PART ONE 



CHAPTER I 



THE RETAIL GROWER AND HIS BUSINESS 



THE RETAIL GROWER OF TODAY 



WHETHER you are aware of it or not, it is nevertheless a 

 fact that the retail grower is the most independent of all 

 who are engaged in such businesses as those of florists, 

 seedsmen, nurserymen, landscape gardeners, and other members of the 

 allied industries. To quite an extent he has to have a general knowl- 

 edge of all these different branches and can make profitable side 

 lines out of them. 



As retail growers I class all those florists who are located around 

 the larger cities or in their suburbs, in the smaller cities and through- 

 out the country towns, and who grow a part of their requirements 

 for retail sale to a local trade. Anyone so located experiences 

 but few of the troubles the wholesale grower comes up against in 

 periods of a glutted market; but few of the crop failure difficulties 

 of the specialist, or the waste and high (overhead) running expenses 

 the retailer in the large city is subjected to; but few of the trials of 

 the man who has only a small store to do business in, who has to 

 purchase every bit of the greens and small ferns he uses, and who 

 has to quickly dispose of the flowering plants he handles, so they 

 will not die on his hands. 



The retail grower with greenhouses, frames, proper storage 

 facilities and a few acres of land, has a chance to run his affairs 

 most economically. He is not confined to just one line, or affected 



