30 FRITZ BAHR'S COMMERCIAL FLORICULTURE 



flowers out of the greenhouses and trying to do most of the work 

 themselves, or else they don't care to branch out farther. 



A FEW POINTERS FOR THE BEGINNER 



First of all, find out what is in most demand in the locality in 

 which you want to do business. Grow or have for sale that for which 

 there is already a demand. Don't try to make people buy what you 

 think is best for them. Making a show counts for more than any- 

 thing else. The retail florist's business is a show business in every 

 sense of the word, so if you start with sufficient capital, have the 

 show house and the store in mind before anything else. No matter 

 where you are located there will be a way to purchase palms, ferns 

 and other decorative stock with which to make a proper display. 

 With such surroundings you will have the confidence of your cus- 

 tomers, or soon obtain it. They will feel satisfied that you are 

 capable of attending to their orders, and it will be as easy again to 

 take orders for outdoor stock and landscape work. 



No matter how hot the Summer, always keep the display cooler 

 full of stock, and vases and baskets filled with garden flowers. What 

 of it, if you do have to throw some of them away ? Keep up a show 

 every day of the year, and if you are starting out with only limited 

 means, again have the show room or store first in mind. If you are 

 a florist you know what you can do with a square room with hardly 

 anything in it, if you have ferns and a few palms to decorate with. 

 Set aside a part of the greenhouse nearest to the entrance and use it 

 as a little show house. 



This is the idea: Display to the very best advantage the stock 

 for which there is a demand. Always have that in mind. Every- 

 body realizes today the necessity of acting on the square, of giving 

 people their money's worth, of being courteous, prompt in delivering 

 orders, and as particular in filling little orders as large ones. 



From the very start do some advertising. No matter how little 

 it is, keep on letting people know about you. Always figure out what 

 it is best to buy ready grown, and what it is best for you to grow on. 

 The man who has to buy every bit of bedding stock usually doesn't 

 make much on it, so the more of it you can grow on yourself, the 

 better for you. Usually there are certain things that will do better 

 in one place than another, and it is those that one should make a 

 specialty of, rather than waste time insisting on growing others 

 which cannot be done. The sooner one gets away from the idea of 

 growing everything, the better. The same is true with trying to 

 make fifty-seven varieties all do well in one house. If you need one 

 hundred pots of Lilies for Easter, you are making a mistake in 

 trying to grow them. The cheapest, best and surest way to have 

 them for Easter week is to buy them in bud from the specialist. 



