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26 



The Florists^ Review 



Apbil 1, 1920 



Established. 1897, hj G. L. aRANT. 



PabllBhed every Thursday by 

 Thb Florists' Poblishino COm 



620-S60 Oaxton Building, 



608 South Dearborn St., Ohlcago. 



Tele., Wabash 8196. 



Registered cable address, 



Florrlew, Chicago. 



Entered as second class matter 

 Dec 3, 1897. at the post-office at Ohl- 

 flSKo, IIU, under the Act of Maioh 

 «, 1879. 



Subscription price, fl.60 a year. 

 To Canada, $2.60; to Europe, $3.00. 



Advertlsingr rates quoted upon 

 request. Only strictly trade ad- 

 vertlslnff accepted. 



Eesults bring advertising. 

 The Review brings results. 



Heads are harder to hire than hands 

 these days and are more in need. 



High prices have cloaked many business 

 sins, which shrinking values will uncover. 



After Easter only a month to Mothers ' 

 day and then only three weeks to Me- 

 morial day. 



Carnation cuttings are cleaning up 

 rapidly. The propagators will have little 

 surplus to plant in the field. 



Once 1,000 members was the dream of 

 the F. T. D. Now it has nearly 1,500 and 

 will try to get 2,500 by January 1, 1921. 



Says a Chinese proverb: "A man 

 without a smiling face must not open a 

 shop. ' ' And certainly not a flower shop. 



There will be more bedding stock than 

 last year, but also better demand. People 

 have become accustomed to the higher 

 prices. 



By turning profits in time of plenty into 

 actual money, wise florists are providing 

 a reserve to cover depreciation in the day 

 of falling prices. 



It has developed that there are mor« 

 lilies for Easter than anyone thought, but 

 the probability is the public will take 

 them all at good prices. 



The grower of young stock who never 

 sends out anything but plants of a quality 

 he would be glad to receive if he were 

 buying will not lack for orders. 



Wisconsin streams and swamps are 

 flooded, making it diflBcult for the woods- 

 men to procure ferns or sphagnum moss, 

 both of which are in short supply at most 

 centers. 



Banks already are calling loans. It 

 looks as though the autumn may bring 

 conditions quite uncomfortable for the 

 florist who has neglected collections and 

 allowed his liabilities to accumulate. 



Every Tveck several advertisements miss 

 getting into The Review because they do 

 not reach this office until after the paper 

 is on the press. Realizing the needs of 

 the trade. The Review holds its forms 

 open as late as possible, but asks advertis- 

 ers, for their own benefit under existing 

 mail conditions, to send orders and copy 

 early. Sometimes it is cheaper to tele- 

 graph repeat instructions than to send 

 them by special delivery mail. 



What the trade needs most of all to 

 cultivate is quality, exactness, depend- 

 ability. 



April and May should make a new 

 record for the spring activities of the cut 

 flower end of the business. 



The British trade has been compelled 

 to abandon its cooperative advertising 

 scheme for lack of sufficient support. 



The greatest weakness of the American 

 people as a whole, and of florists in par- 

 ticular, is to say "It is good enough," 

 rather than "How can I do it better!" 



Sunday closing is to begin in Wash- 

 ington, D. C, the week ^following Easter. 

 The list of florists who can do a week's 

 business in six days is growing rapidly. 



"When east meets west" — they not 

 only meet but so constantly intermingle 

 in the columns of a trade paper with na- 

 tional circulation that distinction is out- 

 of-date. 



Unquestionably the small-town florist 

 has diJBficulty selling flowers at metropol- 

 itan prices, but he does not have metro- 

 politan expenses and is the most comfort- 

 ably situated member of the trade in 

 these unusual times. 



Opinion is expressed that the extrav- 

 agant buying of the public is on the wane 

 and lower prices are coming. The florist 

 who has kept down his overhead cost as 

 much as possible and maintained a firm 

 hand in collections will not see danger in 

 the change. 



' ' Consider the lilies, how they bloom. ' ' 

 It develops that the giganteums forced 

 for Easter are more heavily flowered than 

 for many years. Apparently the lack of 

 shipping facilites in 1918 resulted in 

 better bulbs coming in 1919. Increases in 

 floriferousness of anywhere from twenty- 

 five to nearly 100 per cent are reported. 



GETTING PROMPT ACTION. 



Third class mail, such as adyertlsing litera- 

 ture and other material carrying a 1-cent stamp, 

 has been added to the list of Indefinitely de- 

 layed mail In the local postofflce. — Newspaper 

 Item. 



Once again demonstrating the supe- 

 rior advertising facilities afforded by 

 The Review. 



The mailing-list of The Review, in- 

 stead of being alphabetical by states 

 and towns, is arranged by mail train 

 routes. The papers thus go into 

 mail sacks in such shape that the sacks 

 can go directly to the trains without 

 being sorted by postoffice clerks; the 

 sacks are carted directly to the depots 

 and do not go to the postoffice at all. 



In these days of congested mails the 

 system insures the dispatch of The Re- 

 view practically at the same hour each 

 week, whereas catalogues, circular mat- 

 ter and other forms of advertising may 

 lie for many days before they even start 

 on their journey. 



THE NATIONAL CAMPAIGN. 



The report of the national publicity 

 committee's meeting in January, pub- 

 lished on page 71 of this issue, will give 

 the trade a view of this work hitherto 

 appreciated only by a few individuals 

 closely connected with it. 



First, one is struck by the lagging in- 

 terest in the campaign, which has gone 

 fihead at a pace with which the contri- 

 butions have not kept up. The finan- 

 cial report of Secretary Young shows 

 a deficit of nearly $14,000. Moreover, 

 cancellations of subscriptions amount to 

 the sum of $1,751, or more than three 



per cent of the total money so far sub- 

 scribed. It was found necessary at the 

 Cleveland meeting of the board of di- 

 rectors of the S. A. F. to lend the pub- 

 licity committee $10,000 in order that 

 its work should not be held up. 



Of the $61,045.94 received by the 

 committee $44,716.08 has been expended 

 for advertising in magazines, for which 

 the publicity campaign was undertaken. 

 The other items which consume the 

 money subscribed may be seen from 

 the statement of the disbursements. 



To meet the problems of the publicity 

 campaign, a great share of the time was 

 devoted to the subject at the Cleve- 

 land meeting of the executive board of 

 the S. A. F., January 23 and 24, account 

 of which is given at length in the S. 

 A. F. Journal for February-March, just 

 being sent out. Ex-president J. F. Am- 

 mann's plan to organize the growers 

 was presented and so favorably im- 

 pressed the board that it was voted to 

 pay his expenses in carrying out this 

 project. Members of the S. A. F. will 

 read the account of this meeting in The 

 Journal with great interest, bearing so 

 much as it does on the problem con- 

 fronting the men who have carried on 

 the national publicity campaign if they 

 wish to proceed farther in the work. 



THE CIiEVELAND CONVENTION. 



At the meeting of the executive board 

 of the S. A. F. at Cleveland, January 

 23 and 24, report of which is just being 

 given to members of the society, it was 

 decided to rent for the convention hall 

 a large garage building now being built, 

 since it was believed that it would 

 house the display better than the new 

 Masonic Temple, on Euclid avenue, 

 which was the alternative. One floor 

 of the building, providing 50,000 square 

 feet of space, can be leased for eight 

 days for $1,500. The location is one 

 block from the Hotel HoUenden. The 

 business sessions will be held in an- 

 other room, away from the noise of the 

 exhibition hall. It was voted to raise 

 the price of space on the exhibition 

 floor to 60 cents per square foot, with 

 a minimum contract at $35. 



At this meeting a new committee was 

 appointed, the finance committee, on 

 which H. P. Knoble was named for three 

 years, C. C. PoUworth for two years and 

 Joseph A. Manda for one year. 



Since the board at present can only 

 vote an expenditure of $100, a larger 

 sum requiring the vote of the S. A, F. 

 convention, an amendment was recom- 

 mended for presentation next August 

 raising the disbursing limit of the board 

 to $1,000. 



FBOM NEAB AND FAB. 



It is not where a publication is 

 printed, but where it is read, that 

 counts: 



We are receiving more orders than we can 

 fill; it surely pays to advertise in The Review.— 

 Thurwanger & Son, the Lake Street Floral Co., 

 Kewanee, 111., March 27, 1920. 



Our ad in The Review sold us out for the 

 time being. — A. C. Howell, Howell's Ornamental 

 Nursery, Bloomlngton, Cal., March 23, 1920. 



Please stop the ad, as we are flooded with 

 orders. ^J. F. Timler, the Northern Fern Co., 

 Scliofleld, Wis., March 29, 1920. 



The Northern Fern Co. had ordered 

 its ad printed eight weeks, but was 

 "flooded with orders" after two in- 

 sertions. 



If you hear a man complain of the 

 cost of advertising you can be pretty 

 certain he spends a good bit of money 

 elsewhere than in The Review. 



