52 



The Weekly Rorists' Review. 



DECEMBER 14, 1899. 



per doz. Stevia, callas and such stock 

 will be plentiful. Keep your eye on 

 the Meteors, Beauties and good Maids. 

 We must leave our price list until the 

 next paper. 



Christmas means a great deal to the 

 world in general, and among other 

 things hard work, worry and vexa- 

 tions to the florist. The fatigue and 

 chagrin of the long hours and cease- 



less inquiries can be lightened by the 

 exercise of a little thought and com- 

 mon sense. Let your heip get then- 

 meals somehow. If they cannot spare 

 time to go out, get it in the store for 

 them; a cup of coffee to enable the in- 

 ner man to meet the outer man means 

 more in results than aught you can 

 say or do. IVERA. 



Christmas Preparations. 



Every year of late the plant business 

 has been more and more a feature of 

 the Christmas trade. This has been 

 largely brought about by the extreme- 

 ly high prices of cut flowers, and qual- 

 ity has not always risen correspond- 

 ingly with prices, so the public has 

 found they can get more for their 

 money and have turned to plants. You 

 cannot do much in preparatory work 

 in flowers, but you can with plants do 

 a great deal to help the rush go 

 smoothly. 



All wreaths and wreathing should 

 be made up at the earliest possible mo- 

 ment and got out of the way several 

 days before Christmas, for all hands, 

 however much help you have, will be 

 wanted the last few days. You can buj 

 laurel wreathing cheaper and better 

 than you can make it yourself and it 

 keeps splendidly in any cool place. 

 Holly wreaths you cannot buy equal to 

 your own making, for when sent 

 packed in cases they get flattened out 

 and unsightly. A cool, dark cellar is 

 the place for these, and so it is for 

 the ground pine wreaths and wreath- 

 ing, but it you don't have such a cellar 

 a deep, tight frame outside will do 

 very well, providing you don't pile 

 them up too much. Snow and ice is 

 all right for the ground pine, but holly 

 should not be frozen too hard or you 

 will lose many berries. The principal 

 object to observe in keeping the 

 ground pine and holly is coolness and 

 closeness; keep light and air away 

 from them. 



The handling of flowering plants at 

 Christmas, particularly if it is what 

 our northern people profess to enjoy, 

 zero with good sleighing, is a diflicult 

 matter, and there is room for lots of 

 good sense and judgment. There is no 

 set rule for wrapping up any plant, 

 and 1 know of no article handled by 

 other merchants that calls for the 

 same care and horse sense. A turkey, 

 a bonnet, a doll, a box of candy, or 

 even a live baby will stand a little 



frost, or at least is easily wrapped up, 

 but an azalea, a palm or poinsettia 

 will tax all your care and experience 

 to get themi landed at their destination 

 in perfect order. 



Those who have a good sized heated 

 delivery wagon have at this season a 

 great advantage, for a slight covering 

 of paper round the plant is sufflcient 

 to protect it while going from the 

 wagon to the door. Heated wagons 

 are, however, as yet not the rule, and 

 many of us rely on long, close fitting 

 boxes, laying the plants down after 

 being well wrapped in paper and in 

 the order in which they are to be de- 

 livered. There is a great deal in first 

 appearances and although what I am 

 going to say may sound entirely super- 

 fluous to many, yet you still see plants 

 delivered in very crude shape. The 

 present day demands neatness if not 

 style. Two colored gentlemen in gold 

 lace, sitting on an automobile, I have 

 not yet seen delivering flowers, but 

 the colored folks in gold we have, and 

 the other will soon be started on 

 Broadway, New York, or Tremont 

 street, Boston, and delivering Mrs. 

 Lawson carnations at ?9 per dozen in 

 anything but an "autbil" seems de- 

 grading and beneath the dignity of her 

 divinity. 



Newspaper does well for the com- 

 mission man to keep out frost, but 

 will never do to wrap up a two dollar 

 cyclamen. I protest against any plant 

 being sent out, however warm the 

 weather, with the bare pot. It should 

 have a sheet of wrapping paper cover- 

 ing the pot, whatever the season. Time 

 spent in carefully and thoroughly wrap- 

 ping a plant is well spent. And re- 

 member that it need not be freezing 

 to greatly injure a plant. If the ther- 

 mometer should be 40 degrees with a 

 cutting wind and the bare flowers of 

 an azalea or poinsettia or lily were 

 exposed five minutes to it you would 

 see in an hour or two some brown and 

 wilted flowers. 



There are some plants that can be 

 partially hardened off for a tew days 



before sold and will then feel less the 

 change from greenhouse to store or 

 house, or perhaps church, but you 

 should not remove anything to a much 

 cooler house unless it is well out. A 

 poinsettia may be growing in 70 de- 

 grees; if fully developed it won't hurt 

 in 50 degrees. A Harrisii lily will do 

 in 40 degrees, the heaths in any- 

 thing aliove freezing. Cyclamen are 

 never grown warm, still 40 degrees for 

 a few nights will stiffen them some. 

 Azaleas have been truly forced and it 

 would be the greatest benefit to give 

 them a cool house tor a week before 

 being sold. 



Customers for plants, and we expect 

 many of them, will not all wait till 

 the last day or two. Many sensible 

 people will order a week ahead and 

 that enables us to get out the orders, 

 which is an immense advantage. For 

 several seasons we have greatly ex- 

 pedited business by adopting a sys- 

 tem and thoroughly adhering to it. 

 Clear off 50 feet of bench or as much 

 as your business needs. Cover it with 

 coarse paper and have It in sections 

 for the several days preceding Christ- 

 mas. Directly a plant is sold and or- 

 dered delivered Friday. Dec. 22. it is 

 put on the space allotted to Friday's 

 delivery, the address card and donor's 

 card attached, the pot washed, and it 

 is all ready to be wrapped. 



It will do no harm if it is there 

 several days. No syringing is neces- 

 sary. If you are busy with customers 

 or other necessary work you can in the 

 evening wrap up securely these orders 

 that are to be delivered on Friday. 

 Two or three handy men, if not both- 

 ered or called away, can do a great 

 deal of wrapping in a few hours. We 

 take a memorandum of every order, 

 whether it is cash or charged, and 

 when once the plant is wrapped ready 

 for delivery the order is put away with 

 that day's business so that it can be 

 readily referred to. 



Noah or some other ancient philoso- 

 pher said that "mistakes occur in the 

 best regulated families." This was oc- 

 casioned by the monkey eating the 

 squirrel's share of nuts in the ark, but 

 the fewer mistakes the better for our 

 business and peace of mind. 



A good, smart, clear headed deliv- 

 ery man is a jewel and well worthy 

 his hire, but while he knows the large 

 run of your customers you should not 

 tax his ability too far on these ex- 

 traordinary occasions, and you will 

 have all kinds of people delivering at 

 this time. 



Don't begrudge clerical help. One 

 delivery gone wrong will pay the 

 wages of a man who will write a 

 thousand address cards for you. So 

 we find the safest and only plan where 

 two or three dozen plants are sent on 

 one delivery wagon is to write on the 

 address card the name and address 

 and in addition what the article is it 

 there is more than one plant for the 

 same person. To illustrate: "Mrs. 

 White, number and street: 1 lily. 1 

 poinsettia, 1 cyclamen." This label 

 I goes on one plant and on the other 



