576 



The Weekly Florists^ Review* 



OCTUBER 10, 1901. 



tavations was neeiled, but in most eases 

 it would be a useless expense, and niueh 

 more convenient to work amongst tlian 

 having such a depth of water. 



Althougli ;is a boy I had considerable 



and aulliMr of the water garden, William 

 Tricker, manager of this department for 

 lienry A. Dreer. The whole exhibit was 

 carried out under his instructions and 

 planting plan furnished by him. We be- 

 lieve could we have started out in the 

 middle of May, or even the first of June, 

 with a full tank of water and little need 

 of any large amount of cold w-ater to 

 keep it full, the success would have been 

 much greater. As it is, I can say on 

 the highest authority that it is the 

 choicest and most varied collection of 

 nympheas ever brought together. As will 

 be noticed by the names, many of them 

 are Mr. Tricker 's own American hybrids: 

 Nymphea gloriosa, 



" James Brydon, 



"' William Falconer, 



'■■ Gladstoniana, 



'■ Marliacea albida, 



" Kichardsonia, 



" chromatella, 

 sulphurea, 



" sulphurea grandiflora, 

 Andreana, 



" fulva, 



" lucida, 



" Robinsonia, 



iMarliacea rosea, 

 " Luciana, 

 L. lilacca, 

 \\illiam Doogue, 

 ])unctata. 

 " purpurea, 



'• Marliacea fiaramea, 

 " Marliacea ignea, 

 Xelumbium Shiroman, 

 " pekinensis, 

 •' speciosuni. 



William Scott. 



THE HANDLING OF CUT FLOWERS 



AS RECEIVED FROM THE 



GROWER. 



Bv Walter S. Hekfkox. 

 [Read before the Chicago Florlats' Club. Oct. 3.] 

 Cut Flowers: Embracing under this 

 head, as tliis term does to one in the 

 trade, everything' from the daintiest or- 

 chid ilnwn tiiniui;li the list to the coars- 

 est of garden M„d wild (lnw,T-. inrllld- 



It is not necessiuy for me to go into 

 the (jiiestion of the proper procedure, 

 i. e.. the detail of handling .stock. As 

 I take it that point is not the vital one 

 Just now. I could oi>ly tell you of some 

 of my methods and they I'uight differ 

 widely frnm those of others, who are 



Fn, ,.Vel\ v;,lielN r| flowCr SCUt tO 



niarki't w.- iiii<l..iil,i ,.,il\ li;ni. ■, counter- 

 part in a -. |i,i,:,i. ^|,,i,- I L:i-ower." 

 The avei;i-r .^1 ., , I ,. , ^i,,,,,^ to pack 

 flowers, bf~el, - u. ,. i „ I ,n my time 

 he has to -y:nr r.in I,,. i„.ii.| employed 

 in figuring up Ijow much lie ought" to 

 get for them. As a result it is no use 

 to attempt to lay down any cast-iron 

 rules for the treatment of stock when 



sort of Howers, grown under the same 

 conditions, cut, ])acked and shipped at 

 jr abi.ut the same time, ever reached the 

 sales ciiunlers in a uniform state. 



Wc have to take them as they cmiie 

 and 'make the li.-l uf iliem, S..ii. .n 

 range; bv haiiilliirj i.ii-e lie' :ji,h|.- In 

 thchigluW |. .1111 |n,,MM.> .llel .l|..|il;u 

 to best advaiilii-e. ^ellinu well lIulV 

 not under consideration at. present —it 

 is no trick to sell. Where the money 

 comes in though is knowing ichcn not 

 to scU. The first man to get this one 

 thing down right is the one who will 

 be first, hands down, with no second. 



In a wholesale house the suppo.sedly 

 principal object in the handling of cut 

 llowers is to present the stock to the 

 buyer in such a state as will realize the 

 greatest amount of money for it when 

 sold. This is true in a sense only. To 

 follow this principle throughout would 

 be to have to depend in a short time 

 on a .strictly transient trade. In noth- 

 ing are appearances more deceitful than 

 ill flowers. Xo one knows their true 

 condition unless he knows their full his- 

 tory. 



Buyers are, roughly speaking, divided 

 into two classes: the local and the out- 

 of-town. For the out-of-town buyer, the 

 one who does not see the stock before 

 buying, but who relies entirely upon 

 the ability and honesty of purpose of 

 the wholesaler, the stock must be cared 

 for as will best preserve its beauty, frag- 

 rance if any, and keeping qualities. For 

 the local (the one who will help you 

 open a consignment and then ask you, 

 "Are they fre.sh?") the stock has to be 

 offered in condition to suit the buyer. 

 There was a time when the local buyer 

 got better stock as a rule, than he does 

 today. That was when he placed his 

 order more often in advance and relied 

 more on the word of the dealer. 



It has been proven over and over again 

 in all lines of mercantile business, that 

 the merchant wlio attempts to sell the 

 lines and qualities he thinks his pus- 

 tomers ought to buy is quickly distanced 



•• his competitor who offers what they 

 want and as they want it. The theory, 

 or principle, is :i|.|ili(il I,, (be handlinj 

 of cut flower^, Iml dnii't Imgct: It is 



'ilv when- .li 111. 11,1 ,11), diamond, it is 

 never so appliel wlieu it is up to you 

 to furnish an agreed article. Suppose 

 a buyer comes in daily and wants a 

 hundred JIaids and to he sure that they 

 "vp frosh the only evidence he needs is 

 that they should be out of water, would 

 you if possible, keep some out waiting 

 for him, or have them out if already in 

 — if you saw him coming — or would 

 you ask him to sit down until you 

 were not busy so that you could point 

 out to him the benefits %f an ear'v 

 morning drink, to flowers as well as to 

 — horses? What would you do? I 

 rather think that after a few trials at 

 argument, if necessary, vnti would get 

 down early moniinu'- and have a iaiiuli 

 wrapped up with a liol water Ictlle all 

 ready and waitiiiL; it mui eijuhlnt get 

 dry stemmed stock anv other wav — I 

 would. 



Xow this buyer is not altogether 

 wrong either. His idea is good. I 

 have just made the statement that 

 no one knows the quality of stock 

 unless he knows its whole history. 

 That is the keynote of this buy- 

 er's actions. He wants fresh stock 

 even if wilted and is willing to do his 

 own drctorinsr. The onlv trouble is he 

 carries it too far and overdoes it. So it 

 aocs. r.uvevs must have -tock inesented 



to them as they want it — and thoy get 

 it. A friend of mine won't take his 

 grocer's word on the liesh egg question, 

 so he goes down town, pays a lancy price 

 tor eggs, each with a date mark stamped 

 11 111. -lieil. 1 happen to know that the 

 I .11 i i. iilar dealer he patronizes only pays 

 iliiiiv tile cents for a stamp and that it 

 la-is a long while. Xow whose fault is 

 it'; Both are satisfied. Coming back to 

 flowers again, it was explained to me 

 that I was asked to tell for the benefit 

 of the local retailer something of how 

 flowers are liandle<l in a commission 

 house, not- how thcij should be. 



The amount of stock properly handled 

 in each house varies witli tlio nature and 

 extent of its liii-im -■., liwiy house 

 Indies a part of ii- i.ieipl^, tlie pro- 

 portion vai\iiig ill eac h. aei.n.liiig to ap- 

 prcueil iiHi'leil-. and a part suli'ers— but 

 ill iialili ml .It a loss to the grower. 

 111. I. -- I- lie liuyer's, but it's his ovm 

 money lie i- ^|ie,uling. 



As to a remedy '; It is a question to 

 my mind whether it can ever be reme- 

 died in whole. It is a tendency of the 

 times to cheajien tlie .nsf of everything. 

 Hammer down tin lioyin.j price, hammer 

 it down, let .jiiaun j.. I.ut get the price 

 down. Get -omei Imej for nothing if 

 possible. One and all. each and every- 

 one, straining and striving by hook and 

 by crook if necessary to get more than 

 they are paying for. You arc going to 

 get w'hat you pay for if you are lucky, 

 and no more. It costs something to 

 grow good stock, it costs something to 

 handle it rightly. Where the retailer 

 suffers he can remedy it himself, either 

 alone, or in combination with others. 



Let the local retailer place himself 

 more on the fool in:: of the outside buyer. 

 Depend on the -ale-man and the firm 

 more. Put tliem .m In.ie.r and dnn't tmst 

 quite so much !■, Mun-elve^. If disap- 

 pointed try elsewlieic. It wouldn't take 

 long until most who'csalers would see 

 thehandwritinir on the wall and would 

 take steps tewinl -eeing that all stock 

 u'thout exieiition was treated as it 

 should I.e. 



When the retai'ers of thi- trwn set 

 over the notion that they have to go 

 ila like this every time 

 '•When did the.se come 

 r have you had them in 

 i"t you any fresher 

 m't want any." or "Put 

 've had these for three 

 wouldn't take that stale 

 When they get over 

 will have made the first 

 improvement in stock 

 them. It ought to be 

 ir a certain thing to be 

 ilitv at a certain price 

 . Then take the state- 

 so. If after disappoint- 

 laid to unavoidable mis- 

 hat you cannot rely on 

 ilesman. you have relief 

 ds: you will find others 

 .ly you. and you won't 

 new set of wholesalers 



through a fornn 

 before thev biiv: 

 ■ n'?" "How '.'in. 

 ■vater?" "Havei 

 stock?" or "I d( 

 them back; you 

 days at least. I 

 stuff for a aift. 

 this, I say. thev 

 step toward the 

 as it conies to 

 enough to ask f< 

 of a certain qui 

 to be agreed on. 

 ment that it is i 

 ments not to he 

 t'll-es vou find t 

 that house or sa 

 ill v.. Ill own ban 

 iiiv'.iii- t.i supp 



lri\e to ..;Pt a 



Trade Conditions. 



We are still convalescing! The foun- 

 dat'oiis for a good winter are being laid 

 deep and firm and wide. 



Roses have become more plentiful with 

 same prices on similar srades but an- 

 other larger grade added t/i sell for 

 piore monev. niir-es now riinnine all 

 the wav from $1 to .*s per loo ..ii pink 



