DECEMBER 21. 1S99. 



The Weekly Florists* Review. 



Range ot Rose Houses of Mr. George H. Trendley, Rowayton, Conn. Erected by Hitchings & Co., New York. 



support of an exhibition of flowers if 

 they are convinced that they are rloing 

 something purely for the advancement 

 of good taste and that will reflect 

 credit upon their city. Such will re- 

 spond liberally to the requests of men 

 whom they know to be entirely dis- 

 interested, while they would pay little 

 attention to representatives of a pure- 

 ly trade organization. 



ARE FLOWER SHOWS BENEFICIAL 

 TO FLORISTS? 



[Read before the Chicago Florists' Club. Dec. 1, 

 by Edgar Sanders. ] 



I propose to take the broad ground 

 that flower shows are beneficial to ev- 

 ery florist in the city. I know there 

 are some who will dispute the propo- 

 sition; if he is present let him be 

 heard. Nay. I go further, and assert 

 that every display of flowers, in the 

 parks, in the gardens, in the florists' 

 stores, aye even in the streets, tends 

 to encourage the use of flowers and 

 create a demand therefor. 



If this is so, why are not these dis- 

 plays beneficial to everybody in the 

 trade? What we want is more buy- 

 ers. The grower as first hand, the 

 wholesaler as second, and the retailer 

 as third distributor, needs no extra 

 push nowadays to start or enter into 

 the florist's business, nor ever did in 

 my experience. He may, as to the 

 best way after starting, to make a 

 success of it. 



After fully half a century of con- 

 nection with flower shows myself in 

 one form or another, it's an enigma 

 to me to find so few florists of this 

 city lending them a helping hand. Not 

 a few seem actually indifferent whether 



they visit them at all, except they can 

 get in for nothing. Why, out of eas- 

 ily 50(1 in the trade in this city, not 

 100 belong to either the Horticultural 

 Society or the Florists' Club, which to 

 my mind tells a strange story. 



If my assertion is correct, that 

 shows are an educator of the masses 

 to love flowers, they should be en- 

 couraged in every way by those mak- 

 ing a living from the sale of all horti- 

 cultural products, -which you see takes 

 in all kinds, from state and county 

 fairs, exhibits at horticultural and 

 florists' societies' monthly meetings, 

 up to the grand yearly fall show of 

 flowers. Suppose for a moment, in 

 your estimation, a good many of the 

 exhibits are rather tame affairs. Do 

 your share to improve them. 



Surely none will dispute, if a flower 

 show, in whatever form, encourages a 

 taste for flowers, and causes more to 

 be used, the grower can have no kick 

 coming. Has it not been a fact that 

 at every one of our fall shows prices 

 for all good stock rises during that 

 week, however dull the trade has been 

 before? This being so, we opine the 

 wholesale man is equally benefited, as 

 he gets bigger commissions by the 

 booming of his trade. 



The retail man. taking him in all 

 his varied phases, may possibly kick 

 at anything that tends to increase the 

 prices of the flowers he wants to buy. 

 But low prices and gluts are the bane 

 of the business, bad for everybody 

 but the fakir. We will leave him to 

 fight his own battles. He after all 

 flourishes mainly through overproduc- 

 tion. If the growers cannot, or will 

 not. adjust supplies to demand, which, 



after all, controls prices, there is 

 bound to be trouble, as there is at 

 times in everything obtained from the 

 field and garden. 



High or fancy prices long continued 

 is not a favorable condition of the 

 market in the long run, any more 

 than gluts and ruinous prices. If pe- 

 riodical gluts must come, you w^ill 

 have either to destroy enough flowers 

 to bring an equilibrium, either at the 

 greenhouses or in the commission 

 house, or put up with these gentry 

 one hears of so much, but who in the 

 time of low prices get rid of as many 

 flowers as those we are accustomed to 

 call legitimate florists. 



I claim if a florist in any of the di- 

 visions feels like aspiring to the top 

 of his calling, he had better weigh 

 well any thought he may have that he 

 can afford to give societies and flower 

 shows the cold shoulder. The grower 

 needs the stimulus that a competitive 

 exhibit of his stock against that of 

 his neighbors may give him. It may 

 take down a little of the conceit that 

 he alone has the best that is going. 



Will you, for example, you retail 

 men, for a moment cast your thoughts 

 back during the shows in this city 

 during the past ten years and note 

 the names, for example, of the prize 

 winners, say of decorative materials, 

 tables, mantels, etc.? Would not the 

 story tell who commanded the cream 

 of the trade of the time? Yes, there 

 is surely darker in your standing 

 aloof. The public, your customers, 

 will he apt to be impressed by what 

 they see. Consider the old adage— 

 "To him that hath shall be given." 



I have not touched on the advanta- 



