396 



The Weekly Florists^ Review. 



August. 21. 1902. 



years, but in September, 1S96. started (or 

 himself in a small room at 113 East 

 Third street. The business has greatly 

 increased, requiring more and more space. 

 with a good outlooij for its continuance. 

 Mr. Gillett is one of the trustees of 

 the Jabez Elliott Flower Marliet, the only 

 •building of its Ivind in the United States, 

 exclusively used for the sale of plants and 

 flowers. The market is considered a ben- 

 efit to the trade and does no injury 

 to the retail store business, as those hav- 

 ing stands mostly cater to a different 

 class of c'lstomers who. market-like, 

 carry away their purchases, and as a gen- 

 eral thing, of a cheaper grade than is 

 handled by the regular retail store men. 



St. Louis Enters the List. 



In November. 1SS9. John M. Hudson 

 opened the first w"holesale cut flower store 

 in St. L.ouis. Two years .after he sold 

 to Andrew BranAenburg. -who in six 

 months sold to S. Mount & Co.. the "com- 

 panv" being Geo. Ostertag. who moved 

 the store to 109 West Twelfth street. 



In 1830 Wm. Ellison and C. A. Kuehn 

 started up at 11-2 Pine street, opening 

 a general supply store for florists. In 

 three years they separated. C. A. Kuehn 

 continues at tlie old stand, doing a fine 

 business. Wm. Ellison opened in 1893. 

 S. Mount & Co. sold out to Fleckenstein 

 & Co.. who opened at 1325 Pine street, 

 handling cut flowers exclusively. A year 

 after W. C. Wors opened at 2728 Olrve 

 street, to supply the West End florists. 

 In 1894 E. H. Michel opened what was 

 known as the St. Louis Cut Flower Co.. 

 at 1620 Olive street. The same year Wm. 

 Ellison gave up. two years after W. C. 

 AVors. leaving the three. Then the 

 Fleckenstein Company sold out to the 

 Mound City folks, composed of Albert 

 Bauer and the Fleckenstein Brothers. W. 

 G. Berning bought the St. Louis Cut 

 Flower Co.. handling a limited an.'ount 

 of supplies. There is at the present time 

 in St. Louis C. A. Kuehn. who carries a 

 complete line of supplies and makes all 

 the wire work for florists in the city: 

 H. G. Berning. in a large way. with six 

 regular hands, and F. M. Ellis, who han- 

 dles a limited quantity of supplies, but 

 is noted for being a shipper of good flow- 

 ers. 



No co-operative stores have ever been 

 tried in St. Louis. Most of the ship- 

 ments coming to St. Louis come from 

 Illinois. Indiana. Ohio and Iowa, as well 

 as Missouri. 



Milwaukee, Wis. 



The inception of the wholesale business 

 in Milwaukee was in 1S7S and took the 

 form of an exchange with C. B. Whit- 

 nall as president. It was incorporated in 

 1889. under the name of The Wisconsin 

 Cut Flower Exchange. The stockholders 

 were not confined to home men and it 

 was considered advisable to include the 

 purchase of bulbs, seeds, putty, paints, 

 etc.. for the reason it was desired to 

 spread over considerable territory. But 

 it drifted into tlie ordinary commission 

 business in flowers and florists", sundries 

 in stock for sale. Mr. Whitnall says "the 

 consignors soon got to be specialists and 

 there has been a steady division going on 

 for years, until now the florist is not a 

 grower and the grower not a florist, and 

 the commission house is paid 15 per cent. 

 for taking the 'kicks' of both." The Ex- 

 change flourished for a while, became in- 

 solvent and in 1897 was sold out to Hel- 

 ton & Hunkel, at the old stand. 4a7 Mil- 

 waukee street, where they are still do- 

 ing a good commission business. This 

 firm the present year bought out C. B. 

 Whitnall's greenhouse business, who is 

 retiring, so. like other western houses, the 

 firm will join the growing brigade of 

 grower- dealers. 



In 1896 Ellis & Pollworth. both old em- 

 ployes of the Exchange, formed a com- 

 pany under the firm name of Ellis & 

 Pollworth and opened a commission 

 house, including supplies, at 137 Oneida 

 avenue, where it continues to the present 

 time. Three years after its start C. C. 

 Pollworth bought out his partner's inter- 

 est, ran a short time under his own 

 name, finally branching largely into 

 greenhouses in an up-to-date condition 

 of things, and incorporated, thus form- 

 ing another of the grower-dealers in the 

 wholesale class. Milwaukee wholesale 

 men have always depended largely on 

 consignments from other states. 



' Baltimore, Md. 



The city of Baltimore, although one of 

 the old ones, has no wholesale florists, 

 and is at present looked after in this line 

 by the Florists' Exchange, which is co- 

 operative for mutual benefits. No mem- 

 ber can hold more than three shares, en- 

 titling the holdei' to one vote. It was es- 

 tablished in 1892. has about forty grow- 

 ers and does a business of from $37,000 

 to $40,000 a year. A large part of the 

 flowers grown in and about Baltimore are 

 yet delivered to retailers in the old style. 



Two efforts have been made to start 

 commission stores, but they could not 

 find business enough to exist. 



Detroit, Mich. 



This city did not enter the list of 

 wholesale florists until the first year of 

 the twentieth century, when the Michi- 

 gan Cut Flower Exchange came into ex- 

 istence under the management of Wm. 

 Dilger. but owned by John Breitmeyer's 

 Sons, as a wholesale depot for the sale 

 of their own stock and consignments from 

 outside sources. 



At Retail. 



By Geo. W. Wienhoeber. 



Mr. President, Gentlemen; 



Early this spring I went to Milwaukee 

 to see what our close relatives, the nur- 

 serymen, were doing at their convention. 

 I learned much and looked wise, but there 

 was one incident which made me feel a 

 little uneasy. One of the older and more 

 successful looking men leisuiely got up to 

 address the assembly, in which time my 

 close friend Mr. Sanders had time to 

 whisper me: "Very droll old timer, lis- 

 ten." and I did. He began with an alle- 

 gory, made classical allusions and I 

 pricked up niy ears not to miss anything 

 so good, for It really was. Suddenly and 

 without warning, and I believe he was 

 looking directly at me. he said: "Gen- 

 tlemen, the worst enemy that the nur- 

 seryman has to contend with is the your.g 

 bugger. Entomologist, bugologist. bug- 

 ger if you please. His alarms are ener- 

 vating and we stand aghast as we read of 

 the new insect pests which he has dis- 

 covered and desci'ibes at length in the 

 journals, and which are about to ruin 

 us. We Ttudy the master o\er and what 

 we discover is the codling-moth or the 

 woolly aphis which you and I have suc- 

 cessfully combatted this past scor? of 

 years." But he continued; "Once in a 

 while this young "bugger" does find a 

 new spot on the butterfly's wing and 

 of course, he helps some." 



I am not a "bugger" before "bugolo- 

 gists." but a newly initiated member in 

 the Society of American Florists, and al- 

 though my position comes dangerously 

 near to that of the young "bugger," I 

 still have courage to say what is to fol- 

 low, and if I err in the minds of those of 

 experience, please remember the proverb- 

 ial grain of ."alt. 



Mr. Sanders has said much in his paper 

 on marketing of flowers at wholesale, and 

 now that we are about to consider the 

 marketing of flowers at retail, the fii'st 

 thought t'nat occurs to us is what a vast 

 difference there is between the grower of 

 flowers and the one who finally pre- 

 pares them for the reception table. The 

 one is close to nature, i^ractical and 

 scientific, and the other unfortunately in 

 many cases is a specialist in the deco- 

 rating with flowers. To market flowers to 

 him means the catching of people'^ fan- 

 cies and stimulating them to buy what 

 he has to sell. 



The retail florist deals with people who 

 not alone are demanding fresh and beau- 

 tiful flowers, but also a "sei'\-ice" which 

 will bring to them the flowers in the 

 most attractive manner. The whole- 

 saler knows nothing about service in the 

 retail sense, and to the retailer it is part 

 of his stock in trade, good will of the 

 business, and it is the factor, the qual- 

 ity of flowers being equal, which gives 

 him rank in the estimation of flower lov- 

 ers. To some "service" means style, to 

 others, courteous business relations with 

 patterns, or artistic taste, when in fact 

 it includes these and every other fea- 

 ture in the retail trade outside of the 

 paying of dollars for stock and receiving 

 of dollars in return. It is the essential 

 feature in the marketing of flowers at re- 

 tail, and grows out of the sentiment 

 which the retailer has or must acquire. 

 With florists is it especially true that 

 prices are seemingl.v arbitrary, since they 



vary with a hundred conditions and then 

 not simultaneously throughout the trade 

 in all cases? If the prices then are not 

 a fixed standard of comparison, then 

 what is left but the service to determine 

 whether we are a more desirable firm to 

 deal with than our competitor whose 

 prices seem equally fluctuating. The re- 

 tailer must find a market for his flowers 

 not alone by selling the best flowers at 

 acceptable prices, but he must increase 

 it by winning his patrons' good will and 

 confidence by a disposition which is 

 generous and which leans to the beau- 

 tiful. 



In considering the leading retail flor- 

 ists of the country,- we have this generous 

 w-a.v of doing business exemplified. They 

 realize the necessity of education in every 

 direction possible, for how are they go- 

 ing to be able to sympathize with a pa- 

 tron's wishes or tastes, if they have but 

 one point of view, that of the business 

 man's. Furthermore the florist is ex- 

 pected to be original and not a copyist 

 and how can he be so if he does not learn 

 to study the beautiful in all he sees, there- 

 by cultivating his tastes and imagination. 

 Let him become interested in the style 

 of architecture of country homes that he 

 may make himself interesting to his 

 client, who wishes to have a border of 

 herbaceous perennials planted so that 

 they may be seen from the loggia on the 

 east side of the house. Let him cultivate 

 a taste for colors by strolling through 

 the art galleries occasionally, where sug- 

 gestions for color, design, and it is not 

 stretching the point to say that a tech- 

 nique in the handling of flowers may be 

 learned. 



The florist has read in the papers re- 

 cently that at King Edward's coronation, 

 the programs were so designed in color 

 that when the thousands of people in 

 the observation stands used them, they 

 unconsciously became a scheme in the 

 grandly planned decorations. Again, he 

 has eagerly looked over the last number 

 of "Country Life in America," and that 

 article in a spring number of "Atlantic 

 Monthly" on Rhododendrons, did not es- 

 cape him. But you are thinking that I 

 have gotten off from my subject of the 

 marketing of flowers, and I assure you 

 that I have not. Every time that you 

 get a new impetus of thoughts from the 

 many subjects which stir the imagina- 

 tion you begin to work with renewed 

 interest. These thoughts are the leaven 

 which lightens the sogginess of the pure- 

 ly business life. It assists you personally, 

 and what is a tradesman who does not 

 make himself felt in -what he sells or who 

 does not arouse admiration in those with 

 whom he comes in contact? An Italian 

 inscription on a sun dial in a garden 

 which I saw in France, translated, read 

 thus; "Life is short, art is long." How 

 easily this can be remembered, and what 

 a consolation it is. 



The florists of today and those of to- 

 morrow will widen their horizen if they 

 wish to anticipate their customer's wish- 

 es. Those who wait until customers 

 force ideas onto them will soon find 

 themselves forsaken as dead weight. 

 Florists must "oe initiative and not con- 

 tent to follow. And in what field could 

 a man find a better chance to derive 

 pleasure and enjoyment than in the flor- 

 ist business. He has business relations 

 with people of most cultivated tastes 

 and they are willing to award his good 

 'taste with generous support and appre- 

 ciation if he is deserving. In many cases 

 they make the business almost ideal by 

 wai\-ing money considerations entirely. 

 Flowers should be associated with all 

 that is beautiful, and what a pleasure it 

 is to establish a business which will not 

 mar the iilusiori. 



Essentially the retailer of flowers is 

 the one w'ho distributes them for final 

 use. He is the fakir surrounded by his 

 dense masses of fiowers which brighten 

 the streets in spring, or he is the es- 

 tablished fiorist of undisputed reputation 

 whose establishment we have known for 

 the past tw-enty years. Both do a legiti- 

 mate business, both sell commodities, 

 have receipts and expenditures and both 

 have profits. They are the extremes of 

 a trade which disposes of vast quantities 

 of flowers daily. How interesting these 

 extremes are. and what a vast number of 

 enterprises rank between them. 



I have said that the fakir does a legiti- 

 mate business but why then are city ordi- 

 nances passed periodically to prevent him 

 from hawking his wares? 



It is because these ordinances do not 



