August 8, 1901. 



The Weekly Florists' Review* 



297 



eeed in accomplishing any great good, 

 for I am sorry to say that the main sup- 

 port accorded them seems to be by only 

 one branch of the trade, the growers. 

 An effort should be made to include the 

 retailer. The grower might say, "If he 

 wants to come, he is welcome; if he 

 would rather stay at home, let him stay 

 there." Perhaps they would be justified, 

 but nevertheless the retailer must be in 

 some way attracted to such meetings; 

 evenings should be especially set apart 

 for discussions concerning him, and 

 there should also be an effort made to 

 introduce, during the course of every 

 meeting, something of vital interest to 

 him, thus, as it were, compelling liim to 

 attend. We cannot overestimate the 

 necessity of having every branch of the 

 trade well represented at all meetings. 



Another important point in connection 

 with the present methods is that a num- 

 ber of the growers do not seem to real- 

 ize the necessity of carefully considering 

 their customers. It is imperative that 

 an equal distribution should be made in 

 the allotment of stock, particularly when 

 a scarcity is on the market great care 

 should be exercised; it should never be 

 said that a grower had been partial. 

 Considerable trouble seems to have been 

 met with in the past by growers favor- 

 ing one or more of their customers, al- 

 lowing one to have niore than his share 

 of stock, while the other (shall I say 

 poor?) fellow at the last moment is 

 forced to chase around in search of that 

 which he had expected from his regular 

 source of supply. 



There are two sides to every question. 

 At a time when there has been an over- 

 supply the retailer has inconsiderately 

 favored one of his supply men, and in- 

 stead of having procured a smaller lot 

 from each of his growers has allowed 

 himself to be led away by favoritism and 

 cleaned off the stock of a single grower. 

 We must not lose sight of the fact that 

 the negligents are included in both sec- 

 tions; that the growers are not alone at 

 fault, but the retailer is very often re- 

 sponsible for the condition of affairs 

 caused by want of foresight or careless- 

 ness. They both should have remem- 

 bered that golden rule, "Do unto others 

 as you would be done by." Considera- 

 tion should be employed by both par- 

 ties; thereby, I think, would be the 

 saving of a great deal of the worry and 

 anxiety of such as "Shall I get enough 

 for my orders?" and "Will I get rid of 

 my stock now everybody has plenty?" 

 If both sections would be brought to 

 realize the great necessity for care, I 

 think you will agree with me that the re- 

 lationship by that single instance would 

 be greatly improved. 



Another point of minor import is the 

 seeming reluctance of retailers to pro- 

 pose the growing or discarding of any 

 special flower or variety of flowers. For 

 some reason he does not advance any of 

 his ideas as to what should or should 

 not, according to his opinion, be given 

 special attention by growers. One of 

 the apparent reasons is the fear lest he 

 should, by freely imparting his knowl- 

 edge, benefit his competitor in trade, or 

 should his ideas prove a failure feel 

 himself under obligations to reimburse 

 the grower for the loss sustained by his 

 wrong interpretation of the public's re- 

 quirements. Again there is the fear of a 

 pet idea being dashed to pieces by the 

 refusal of a grower to entertain his 

 opinion as rational. Thus it seems that 

 jealousy plays an important part in the 

 daily life of a retailer; he seems always 



in fear lest he impart some of his knowl- 

 edge to the benefit of his opposition; he 

 is fearful lest he say too much in the 

 presence of his grower, a fear that the 

 other man may be benefited thereby. 

 Perhaps tliere are no grounds for his 

 suspicion of his grower, still it is won- 

 derful what is whispered in the ear of 

 ourselves as to the movement of the 

 other fellow down street. All growers 

 are not alike, and it seems too bad that 

 a few careless ones should cause so much 

 animosity and be so preventive to the 

 harmony necessary for the improvement 

 of our dealings and relationship. 



I believe I now come to the most seri- 

 ous obstacle in the prevention of a closer 

 and better relationship; the question we 

 face every day business is transacted 

 between grower and seller, the cause of 

 most of our misunderstanding and all 

 our serious trouble, that great problem 

 "prices." Before a substantial and last- 

 ing improvement can be brought to bear 

 on our relationship it will be necessary 

 to find some way of a better regulation 

 of prices, of a more equal distribution 

 of the difl'erent qualities of plants and 

 cut flowers produced by our growers, 

 goods will have to be placed on the mar- 

 ket in such a way that the advantage, 

 if any, should be shared alike by the 

 large grower, the smaller one, the big re- 

 tailer, down to the man going from 

 house to house with his little push cart, 

 there will have to be a more careful 

 method of gradation. If you will pardon 

 me, I would like to quote here from a 

 paper read by myself at a meeting of 

 the Toronto Gardeners' and Florists' As- 

 sociation, of Toronto, last winter. 



"Some growers have partially solved 

 the difficulty, and as is naturally sug- 

 gested, grade their products, but there 

 are others who do not as yet seem to 

 have realized the importance of grada- 

 tion and making a conglomeration of all 

 grades e.xpect because a certain flower 

 has a common name there should be one 

 price for all, thereby not getting a good 

 price for the good, a poor price for the 

 poor, but a general medium, giving, I 

 claim, a questionable advantage to the 

 No. 1 fellow, and, could it be properly 

 understood, not making trade better, but 

 killing a class of trade that would go 

 without before entering the big establish- 

 ment, thereby decreasing the demand of 

 a people who would appreciate a slightly 

 poorer quality as well as though it were 

 selected stuff." 



The advantages gained by one and lost 

 by the other in our present method of 

 marketing tend to lessen the necessary 

 harmony; instance after instance has oc- 

 curred when the smaller grower, al- 

 though guilty of not grading his produc- 

 tions, and to my mind doing anything 

 but assisting his brother of smaller de- 

 gree, strange to say, when he has suc- 

 cessfully brought to issue a particular 

 line of flower, through his ignorance of 

 the price obtainable for his goods, dis- 

 posed of them at a far less price than 

 should have been secured, and strange it 

 may seem, but true, instead of benefit- 

 ing his equal in business enterprise has, 

 for the few encouraging words to be ob- 

 tained from the great retailer and well 

 "sort of" the honor of selling them, given 

 the advantage to the place where such 

 financial advantage was the least neces- 

 sary. He (the grower) has lost by the 

 transaction. The small retailer has never 

 had a chance to share in the profit; the 

 gain to the big retail man has been 

 questionable, for he has strained one of 



those very sensitive chords of friendship 

 connecting grower and seller. 



The large retailer is not to blame, for 

 in this world of rush and grab it is every 

 man for himself and "the Devii take the 

 hindermost." The fault lies in the ignor- 

 ance of the grower, disposing of his goods 

 at a small figure when a greater price 

 was obtainable. 



It appears to me that after considering 

 all the points detrimental to our more 

 friendly and harmonious relationship, the 

 lesser grievance converging to a central 

 position seems to dissolve into one great 

 fault, that awful bugbear "prices." True, 

 there is that seeming useless jealousy; 

 but were we to agree on the question ot 

 prices, were a proper regulation regard- 

 ing them brought into existence, I would 

 feel safe in placing my confidence in our 

 wholesale and retail men, and, knowings 

 the nature of many of them, guarantee, if 

 necessary, that it would be almost impos- 

 sible for them to withhold from forming 

 one of the most successful organizations 

 for the advancement of our particular 

 line of trade. That we would all be bene- 

 fited thereby is an assured fact, for 

 there is hardly a line of trade where 

 good, clear, undoubted confidence in each 

 other is as badly needed as with the 

 florists. 



[Coachided next week] 



OUR TITLE PAGE. 



Here is a mid-July glimpse of a per- 

 ennial border. At the left in the fore- 

 ground is a group of stately hollyhocks, 

 flanked by perennial phloxes not yet in 

 bloom, though some of their kindred out 

 of range of the picture are already 

 dressed in their fullest glory. Higher 

 up at the left the foliage of Golden 

 Glow, flowering crab apple and Weir's 

 cut-leaved maple make a rich back- 

 ground of green. The dense group in 

 the center of the picture is the tuberous 

 rooted sunflower, which will be nearly 

 ten fet high before it is ready to bloom. 

 In front of this group are auratum lil- 

 ies in bloom. The size, splendor and de- 

 lightful and far-reaching fragrance of 

 the auratum make it a feature in any 

 collection of flowers. 



The light colored bloom through the 

 right center of the view is mostly that 

 of Cleome speciosissima, a continuous 

 bloomer from June till frost. The cleome 

 is not dainty nor brilliant, but in certain 

 situations is very effective. The dark 

 group in the foreground at the right is 

 a discoid form of Helianthus multiflo- 

 rus; the leaves are broader and the 

 growth more robust than in the ordi- 

 nary full double form. 



At the extreme right is Campanula 

 Van Houttei in bloom. This is by far 

 the most reliable of all the introduced 

 campanulas for hardy planting. H. 



Des Moines, Iowa. — Mr. Charles N. 

 Page, manager of the Iowa Seed Store, 

 has returned from a two months' visit 

 in Europe. 



Utica, N. Y.— There is a small delega- 

 tion from here at the Buffalo convention. 

 All are hurrying ^heir work so as 

 to get their carnitions in. J. C. Bigelow, 

 Jr., has gone to Sylvan Beach to enjoy 

 a well-earned vacation at the family cot- 

 tage, Oneida Lake. 



Clay Center, Kan.— J. P. Lampe, of 

 Concordia, was here last Tuesday visit- 

 ing Charles Humfeld. 



