OCTOBER 25, 1900. 



The Weekly Florists' Review. 



611 



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THE RETAIL 



FLORIST 



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Inferior Plants. 



This is the time of the year when 

 many growers make mistakes by preserv- 

 ing inferior or utterly useless varieties 

 of plants. It is often a matter of surprise 

 how rubbish can accumulate. Instead 

 of allowing the frost to wipe out poor 

 kinds of bedding plants they are taken 

 up and allowed to occupy what should 

 be valuable space, propagated, and, when 

 spring comes round, you hate to throw 

 the stock away and yet cannot sell it at 

 a profit. Small growers who do a local 

 plant trade and, for that matter, all 

 growers, should try to rid their green- 

 houses of the stock generally classed as 

 "Trash." By doing so they render 

 themselves and floriculture a service. 



The flooding of the market in spring- 

 time with worthless eannas does very 

 serious harm to the canna trade. We 

 often m'eet even practical gardeners who 

 purchased boxes of seedling or old sorts 

 of eannas at auction rooms or cheaply 

 from advertisers, with the result that 

 not only have they been disappointing 

 but the stock will be preserved and prop- 

 agated. There are too many rubbishy 

 eannas in cultivation. It seems strange 

 that reputable houses and superintend- 

 ents of parks, etc., should continue to 

 cultivate and further disseminate varie- 

 ties like and inferior to th'e old Eheman- 

 ni, especially when there are so very 

 many grand sorts so plentifully in exist- 

 ence. Better leave th'em out and let the 

 winter deal with them or give them to 

 some charitable institution. 



Small growers can ill afford to have 

 even a small portion of their houses oc- 

 cupied with useless stock. Don't prop- 

 agate a thing unthinkingly or for the 

 sole purpose of filling up space. Keep 

 posted on what is best in all classes of 

 plants and make a strong effort to erad- 

 icate the bad. There is more harm done 

 now to next season's plant trade by lift- 

 ing "rubbish" than is generally known. 

 Many florists have supv-rsensitive natures 

 and cannot stand to see the frost kill 

 anything they planted out. Others there 

 are who will grow a thing because it is 

 green in winter, and still others who im- 

 agine they cannot afford to lose even a 

 coleus. Most plantsmen dislike to see 

 any portion of a greenhouse empty, and 

 as we have mentioned previously, the 

 propagating craze of others is responsi- 

 ble for much of the harm that is being 

 annually done to the soft wooded plant 

 trade. 



Give the good things a better show, 

 and stop growing trash. 



Chrysanthemums. 



We are now facing the floodtide of 

 chrysanthemums, and perhaps the great 

 majority of florists of all class'es are 

 wishing it was all over. There is much 

 to consider for and against the chrys- 

 anthemum, but after all is said the fair- 

 minded must admit that it is a very val- 

 uable flower. We must not despise a 

 flower because it is perhaps too plenti- 

 ful ; we should recognize its value in 

 adaptability. Failures are often trace- 

 able to persons themselves and not the 

 material. 



These occasional floods of seasonable 

 flowers are not so injurious as some im- 

 agine, for although at such times quan- 

 tity may not return a commensurate 

 financial recompense to the producer, still 

 they not only make it possible for poor 

 people to enjoy the to them great lux- 

 ury of a few flowers but they render it 

 possible for 'every florist to make more 

 money and give a more general grade of 

 satisfaction to his customers. There are 

 a few florists who would like to see the 

 market short at all times. These few 

 cater to the class of trade that consider 

 flowers almost in the light of a necessity 

 and price is second to quality; but that 

 class of trade is small, and we are sorry 

 to say it is yearly becoming smaller — 

 Very much smaller. 



The vast majority of flower buyers, in 

 fact, all, at times, are induced to spend 

 money on flowers by a desire to extract 

 praise from or create impressions upon 

 the minds of their friends — yes, and 

 th'eir foes — and in doing this profusion 

 and impressivencss is sought. They de- 

 mand something big and showy, and un- 

 less you can supply them they are in- 

 clined to spend the money in other ways, 

 and this is where there is value in th'e 

 chrysanthemums. There are more beau- 

 tiful flowers, of course, but none that 

 can produce the same effect at th'e same 

 cost. This is where you are enabled to 

 satisfy the stingy element, and most of 

 you know that is not always an easy 

 task, and it gratifies to be occasionally 

 able to do it. 



There is a tendency among a very val- 

 uable class of flower buyers to ignore 

 chrysanthemums altogether. These peo- 

 ple hate them in a way and never want 

 them in their homes. This feeling was 

 so strong a few years ago that one or 

 two of the most prominent retailers in 

 the country displayed none of these 

 flowers in their stores. There is consid- 

 'erable antipathy toward this flower at 

 the present time, and it is not wise to 

 use it in everything or force it upon 



those who don't want it. The days of 

 preposterously high prices for chrysan- 

 themums are gone, or are fast going. No 

 lover of flowers eould h'esitate in choos- 

 ing between a dozen fine American Beau- 

 ties and a dozen large "mums," unless 

 intended for a special use, and yet a 

 higher price is not infrequently asked 

 for the latter. 



Undesirable Colors. 



Thei'e is no doubt but that the very 

 highest grade of work can be made from 

 chrysanthemums, but when equally as 

 fine flowers as you employ are hawked 

 about by p'eddlers j'our work loses value, 

 because of that lack of appreciation 

 which the superabundance or cheapness 

 of the material used creates. Then again 

 much of the trouble connected with these 

 flowers arises from the fact that there 

 are many undesirable colors and kinds on 

 the market. Each year sees new varie- 

 ties, heralded with shouts of praise, and 

 no matter the colors, they are offered for 

 sal'e on the cut flower market as soon as 

 possible. Many people don't know that 

 unless in exceptional cases it is impossi- 

 ble to satisfactorily use many of the 

 colors seen, and that is one great reason 

 why many don't sell. It would be wrong 

 to argue against variety, but it is right 

 to measure variety according to its worth. 

 The time has come when almost every- 

 one judges a flower by its value on the 

 cut (lower market, and though this may 

 be a lamentable verdict in many cases it 

 is decisive enough to be final. 



The most valuable of the chrysanthe- 

 mums are, of course, the white ones, and 

 efforts should be made to prolong the 

 season for this color, for inasmuch as 

 funeral work possibly constitutes al- 

 most one-fourth of the florist's 

 trade in the United, :■ States, any 

 flower useful in that 'branch of the 

 trade is of necessity of vast im- 

 portance and should be considered with- 

 due regard. It often occurs that there 

 is a scarcity of white flowers in D'ecem- 

 ber, and that is the time one should aim 

 to provide for. 



There may be lots of pleasure in hav- 

 ing a house full of glorious blooms and 

 colors, but there is more money in having 

 the very earli'est and a continuous suc- 

 cession of the most desirable for your 

 class of trade, remembering that though, 

 too, there may be lots of glory about 

 large blooms there is also lots of beauty 

 about small ones. We see too few of 

 the Anemone and Pompon types, and 

 they who have the future of the chrysan- 

 themum at heart should see to it that 

 th'ese beautiful forms get the recogni- 

 tion that is due them. 



When the market becomes glutted with 

 any class of flowers it becomes a duty for 

 retailers 'to help relieve the situation 

 as much as possible, and if you cannot 

 push sales th'ere can be no harm in trying 

 to. There are innumerable orders where 

 a few mums can be worked in without 

 any chance of there being any disap- 

 proval, and these opportunities should 

 be taken advantage of. We know it is 

 in the power of any successful retailer 



