32 



HORTICULTURE 



July 13, 1918 



so from his experiences, quoting his 

 own words: 



"Dear Friend Penn — There are so 

 few people who ever believe that some 

 men are willing to do something for 

 our profession to help build it up un- 

 selfishly, that I wonder how you ever 

 find the time to superintend the job of 

 National Advertising, etc. etc". 



Well, my answer is, that it becomes 

 a man's duty to his fellow-man to do 

 his all, not his bit, (I've cut that out 

 of my category) for every part of his 

 country's needs, and if my job as 

 chairman of the National Publicity 

 Committee is going to help speed up 

 our business by causing to be done 

 more advertising nationally and local- 

 ly than the florists were going to do, 

 then we will be doing our share in 

 the world's work by devoting more 

 energy to our business than ever be- 

 fore to create a place for ourselves, 

 so that when the world's war is over 

 those who have participated will 

 make a name and place for themselves 

 for all time. 



This is the pleasant duty that has 

 been my task for the past few months, 

 that of receiving so many compli- 

 ments as well as criticisms, that the 

 job is going to be worth what I hope 

 some day to merit — the good will of 

 the craft, which is all one should ex- 

 pect. Henry Penn. 



Chairman, National Publicity Com- 

 mittee. 



Mr. John Young, secretary ot the 

 S. A. P. & O. H., who is touring the 

 country in behalf of the $50,000 pub- 

 licity fund which amount the Society 

 has set as its goal to collect among the 

 florists of the country, reached the 

 Twin Cities, July 4. 



Mr. Theodore Wirth made a tour of 

 the parks with Mr. Young on the 

 Fourth. Messrs. Hugh Will and Cal 

 Rice took him in hand Friday, and 

 visited all the Minneapolis florists with 

 him. 



A hasty telephone call brought out 

 twenty-five members of the State So- 

 ciety from St. Paul and Minneapolis 

 for a luncheon and reception in his 

 honor at the Elks' Club, Friday even- 

 ing, which took on the aspect of a re- 

 union of old friends, harking back to 

 the time of the convention held there 

 five years ago. 



Tn an eloquent manner Mr. Young 

 explained the advantages of publicity 

 and the successful efforts of the So- 

 ciety in behalf of the florists ot the 

 country, especially during the critical 

 period of last winter. Nobody could 

 resist his powerful arguments and the 

 results were a very satisfactory con- 

 tribution to the fund and many new 

 memberships. Mr. Young's stories 

 brought forth many hearty laughs; 



stories so well and realistically told 

 that one wonders if they are not per- 

 sonal experiences. 



Saturday was St. Paul day. Mr. 

 Young was accompanied by Messrs. 

 Hans Rosacker, Max Kaiser, Olat J. 

 Olson, and Theodore Wirth, and his 

 visit there was very successful. 



Mr. Young left Saturday night for 

 Fargo, Butte, and the Pacific Coast. 



INCONSISTENCY IN A GREAT IN- 

 DUSTRY.. 



Most nurserymen are, above all. 

 practical, hard-headed business men. 

 The fact that it takes many months, 

 yea, years of hard physical labor to 

 produce the goods they sell, makes 

 them so. Still, their actions often 

 prove so inconsistent that the rank 

 outsider cannot help but notice it. 



Visit the well-conducted nursery 

 these days, and, at every hand, you'll 

 see horses and cultivators and men 

 to guide both, combating the weeds 

 between the orderly rows of trees, 

 shrubs, plants, etc. Most of these 

 plants, etc., won't be for sale for at 

 least another year, some of them not 

 for several years. Yet, the nursery- 

 man is reluctant to let weeds thrive 

 between the rows, lest they should 

 retard the normal development of the 

 cultivated plants. 



The foresight thus exercised is com- 

 mendable. The wonder of it is that 

 the industrious nurseryman does not 

 cultivate his sales fields as he does 

 his growing fields. He does not expect 

 to dispose of most of his stocks until 

 a year from now, yet he cultivates his 

 fields twice a month. When the time 

 comes for selling the stock he often 

 expects a single short announcement 

 to attract attention, arouse interest, 

 create desire, and close the sale. 

 Often a two-inch space is expected to 

 do it all. 



How inconsistent it is to grow 

 plants over a period of years and not 

 tell the public that you are doing it 

 for them. We know of several nur- 

 serymen who grew fruit trees to bear- 

 ing size age, requiring from five to 

 eight years, and who never breathed 

 a word about it until they had to sell 

 the trees in order to clear the land 

 on which they were growing. It was 

 a case of selling them or relegating 

 the trees to the brush heap. Most 

 of them went up in smoke. 



It is time that the nursery industry 

 as a whole take this matter of selling 

 seriously. Sales are not made in a 

 day, nor in a month. It often requires 

 years to cultivate the good-will of an 

 audience, especially if it is composed 

 of conservative people. Folks are 

 quick to grasp opportunities, but slow 

 to make changes. We know of some 

 readers who still buy everything they 

 need for the garden from X in Phila- 

 delphia, because their parents did it. 

 But the fact that X advertises the 

 year around counts much in keeping 

 up the reader's faith in the consistent 

 business efforts of this particular 

 house. 



Here's the moral: — Tell the people 

 regularly what you have for sale. 

 During oft-seasons for selling, tell 

 them what you are getting ready for 

 them. Above all, let every advertise- 

 ment breathe optimism, for a pessi- 

 mist never makes a good salesmen. 

 -^Horticultural Advertising. 



HOW FLOWERS ARE APPRE- 

 CIATED. 



Maurice L. Glass, ot H. M. Robin- 

 son Co., New York, has received the 

 following interesting letter: 



My Dear Mr. Glass: I want to express 

 to you and the other kind contributers 

 my personal appreciation of your generous 

 £.'ift of flowers yesterday, and at the same 

 time, tell you what joy they gave to the 

 Itoys. 



One-half of the flowers, one of my com- 

 mittee took to the Flower and Park Hospi- 

 tals, and ot the other half I left some at 

 the Willard Parker, where boys with con- 

 tagious diseases are, and then went on to 

 r.ellevue to see some French boys whom 

 we have been cheering, only to find that 

 one of the nicest ones had just died. We 

 took some of tlie lovely dark red roses and 

 [•overed his winding sheet, a tribute to a 

 noble French boy from America. The boy 

 had been torpedoed in April and in the 

 water for twenty-eight hours, and had 

 never recovered from the cold. 



.\fter distributing a few more roses to 

 the boys, we went to the Naval Hospital, 

 and on our w'ay crossing a bridge, we saw 

 a troop train halted to be refreshed by our 

 t'anteen. We stopped to throw the boys 

 some cigarettes we had with us, and one 

 boy seeing the roses in my arm, begged 

 for just one, which I gave him. This 

 caused such a scramble among the others 

 that I could not resist throwing them all 

 one by one, till finally 200 boys wore a 

 boutonniere. The pleasure the flowers gave 

 these weary, travel-strained boys was im- 

 mense, one boy taking and kissing 

 his rose fervently. When we asked the 

 boys where they came from, they told us 

 California, and then we easily understood 

 why the flowers meant so much to them. 

 I realize that the flowers had not been 

 given us for healthy, strapping boys such 

 as these California boys were, but I know 

 your committee of generous men would not 

 feel I had mis-used my privilege in making 

 these boys happy — perhaps the last chance 

 we wouid have of showing them an at- 

 tention. 



I might add, that when we got to the 

 Navy yard, I told the boys in one ward 

 what we had done with their flowers, and 

 tears came to one sick boy's eyes when he 

 said, "Thank you for having given them to 

 those boys — I come from California, and I 

 iin glad they got them. They may never 

 h.ive more." (Signed) L. W. CURTIN. 

 (Mrs. J. Clark Curtin, Chairman) 

 Home and Overseas Relief Division. 



Gruss an Teplitz — call it "General 

 Foch;" the new name sounds German 

 too, but it Isn't. As for the rose 

 ■'Kaiserin Augusta Victoria," that 

 should hereafter be called "Joan of 

 Arc;'' and "Queen Mary" will do very 

 well for "Farbenkonigen," "Verdun" 

 for "Ulrich Brunner," and "Edith 

 Cavell" for "Frau Karl Druschkl." 

 We must get rid of the German names 

 of popular roses. There is no sense 

 or justice in burdening the lovely 

 flowers with a nominal reproach. 

 Even by their barbarous Teutonic 

 names they smell as sweet, no doubt, 

 but they should never have had any 

 such names in the first place. The 

 popular names of the roses — the real 

 and original rose — are always pretty 

 or descriptive — York and Lancaster, 

 sweet brier or eglantine, prairie rose, 

 apple rose, Ramona, damask and so 

 on. We should have followed that 

 suggestion, and given to all our roses 

 similar names; "the Rambler" is such 

 a name, and Cherokee such another. 

 Gardeners and botanists have never 

 had the sense in naming things that 

 the common people have. — Boston 

 Transcript. 



