from 

 him to return the goods sent with the 

 proviso that they must be returned at 

 once and before they are potted up 

 or planted, as after they had been pot- 

 ted or planted he would not be re- 

 sponsible for their growth: this gives 

 the buyer a chance to inspect the 

 stock and return it if not up to his 

 standard in quality and at the same 

 time protects the seller from some 

 man neglecting the stock and claiming 

 damage for no growth. This method 

 has been in operation with me for a 

 number of years and made very little 

 trouble, as out of all ihe orders filled, 

 and they were not a few in numlier. 

 there were not over thirty returned. 

 Some of these were damaged in tran- 

 sit, a few of them had through the 

 carelessness of an employe been filled 

 with poor stock, and a few of those 

 returned were as good stock as any 

 grower could produce: they were all 

 received, credited and the money re- 

 turned without any kick on my part 

 and most of them are today regular 

 customers. 



"Some growers would object to this 

 method on the ground that it would 

 incur too much loss, but this is a 

 mistake, as the majority of buyers 

 are reasonable men and will accept 

 any stock that is in good enough 

 shape to make them plants (and they 

 should not be asked to accept any 

 other). There will be a few who do 

 not know a good plant when they see 

 it, but even these with proper han- 

 dling will soon understand the situa- 

 tion and if they do not they can be 

 entered as kickers not fit to deal with. 

 Out of my whole list of customers 

 there are but six or seven that come 

 in this class. 



"As a buyer I never hunt up the 

 cheapest stock I can buy, as liy bitter 

 experience I have found that occasion- 

 ally good stock is sold for little money 

 but it is a ten to one shot that the 

 stock will compare favorably with the 

 price. Willing to pay a good price, I 

 insist on having good stock and in the 

 case of novelties I insist on having 

 them when I want them or I do not 

 touch them at all, of course using 

 reason in the matter, and not giving 

 the grower an opportunity to work 

 off some poor stock on me because 

 he could not have any other for the 

 date named. I write the grower in 

 plenty of time for him to propagate 



and get the stock ready for me after 

 he receives the letter. I also ask a 

 few pointed questions about the merits 

 of the variety. 1 have had very little 

 trouble with poor stock the past year 

 as those who ship to me know that 

 it must be up to a certain standard. 



"Let the buyer and seller meet as 

 often as possible at the conventions 

 and talk over their troubles, or where 

 this is not practical let them write a 

 clear statement of their case to each 

 other, and the seller or buyer who 

 fails to do what is right should be 

 religiously left alone in the future 

 when orders are placed." 



Business Troubles. 



One of the advertisers mentioned 

 last week writes us an explanation. 

 Says his offer was at a specially low 

 price, $14 per 100. and that the buyer 

 sent $2.00 for 14 plants (at the hun- 

 dred rate) and asked that they be 

 sent by mail. As the plants were 

 two to three feet high, mailing was 

 out of the question even had postage 

 been sent. He therefore sent the 

 package by express and notified the 

 buyer to that effect. At the time he 

 did not know that there was no ex- 

 press office at the buyer's mail address 

 and now this is known feels that the 

 express company is responsible for ac- 

 cepting the package when it was un- 

 able to deliver. He will therefore en- 

 deavor to collect from the express 

 company and forward the amount to 

 complainant. Says he did answer a 

 number of inquiries from the buyer 

 till it became monotonous, and the let- 

 ters unbearable in tone. 



This reminds us that those making 

 complaints are rather too quick to as- 

 sume that because certain things have 

 not been done in a certain way the 

 other fellow is a rascal, etc., and often 

 friction is developed by the tone of 

 the letters of complaint. It is difficult 

 to write a courteous and considerate 

 reply to a man who has intimated 

 that you are dishonest. Take time in 

 coming to conclusions and give the 

 other fellow the benefit of the doubt. 

 It is only fair to assume that his in- 

 tentions are good until you have con- 

 clusive proof to the contrary. 



Retail Credits. 



Regarding credits to a retail cus- 

 tomer, P. B. says: "We have made it a 

 practice to extend credit to persons 

 whom we knew to be property hold- 

 ers or have good reliable society con- 

 nections. When people have been lib- 

 eral buyers and then asked for con- 

 venience to open an account with us. 

 We in turn asked them for bank ref- 

 erence. There is no reason in my 

 mind why we should extend credits 

 as liberally as some of our merchants 

 do. When a customer makes a pur- 

 chase of say from 50 cents to $2 he 

 or she can just as well pay the cash 

 as not. Before a clerk in our employ 

 can give credit he or she must inform 

 our credit man( any one can be that). 

 While this is done the customer often 



