220 



THE FLORISTS MANUAL. 



hours. Book agents, and what we are 

 fearfully pestered with, advertising 

 agents, should receive a civil but short 

 answer. Drummers of all kinds should 

 be put in a back room to wait your 

 convenience, or if that is not agreeable 

 to them then told to come around, if 

 you need them, after business is over. 

 Be sure and avoid having a group of 

 three or four growers in the rear of 

 vour store discussing with animation 

 the merits of the new carnations. If 

 you are a grower yourself break up the 

 meeting by leading them around the 

 corner; it is cheaper and there they 

 can argue with lubricated energy while 

 you step back to attend to your busi 

 ness, for in these days of keen competi 

 tion and all trying to excel, nothing but 

 the closest attention to all departments 

 of your business will bring even mod 

 erate success. 



To be known as a reliable and prompt 

 business man among your patrons is a 

 blessing. To have the reputation of a 

 good-natured, jolly fellow among your 

 brother florists is a misfortune. You 

 can be good, you can be jolly, even a 

 philanthropist, but in self-defense and 

 self-preservation subordinate the effer 

 vescence of your good nature till the 

 appropriate occasions arrive. Your lady 

 customers notice loungers and it makes 

 an unfavorable impression, deeper and 

 more lasting than their pleasant fea 

 tures indicate. 



Every wideawake man will . know 

 what locality is best suited to his busi 

 ness in his own city. Where business 

 men pass to and fro is the best of all 

 locations, for with due respect to the 

 gentler sex, the men are our best cus 

 tomers. The ladies may be the inspira 

 tion by which they buy, but through 

 the men come our best sales. They buy 

 quicker, larger, and want the best re 

 gardless of cost. The fashionable shop 

 ping district of our cities is the place 

 for a florist s store, and I think I have 

 seen some cities where with advantage 

 a good store could be opened a long 

 way from the business center of the 

 city, but in the residence part of the 

 town. 



Your store should be always clean, 

 neat and attractive, and your clerks 

 neatly if not richly clothed, with 

 breaths smelling neither of beer, cigar 

 ettes nor cloves. Your window is the 

 chief advertisement of your business 

 and that should never be two days 

 alike. Some men may have a large 

 stock of flowers and place a large quan 

 tity in their window; yet they are put 

 in, or rather jammed in, regardless of 

 color or taste and are no attraction to 

 the cultivated taste of the passer-by. 

 You may not be able to have 360 vari 

 eties in one year, but you can always 

 change it sufficiently so as to appear 

 to the public fresh and new each day, 

 and let there be some distinctive fea 

 ture each day. A first-class florist in 

 one of our large western cities who 

 keeps six or seven young men in the 

 store allots to each one in turn the duty 

 of arranging the window display. 



Some may say inany flowers can be 

 used up and wasted in these window 



decorations. There need be little waste 

 if properly managed, for it is not the 

 quantity, but the taste, displayed that 

 makes an attractive window, and if it 

 does cost something in sacrifice of flow 

 ers it is far cheaper than any other 

 kind of advertising. On a recent win 

 ter visit to Philadelphia, in a fine win 

 dow of the leading florist of Chestnut 

 street the window decoration was a 

 heavy branch of an elm tree, extending 

 the whole width of the window, and 

 on it at intervals were tied sprays of 

 Cattleya Triana?. Thousands were stop 

 ping to admire it. This is the idea, and 

 whether it be orchids or only a vase 

 of coreopsis it should be clean, neat, 

 fresh, distinct, and a gem if possible. 



As in poetry so in flowers: it is not 

 volubility that is highly appreciated; it 

 is the clear-cut gems that immortalize 



and it is by a succession of favorable 

 impressions followed by good and 

 prompt service that fortunes are made, 

 not by sudden leaps into popularity. 



The salesmen, and sometimes they 

 are women, should be as neat, clean 

 and, if possible, as attractive as their 

 surroundings. The young men should 

 neither chew tobacco nor the girls chew 

 gum, eat onions, drink beer or any 

 thing stronger during business hours. 

 The ability or genius to make a sales 

 man is a gift with birth. Ability can 

 be greatly improved by study and ex 

 perience and an earnest endeavor to 

 reach the ideal, but a thoroughly ac 

 complished salesman is as much a 

 genius as a great painter or sculptor. 



I am by no means one of those who 

 believe that genius is the steady ap 

 plication and industry devoted to a cer- 



Conservatory of a Back Bay Store in Boston. 



their authors. Longfellow s &quot;Village 

 Blacksmith&quot; is worth a whole library 

 of gush and slush which often passes 

 for poetry. 



The interior of your store should be 

 also attractive. Where a rushing busi 

 ness is done there must be some little 

 confusion, but the making up or boxing 

 of flowers can be done in the rear and 

 not at the counter where sales are made. 

 The ice-box is a great feature of the 

 present flower store. Next to the win 

 dow it is the principal attraction and 

 should not be in a remote corner, but 

 should be conspicuous to every one 

 who enters the store. If a man enters 

 the store to purchase a 5-cent carna 

 tion for his buttonhole he may be at 

 tracted by the beautiful flowers in the 

 glass case, and if they have not tempt 

 ed him sufficiently to affect his pocket 

 they have made a favorable impression, 



tain object. Such is the definition by 

 some modern philosopher (Carlyle, I 

 think) of genius. My humble opinion 

 is that genius is inherited from an an 

 cestor or ancestors, immediate or re 

 mote, and improved and glorified by the 

 chance of environment. So if you have 

 not the gifts that make a good sales 

 man seek other departments of the busi 

 ness. If a man has no faculty behind 

 the counter he may be a good decorator, 

 or in the packing and dispatch of or 

 ders he may show great executive 

 ability. 



A little book was handed me many 

 years ago by my brother. Its title was 

 &quot;How to Make Money and How to 

 Keep It.&quot; As the book came from a 

 fine public library I devoured it with 

 eagerness, confident I had struck a 

 jewel. The first part of the book was 

 devoted to advice in the various mer- 



