798 



HORTICULTURE 



December 12, 190& 



SALT ON THE TAIL OF AN IDEA. 



Ri ..i bi ri lie Florists' Club of 



In in Charles Heury Fox. 

 Gentlemen of the Florists' Club: 

 With your kind permission I am going 

 to tell you tonighl bow I put •'Salt 

 on the tail of ;in idea." We all know 

 success is the resull of bard work, no 

 link in it, simply getting right down 

 in ii and hammering away at it; not 

 only haul work but energy directed in 

 the proper channels, incused in one di- 

 rection, concentrated until it crys- 

 taiizes into Success. 



Ideas Are Crystalized Thoughts. 



So it is with Ideas. First you see or 

 hear, then you Think, then you Re- 

 mi inliir. then you Imagine. If you drop 

 either of the four after you have seen 

 or heard, you will Vever have an idea. 

 Ideas arc crystalized thoughts, and you 

 will not have ideas unless you see or 

 hear. Lots of people see things uui 

 do not see. To get ideas we must first 

 cultivate our power of observation; 

 for instance — I want to get a new 

 wagon. I do not know what I want; 

 but I do know I want something smart 

 and different from anything about 

 town. I start the observation car 

 agoing, and every fine wagon that goes 

 by me I notice. I see wagons every- 

 where, partly unconsciously. Then I 

 start the thinkery agoing, and I think 

 about what I have seen, then I remem- 

 ber through thinking about them, then 

 after thinking and remembering what 

 I have seen I start the imagination 

 factory agoing. Oh! I will get all 

 kinds of crazy notions in my head, but 

 gradually I will have to sift them out 

 one by one, and finally settle on one 

 shape or style, but the Idea is not yet 

 clear. Now I have to work harder. 1 

 have to get a little salt. I drop a little 

 on the tail of that last thought or idea 

 and it becomes a little clearer. Now I 

 throw out a few more fantastic ideas, 

 and in. a few more days I have to add 

 a little more salt, and gradually I come 

 to something entirely different and yet 

 practical. You can get this result on 

 any subject if you simply hang to it. 

 and keep on adding salt. 



Creating Ideas. 



Now to create Ideas in any specific 

 line it is necessary to surround your- 

 self with the proper environment — the 

 right sort of atmosphere. You will not 

 get sporting ideas in a church, neither 

 will you get moral or religious ideas in 

 a saloon. If your hobby is baseball, 

 and you are a very enthusiastic score- 

 card man you will not see anything 

 else in the newspapers or on the street 

 but score cards. If automobiles are 

 in your mind you will see every' 

 new automobile on the road, know all 

 about transmission and gear and the 

 resiliency of the tires. So I am trying 

 to show you how very necessary it is 

 to have the proper environment and 

 atmosphetc about you to make a suc- 

 cess in any given line. You can draw 

 from it continually, you have some- 

 thing before you to see. to think about, 

 and to exercise your imagination upon 

 when you rest at night. 



Ah! gentlemen, this is. I think, the 

 great secret of Ideas — Your outer office, 

 tin eyes and receptive brain, are busy 

 all day seeing things and taking them 

 In, storing them up until you rest. 

 Then your inside office, the subjective 

 brain takes it up, works it. out. moulds 

 your thought, your imagination, your 



enthusiasm into the crystalized prod- 

 uct, Idi as 



Enthusiasm Essential. 



Rlghl here is another important Cac 

 tin I almost forgot to mention. 

 Enthusiasm. Ii is nigh impossible to 

 lake the initiative, to originate anj 

 i hum, in get ;m idea without enthu- 

 siasm. Yen must believe in yourself, 

 in your goods, and in the appreciation 

 of the general public, i do not care 

 who you arc. you are bound to get 

 credit for any really good work or 

 thought you create. Right here I want 

 to tell you about my Surprise Box. 

 The idea was the result of observing 

 and taking up a remark; a gentleman, 

 a good spender, came into my store, 

 nothing was too good for him, but be 

 was always looking for something bet- 

 ter. One evening, after buying a cor- 

 sage bunch of violets and orchids 

 worth $20.00, and while I was arrang- 

 ing it in what I thought a very good 

 looking violet box. he leaned over the 

 counter and said, 'Why don't some of 

 the florists get up something new in 

 the way of a fine box that would pre- 

 sent the flowers to the best advantage 

 as soon as it. was opened" My ears 

 caught it, 1 thought about it that even- 

 ing going home in the car, I don't be- 

 lii i'e I would have seen a five dollar 

 note on the floor of the car that night. 

 I saw nothing but boxes, boxes, ill 

 kinds of boxes. It took fully one year 

 thinking, remembering, imagining to 

 produce the Surprise Box. 



While I was experimenting with this, 

 the box-maker first of all said I was 

 crazy, "another one of these fan-dang- 

 led ideas of yours." But I said. 

 "Never mind, you make it this way." 

 "But it will never work," he replied. 

 "Make it" I said. ' I will pay for it." 

 I had confidence in my goods, in my- 

 self, in the man who wanted something 

 to present the flowers to their best ad- 

 vantage. I first used paper; it would 

 not work as the dampness of the flow- 

 ers made it soft and limber; then I 

 used regular doilies, they were too stiff, 

 so I bought lace and had them made 

 our own style and it worked perfecLly. 

 I sent the first ones to a few promin- 

 ent people and they have been friends 

 <ind customers ever since. I had con- 

 fidence in the public, I was enthusias- 

 tic about it and told them so and they 

 became enthusiastic too and bought 

 them. 



About Flower Boxes. 



Speaking of boxes: — I have just 

 brought a few with me to demonstrate 

 the evolution of the florists' boxes. 

 When I first began my experience in 

 the business, every now and again my 

 boss would say, "Charlie, run up to the 

 shoe store and see if they have any 

 boxes for us. If they haven't go across 

 the street to McCreary's and get some 

 collar and shirt boxes." I can well re- 

 member what acrobats those carna- 

 tions and roses were; they had to bend 

 the crab, and do every other stunt, 

 scpieezed in tight as in a coffin. Then 

 after I got a lot of boxes I had a steady 

 job pasting on our labels over the shoe 

 merchant's. After this we had boxes 

 made with nice green paper and gold 

 trimming. Once in a while we would 

 change to yellow with white labels. 

 Then the ever-handy cheap folding 

 boxes came into use. When the board 

 got wet the string would cut through 

 and hold the flowers to the lid. At 



i we had boxes made in different 

 to suit our goods, all but Ameri- 

 can Bei uiies. You can to-day see fine 

 Ifi unties coming out of fine shops with 

 the end cut out of the box and the 

 stems sticking out as long as the box 

 itself What right has a florist to send 

 roses out in this style? Would a dry- 

 goods merchant do it? Can you think 

 el any other line that would? It 

 is the first impression that counts 

 everj time and especially in our busi- 

 ness you can't command a price if you 

 yourself do not value the goods worth 

 a decent box. 



I den:: are always created through a 

 desire for something: Think, Remember, 

 Imagine. First you think about what 

 is wanted. You see things suggestive. 

 You remember them, ycu build on 

 them, you imagine; put on a little more 

 salt and you create. 



A Need Must Precede an Idea. 



We had a lot of one-sided begonias, 

 then the thought came, "what can I do 

 to enhance the value of these plants to 

 sell them at a good profit?" Mats were 

 old, heavy and uusuited to the plant. 

 They needed some kind of a crazy 

 basket to hide the defects. I walked 

 through the supply houses but couldn't 

 find anything to suit. Must make it 

 myself. I am not a basket maker, but 

 here she goes; got a basket maker to 

 make a skeleton and we did the rest; 

 here is your plant worth four times 

 the price in the basket and something 

 new in the bargain. But it took en- 

 thusiasm, thought, confidence in the 

 goods, in ourselves, in the public to 

 create it. In creating ideas you will 

 gci lots that are not practical and that 

 may be ridiculous or fantastic. But 

 tli y are divided into two distinct 

 classes easily defined and I have 

 always found this is a good rule to 

 observe: — An idea is only a genuine 

 idea when it conveys your thought and 

 your thought should come from some 

 useful want or desire; there must be 

 an excuse for doing it or twisting a 

 shape in a certain way. It must ex- 

 press that thought to your customer 

 without any explanation from you, 

 then you have a genuine idea worth 

 having. 



The Misuse of Ribbon. 

 I believe the use of ribbons with 

 flowers has a great field and enhances 

 the beauty and value of them. Re- 

 member that last suggestion, "value." 

 A bunch or basket with an appropriate 

 bow artistically placed makes it. worth 

 as much again, if you are not simply 

 selling merchandise. But, put the rib- 

 bon where it belongs, where the eye 

 suggests the need of something being 

 tied. To put a red necktie on an arau- 

 caria is as bad taste as chiffoning an 

 azalea with a lot of fussy stuff puffing 

 out hero and there. It does not do the 

 azalea any good and wastes the ribbon. 

 You can use some receptacle with the 

 plant that offers an excuse to tie on a 

 bow of ribbon and you at once have 

 the satisfying effect on the eye. Lots 

 of people will notice these defects but 

 not really know what it. is that does 

 not appeal to them. They may buy 

 them, but it will not have that satis- 

 fying effect on them as something that 

 conveys and carries out the thought 

 would have. 



Plant Decorations. 

 Take up the matter of plant decora- 



