OCTOBER 4, 190(1 



The Weekly Florists' Review. 



519 



(♦^(♦=?>.'*^.*^.<*^. 



THE RETAIL 



FLORIST. 



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Plant Baskets. 



Many of the retail florists of New 

 York are displaying baskets filled with 

 small plants and they are very san- 

 guine over the success of this part 

 of the trade. The Ijaskets are mostly 

 of the lidless hamper type, zinc lined 

 and are painted green. The plants 

 consist of small palms, ferns and col- 

 ored dracaenas, etc. Some put a broad 

 band of cerise or magenta ribbon 

 around the "basket, tying a bow at 

 the front corner. Some very pretty 

 effects are seen, and the possible de- 

 velopments in this section of the bus- 

 iness are great, for detective plants 

 may often be thus used up, and then 

 again flowering plants of almost eve.y 

 class may be utilized. I expect to 

 see some of the ribbon fiends put 

 sash bows on every plant and thus 

 bring into ridicule what might other- 

 wise become a leading featurt. 



There will be no doubt of the suc- 

 cess of flowering plant baskets, and 

 even ordinary plant baskets, next 

 Christmas, but to introduce and push 

 them into prominence at this time of 

 the year means much harm to the 

 cut flower trade. There is no mistak- 

 ing the fact that an undecided cus- 

 tomer coming into your store for the 

 purpose of sending a present of eith- 

 er plant or cut flowers can very easily 

 be persuaded into buying one of these 

 baskets of plants. To be sure there 

 are very many customers who know 

 what they want and it is not good 

 policy to be too persistent in the at- 

 tempt to switch them off on to your 

 choice, still a design well done speaks 

 for itself, and a sold tag on one or 

 two of them excites curiosity and cre- 

 ates a desire to get what belongs to 

 others. 



"Sold" Tags. 



You know how it is, put a sold tag 

 on many things and some one will 

 come in and insist on getting that 

 very thing, you may have better of 

 the same kind for sale, but it seems 

 to be human nature to begrudge oth- 

 ers getting anything useful or pretty, 

 and first choice, even though it be a 

 palpably bad one, excites envy in some 

 narrow breast. In very exceptional 

 cases it may be imperative for you 

 to give your good, proud and particu- 

 lar customer that which you have sold 

 to another, but the practice is a bad 

 one, and it is safer for you to be firm. 

 Offer to duplicate anything but be 

 honest towards the first customer be 



the other ever so influential, tor the 

 latter, too, may despise you for your 

 action. 



Plant Baskets Again. 



But to return to plant baskets, there 

 is perhaps a good deal to consider in 

 regard to them. Though there may 

 be no doubt as to their popularity at 

 the opening of the season, when peo- 

 ple are settling down after vacation 

 and remembering and rewarding 

 pleasant friendships by sending them 

 a basket of plants, still we must re- 

 member they are not adapted to all 

 occasions. There is no doubt but that 

 the person who desires their florist 

 shop present to last the longest will 

 select such a one, and this class com- 

 prise no small section of your trade. 



As we have previously remarked, 

 the cut flower trade will be consid- 

 erably damaged, but then the retail- 

 er is justified in trying to feed the 

 hunger for change. The large ma- 

 jority demand change and if you can- 

 not give it to them they will try 

 some one else. We cannot blame 

 growers for sticking to the cultiva- 

 tion of the few things they know or 

 think they can grow well, but there 

 are a great many greenhouses today 

 in which poor grade cut flowers are 

 produced which would pay better if 

 producing some useful and scarce 

 commodity. Whilst we would not like 

 to see the cut flower trade diminish 

 one degree below what it is, still we 

 are glad to see the plant trade in- 

 creasing and it is increasing day by 

 day in unmeasured strides. When the 

 people of a country love plants they 

 naturally love flowers also. 



The Plant Trade. 



The plant trade in America is enor- 

 mous; the plant growers of other 

 countries will vouch for it. We are 

 fast producing our own instead of im- 

 porting. The great trouble with the 

 American grower seems to be that as 

 soon as his young palms are showing 

 above ground he is anxious to sell, 

 whilst in Europe the growers push 

 their stock into size to supply the de- 

 mand of the American market. The 

 superabundance and cheapness of 

 small palms in this country at pres- 

 ent is responsible for the profusion of 

 baskets of plants offered tor sale, and 

 every sensible and up-to-date florist 

 will encourage rather than decry the 

 change. 



There are many florists who don't 

 care for the plant trade. They carry 



a s.'tock because they find it a neces- 

 sity, not a source of profit in most 

 cases because they handle it indiffer- 

 ently. There is no good in being in a 

 liusiness half-heartedly, you only in- 

 jure that particular line of trade and 

 make yourself fretful. It is often very 

 necessary to ex°rt yourself to coax 

 trade. Well off and happy should be 

 they who are making money without 

 exertion, and when we look at many 

 of the fiorists' windows and stores, 

 and study their methods, we wonder 

 how they get along; perhaps the se- 

 quel can be found in the grower's or 

 wholesaler's safe. This style of doing 

 things may be fashionable with some 

 but there is more charity in it than 

 manliness, and yet you know if an- 

 other were to start up in the same 

 block, whew, how the clouds would 

 concentrate! 



Arranging Plant Baskets. 



There, there! We have a nasty 

 habit of looking straight at things. 

 We were talking of baskets? Oh, yes; 

 well, you know baskets with zinc lin- 

 ings are pretty expensive things; a 

 few dozen of them cost considerable. 

 At Easter and Christmas it is not nec- 

 essary to have tins or zinc linings to 

 all your plant baskets, but at this 

 season of the year it is necessary to 

 have such. The baskets offered by 

 the dealers are great in color, a blind 

 man mixes the paint, you know; they 

 call most of the colors green, but most 

 of them remind you of seasickness. 

 Well all we wish to say Is, be careful 

 of the color; it might degrade what 

 you put in the basket. 



There are many florists who dig any 

 old sort of soil out of the back yard 

 to flll ferneries and plant baskets. 

 They don't know that plants require 

 good soil which their grower could 

 bring in for a small consideration. 

 Very great care should be used in 

 arranging plants in the basket, both 

 with a view of their looking well and 

 keeping in good condition tor a con- 

 siderable length of time. Many, in 

 order to make their work look we 1, 

 unnecessarily disturb roots and the 

 plants soon turn yellow. If the bas- 

 ket is not quickly sold this is what 

 will make you lose money. In either 

 case dissatisfaction must come from 

 plants arranged for effect withouit re- 

 gard to their lasting or growing and 

 the fault lies mostly in overcrowding. 



Fern Dishes. 



Many a plant's value and beauty is 

 lessened or entirely shut out by this 

 very common practice; it is especially 

 so with fern dishes, and you know 

 what trouble frequently arises from 

 the short life of a fern dish. To be 

 sure it is most often because Mary, 

 Annie or Richard puts boiling water 

 on it, or puts it on the window sill to 

 get frozen, but there are many cases 

 where the fault lies with the florist 

 though he will not admit it. 



It stands to reason that when all 



