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HORTICULTURE 



June 7, 1913 



Of Interest to Retail 

 Florists 



TELEGRAPHING FLOWERS. 



"Flowers telegraphed to all parts of 

 the world." This very familiar sign 

 now greets us in every large city and 

 in very many small cities. The gen- 

 eral public wonder how it is done and 

 their curiosity is aroused to such an 

 extent that the florist rarely passes a 

 day, without granting some curious 

 person the satisfaction of knowing 

 something about the system which the 

 florist uses in delivering flowers a 

 great many miles at short notice. 



The invention of the telegraph sys- 

 tem has brought gold into the coffers 

 of the florist who uses the proper ad- 

 vertising methods to let the public 

 know he is prepared to take care of 

 their orders, and who also makes use 

 of the advertising pages of Horticul- 

 ture to let the florists in distant 

 cities know he is capable of filling 

 their orders as per telegram. 



There is one serious obstacle to be 

 overcome in telegraphing flowers; I 

 might add a daily occurrence, and that 

 is the "shaving down process." This 

 is being done to such an extent that 

 by the time the telegram reaches the 

 correspondent, there is barely enough 

 left for the recipient to fill the order 

 properly, as his profit has gone 

 through the "shaving down process" 

 and as a result sends something in- 

 ferior so as not to lose by the transac- 

 tion; then he must make the usual dis- 

 count, if the order is not sent net. 



The sudden stopping of telegrams 

 from one of your out-of-town corre- 

 spondents, goes to show that there is 

 something wrong in your establish- 

 ment; either the flowers you sent were 

 no good or not a sufficient amount for 

 the money. The understanding that 

 flowers are being delivered at a dis- 

 tance and will not be seen is a temp- 

 tation to send something you wish to 

 dispose of, thus causing dissatisfac- 

 tion when the discovery has been 

 made. 



In this article I will attempt to give 

 an illustration of trouble between 

 three parties interested in flowers or- 

 dered by telegraph; first, the cus- 

 tomer; second, the florist taking the 

 order; and last, the florist receiving 

 the telegram to fill the order in an- 

 other city. 



A customer enters a store and asks 

 to see some long-stem roses. After 

 looking over the stock, a selection of 

 four dozen long-stem roses has been 

 decided upon, to be tied into a spray, 

 the price to be $2.50 per dozen and 

 telegraph charges; total, $10.50. The 

 customer has paid the amount after 

 being assured that everything will be 

 taken care of properly and leaves the 

 store. Immediately the correspondent 

 is wired to send a spray of four dozen 

 roses tor $6.00 net. to the funeral of 



Mr. . and also to write a card, 



Mr. and Mrs. ; so far you are 



through with the order. 



A few weeks later the customer re- 

 turns and demands an explanation as 

 to the quality of the roses your corre- 

 spondent delivered. You did not see 

 them, but the purchaser did. Unex- 

 pectedly, he or she had decided to 



board the train and attend the fu- 

 neral; instead of seeing a spray of 

 four dozen long-stem roses, there were 

 four dozen miserable short-stem roses 

 wired into a spray. Your correspond- 

 ent could not furnish for $6.00 the 

 same sort of roses you had shown for 

 $10.00, thus causing dissatisfaction 

 and driving one customer from the 

 field of "flowers ordered by telegraph." 

 This illustration fully explains how 

 you may be caught if you do not allow 

 margin enough for your correspondent 

 to work on. Don't try to take it all, 

 let the other fellow get his, too. 



Mr. Storeman. 



CHICAGO NOTES. 



Fred Klingel's little daughters are 

 on ti>e wav to recovery. 



Ernest Farley has returned to take 

 a position with A. L. Vaughan & Co. 



Miss Parker is absent from the of- 

 fice of the Chicago Carnation Co. on 

 account of illness. 



Miss Ethel Anderson is assistant 

 cashier at A. Lange's and Miss Agnes 

 Dockery, assistant bookkeeper. 



Secretary Pyfer reports reservations 

 being taken by eastern florists for the 

 Minneapolis convention trip, on the 

 Pioneer Limited, known as the Cook 

 Co. Florists' Special. 



W. E. Lynch, for many years con- 

 nected with the wholesale trade, is 

 now located at Hatfield, Mass.. where 

 he will engage in the growing of to- 

 bacco. Mrs. Lynch's father has a 

 tract of land there suitable for this 

 purpose which Mr. Lynch will use. 



A. Lange's large retail store is one 

 of the sights in the down-town district 

 these days. He is the only florist who 

 seems to specialize in all lines; bed- 

 ding plants, fancy plants, dollar boxes 

 of cut flowers, large wedding decora- 

 tions, etc. This month is opening with 

 an unusual amount of business. 



For once all are agreed upon a sub- 

 ject, and it is a pleasure to hear the 

 "best Memorial Day sales on record" 

 discussed by the wholesalers, espe- 

 cially so when, as in this case it is no 

 exaggeration. Far from being con- 

 fined to two days the sales covered 

 nearly a week, not closing until Sun- 

 day noon. A quiet Monday was almost 

 welcome. 



Joe Beaver has charge of the ar- 

 rangements for the peony show at the 



Art Institute, June 12th and 13th, 

 which are not free days. The rules 

 of the Art Institute provide for free 

 admission Sundays, Wednesdays and 

 Saturdays, a fact sometimes over- 

 looked by flower show committees, 

 much to their financial loss. Mr. 

 Reaver says growers have responded 

 cordially and every indication points 

 to a fine, first peony show. The ex- 

 hibit will be staged on the main floor 

 T>ith additional space on the second 

 at their disposal if desired. The ex- 

 hibition is given by The Horticultural 

 Society of Chicago, founded in 1890, 

 and which has been keenly alive to 

 the advantages of fioral exhibits as ed- 

 ucators of the public. 



Visitor — H. E. Philpott, Winnipeg, 

 Man. 



NEWS NOTES. 



Kaukauna, Wis. — Peter J. Gerend 

 ha.s purchased Steve Dietzler's seed 

 store on Kaukauna street. 



New Haven, Conn. — Charles Conti, a 

 florist in South End road, was awarded 

 $790 in a suit for damages to his green- 

 house and contents, due to blasting 

 done by the New Haven Gas Light 

 Company, 



New York, N. Y.— On May 28th, Gov- 

 ernor Sulzer vetoed the bill appropri- 

 ating $60,000 for new experimental 

 greenhouses at Cornell University, 

 Ithaca, N. Y., and of which amount 

 over 60 per cent was to be devoted to 

 floricultural purposes. 



ORDERS FOR 



NEW YORK 



WIRE OR PHONE TO ' 



MAX SCHLING 



22 West 59th Street, adjoimng Plaza Hote 



Best Florists in the States as References 

 EUROPEAN ORDERS EXECUTED 



Florists' Refrigerators 



Write us for catalogue and Prices, stating size you 

 require, and for what kind of cut flowers you wish 

 to use the refrigerator: also state whether you 

 want it for display or only for storage. 



McCray Refrigerator Co 



553 Lake Street KendaltviHe, Iml. 



yfentu>n HofticuUure wh^n you ■nfft'te. 



