130 



HOETICULTURE 



August 14, 1920 



HORTICULTURE 



Established by William J. Ston-art in 1904 



Vol. XXXll 



August 14, 1920 



No. 7 



rilSI^ISllED WEEKLY IJV 



HORTICULTRE PUBLISHING COMPANY 

 739 Boylston Street, Boston, Mass. 



EDWARD I. FARRINGTON, Editor. 



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Entered as second-claBS matter December 8, 1904, at the Post Office 

 at BoBton, Mass., under the Act of Congress of March 3. 1897. 



ETverj-thing is set for the big convention 

 The con- at Cleveland, and if the weather conditions 

 vention are satisfactory, the event should prove an 

 unqualified success. Cleveland is an unusual- 

 ly accessible city, and geographically situated so that it 

 is reached without undue expense from both the West and 

 the East, as well as from the South. Moreover, it is filled 

 with norists who are exceptionally enterprising, business- 

 like and hospitable. Not only will the visitors receive a 

 hearty welcome, but they will be able to learn much from 

 visits to the establishments in and around Ohio's leading 

 city. 



As has been said before, many believe that the choice 

 of August as a convention month is a poor one, and un- 

 doubtedly the attendance would be larger if the meetings 

 were held in a somewhat cooler period. A number of 

 prominent faces will be missed, and this will be the ex- 

 cuse given. Now that the conventions are getting to be 

 real business sessions rather than an opportunity for so- 

 cial getting together, it is probable that this matter will 

 receive further discussion. 



It is customary to have one or two specially good 

 speakers on the program, but it is hard to fill a hall for 

 the purpose of hearing a set address when the ther- 

 mometer is playing tag with the century mai-k.- 



New England florists are getting their coal. 



Coal It's costing them a pretty penny, but they are 



situation getting it, which is the important matter. 



Several of the largest growers around Boston 

 already have their bins full. Others have a promise of 

 speedy delivery. Ifs costing them about $14.00 a ton, 

 however. Contracts were made on the basis of less than 

 ?10.00, but the dealers could not keep them. Coal is even 

 reaching the florists of Maine, but the price there is heart- 

 breaking. In Bangor it is now $20.00 a ton for soft coal. 

 The fact that coal is coming in in reasonably plentiful 

 quantities shows that the Boston dealer who was quoted 

 in these columns some months ago as feeling sure that the 

 coal would come, knew pretty well what he was talking 

 about. Anyhow, those florists who accepted his assurance 

 and refused to get unduly worried have had the best of the 

 matter. Farther west, a different state of affairs exists. 



Owing to labor difficulties plus railroad troubles, the coal 

 shortage persists, and it is not surprising that florists are 

 becoming seriously troubled over the outlook. Still, there 

 seems to be a general improvement in deliveries, and now 

 that the government has awakened in a measure to the 

 extremity of the situation, there are reasonable hopes that 

 coal enou.gh will show up before bad weather sets in. 



Anything which signifies the getting to- 

 Getting gether of men engaged in the different 

 together branches of horticulture is worth at least pass- 

 ing notice, for the greater the co-operation in 

 all branches of the trade, the greater will be the effective- 

 ness of the several publicity works and the specific efforts 

 of each to better business conditions. 



These remarks are apropos of plans which are under 

 way on the P^acific coast for establishing closer business 

 relations between the nurserymen, seedsmen and florists 

 of Puget Sound district. Recently fifty delegates attendexl 

 a meeting at the Chamber of Commerce Building in Seattle 

 for the purpose of discussing this whole proposition. As 

 was stated at that meeting, nurserymen, seedsmen and 

 florists, while their interests are much the same, have 

 often worked at cross purposes, while co-operation is the 

 most necessary requirement. 



Another subject that was taken up was the working 

 out of plans to foster the growing of nursery stock on 

 Puget Sound. As a result of the action of the Federal 

 Horticultural Board, aided and abetted by conditions re- 

 sulting from the war, it is found diflicult to obtain the 

 supplies necessary, and this lack is likely to grow greater 

 unless some attempt is made to fill it. Consequently, 

 florists and nurserymen alike are looking to a greater de- 

 velopment of plant growing on the Pacific coast, and 

 probably will take some definite move to encourage work 

 of this kind, which is almost vital to their existence. 



A business may get so large that it is im- 

 A personal possible for the proprietor to keep any- 

 touch thing like a personal touch with his cus- 



tomers. This is not true, however, with the 

 average florist, and the extent to which a florist can keep 

 in direct contact with the men and women who buy regu- 

 larly at his establishment is to a considerable extent an 

 index to his business success. When an old time cus- 

 tomer drifts away there usually is a reason, and often- 

 times a personal talk will reveal a cause which can be 

 removed and restore the confidence and patronage of the 

 customer. There is one florist who makes a point of keep- 

 ing himself familiar with the countenances of the people 

 who buy in his store, and who seldom fails to note the 

 fact if one of these customers does not appear for a week 

 or more. In that event some sort of action is taken to in- 

 vestigate. Possibly a telephone call is made or a pleasant 

 note dispatched, or it may be that one of the boys is sent 

 out to learn whether the customer has moved or is on a 

 vacation. Not infrequently this man meets in the street 

 a customer whose face he has missed, and with character- 

 istic directness inquires if anything is wrong. In nine 

 cases, out of ten, he gets a straight from the shoulder 

 reply, and very often he learns that the fault lies with 

 some clerk in the store who by tactless word or lack of 

 attention, or possibly by selling stock not up to the mark, 

 has incurred the customer's displeasure. Sometimes a 

 difficulty is discovered in this way which would probably 

 not come to the proprietor's hearing for many months 

 except for such a direct method of approach. To a large 

 extent customers are like plants. They must be cultivated 

 in order to get best results, and there are few lines of 

 business where it is easier to form an intimate contact 

 than in the florist business. 



