THE FLORISTS MANUAL. 



22 1 



cantile walks of life, and every chapter 

 finished off strongly and impressed on 

 the reader, &quot;Be polite.&quot; Over and 

 over again was given the simple in 

 struction, &quot;Be polite.&quot; The latter part 

 of the book could be summed up in a 

 few words, which are simply these: 

 After you have acquired a competence 

 in some pursuit you understand, don t 

 go into a business or enterprise you do 

 not understand. 



Undoubtedly politeness is a great fac 

 tor in success, and cannot possibly be 

 out of place with any class of your 

 customers. The quantity and quality 

 of the affability shown your customers 

 is pure tact, and too much suavity in 

 discreetly applied is as bad as none at 

 all. This is the part of the salesman s 

 ability that is a natural gift and so 



are represented or promised. A bunch 

 of roses that will fall to pieces when 

 taken from the box; violets that have 

 been twenty-four hours in the ice-box, 

 or carnations about to close their petals 

 in slumber, will be very disappointing 

 and leave with your patron an impres 

 sion that takes a lot of good behavior 

 to efface. 



There are too many retailers that 

 have only one price, and supposedly 

 only one quality of flowers. If you are 

 only going to keep one quality then it 

 should be the best, and some very high- 

 class stores may find it unprofitable 

 to do otherwise, but the great major 

 ity of florists have, and want to have, 

 several grades of flowers in the lead 

 ing articles. Take carnations, for in 

 stance; we have been too much on the 



Exterior of a Boston Florist s. Store. 



hard to acquire. The hurried man of 

 business, often our most liberal buyer, 

 wants no superfluous chat of any kind. 

 Neither does the aristocratic lady who 

 forgets her grandfather carried a hod. 

 The motherly matron may want to 

 tell you about her sick husband or her 

 injured limb caused by the runaway of 

 her team. For her you have an atten 

 tive ear and sympathy, and so you 

 should for the worthy but poor people 

 who want some flowers for a bereave 

 ment. To accommodate them with their 

 wants to match their purse is tact. We 

 can no more have all pleasant people 

 to purchase our goods than we can ex 

 pect all church members to be virtuous 

 people. We must adapt ourselves to 

 our customers temperament as far as 

 possible without losing self-respect. 

 This is not hypocrisy; it is fitting our 

 selves to the requirements of our busi 

 ness. 



All articles should be just what they 



one-price system. &quot;What do you charge 

 for your carnations?&quot; &quot;Fifty cents a 

 dozen,&quot; or some price, according to 

 season, is the same old answer. It 

 should be more in this style: &quot;These 

 are $1.50 per dozen, these $1.00, these 

 75 cents, and we have some not so fine 

 worth 50 cents.&quot; The same with roses 

 and violets and all other flowers. It is 

 the same with all other businesses, and 

 why not with ours, where quality varies 

 so greatly? 



The most important feature in our 

 business, next to quality of goods and 

 polite attention to customers, is prompt 

 ness. Many an elderly man is worrying 

 to get his orders off promptly on the 

 time promised and agreed for their 

 delivery, while his shopmen are lolling 

 around with the serene manner and 

 thought that the old man need not fret 

 himself, the wedding is not till 7 o clock, 

 or the party till 3 p. m., or the funeral 

 till tomorrow. When these events oc- 



&amp;lt;-ur is no business of yours; you have 

 promised the order at a certain hour 

 and you should never fail to keep your 

 promise. There may be several reasons 

 why the order was wanted at a certain 

 hour, of which you were entirely un 

 aware. No part of the business is 

 more important than promptness, and in 

 no part do I notice a greater inclination 

 to ignore it. A reputation for a late 

 and disappointing delivery is a deplor 

 able handicap to success. 



Finally the three great requisites to 

 success are to keep and supply a good 

 article, be prompt and deliver all or 

 ders how, when and where you prom 

 ised, and treat your customers with 

 polite deference and respect. If you 

 are asked for an article which you do 

 not have, procure it if possible to 

 oblige, but never promise what you are 

 afraid you cannot supply. You will 

 never seriously offend a customer by 

 declining an order, but you will have 

 given a great offense by promising and 

 not fulfilling. 



SWAINSONA GALEGIFOLIA ALBA. 



There are red, pink and white forms 

 of this plant and the last named is the 

 only one grown by the commercial florist. 

 The young shoots root readily in an 

 ordinary propagating bed. They grow 

 quickly and if given much root room 

 will not flower lor a long time. They 

 are hardly of consequence enough to 

 occupy bench room, but where you 

 have a chance to plant them out in a 

 box or confined space at the end of a 

 house the flowers will be at times very 

 useful. 



Pot very firmly in some good, coarse 

 sod. They can be thinned out and cut 

 back in the spring. A carnation house 

 temperature will suit them very well, 

 i know of no use that we can make of 

 them as small plants. 



SWEET PEAS. 



Of late years the greatly improved 

 varieties and beautiful colors of the 

 sweet peas have brought them up to 

 be one of our most important spring 

 flowers. And what can be more truly 

 springlike? These you cannot have any 

 day in the year, as we now have many 

 of our other flowers. 



For several years we struggled with 

 sweet peas, getting perhaps a few scat 

 tering flowers in December. So \\v 

 came to the conclusion that peas could 

 not be flowered profusely till March ami 

 April. Then again we blamed too ricli 

 and deep a soil as the fault. And then, 

 noticing that the original growth or 

 vine from the seed did give a few 

 flowers, but was soon overwhelmed by 

 growths from the base of the plant and 

 lateral growths, we tried pinching off 

 the lateral growth, but the result was 

 still anytning but a successs. Finally 

 we discovered we had been attempting 

 something that could not be done. And 

 not until we procured the Zvolauck 

 strain of seed did it appear that our 

 trouble was the atteiipt to flower in the 

 dark of winter siu-h beautiful varieties 



