14 



The Florists' Review 



Febbuaby 17, 1916. 



"because prompt sales are the only 

 kind we can make. A house will keep, 

 a lot won't run away, but I don't know 

 of many things more unsalable than a 

 withered flower. 



"Another thing, this business offers 

 unlimited possibilities for attracftive 

 advertising. Every season of the year 

 has its sentiment that only flowers can 

 express, and in addition to the days 

 and occasions that are celebrated gen- 

 erally in flowers, every week is full of 

 the more intimate anniversaries and 

 celebrations. Flowers are always . in 



season. 



The Key to Success. 



"Here's the situation in a nutshell," 

 Mr. Penn summed up, checking oflf his 

 points on his fingers. "Take a young 

 man of personality and good habits, 

 who delights in flowers and the society 



of other flower lovers. See that 'he's a 

 young man of an original turn of mind, 

 a brain he's not afraid to use in con- 

 stant quest for new ideas. 



"Give this man from $300 to $5,000, 

 according to his town and the volume 

 he's after. My original capital was 

 $300. 



"And last, but most essential of all, 

 teach this young man how to keep the 

 newspapers working for him through 

 their advertising pages. Impress him 

 thoroughly with the necessity of keep- 

 ing his business constantly in people's 

 minds — so that the mention of buying 

 flowers suggests to them the mental 

 picture of his individual ads — so that 

 his firm and his ads are welded for all 

 time with the thought of flower buy- 

 ing. That man's chances in the flower 

 business are absolutely Al. " 



the new man often works just long 

 enough to succeed in mislabeling a 

 batch of plants when I have my back 

 turned. The fact is that the batch of 

 plants is not really labeled to a wrong 

 name, but mislabeled, by which I mean 

 so that the next man does not know 

 to which batch of plants the label be- 

 longs, unless he is a real plantsman, 

 who can recognize a variety by the 

 leaves. The result is that the itinerant 

 florist has balled up the job and started 

 trouble for the foreman. So I have my 

 own system of labeling, to-wit: One 

 label at the first row of a sort, facing 

 the sort, and another label at the last 

 row of the same sort, also facing the 

 sort. And the man who does not fol- 

 low my rule is put to work where he 

 handles no labels at all. I maintain 

 that the only correct way is some way 

 by which mistakes cannot occur. All 

 other ways are not the correct way. 

 Of course, I realize full well that I am 

 a crank and a crab, but what foreman 

 does not find that quality more or less 

 a necessity? I have kept my job for 

 nearly twenty years at one and the 

 same establishment. E. I. Diculus. 



ODEN mnta^y^ DEADEn6 



LABEIJNa IN THE BENCH. 



In The Eeview for February 10 C. W. 

 invites the opinion of others concerning 

 the proper labeling of plants in the 

 cutting bench. I believe the best way 

 to label batches of cuttings and plants, 

 especially smaller batches, is to use two 

 labels, one at the beginning and one 

 at the end of each batch. In that case, 

 unless a man is extremely careless, he 

 is not liable to get cuttings or plants 

 mixed. Geo. C. Schmidt. 



OBOPS FOR MEMOBIAI, DAY. 



In regard to the article, "Crops for 

 Memorial Day" on page 20 of the Flo- 

 rists' Review for February 10, I write 

 to suggest what I consider a much bet- 

 ter method than the one recommended 

 for the handling of stocks. They should 

 be planted January 1 to 10, according 

 to variety, and pinched once after 

 benching. Unpinched plants will give 

 one large spike and pinched plants will 

 give from five to twelve good spikes. 

 Pinched plants require more time than 

 unpinched ones. Whenever I have fol- 

 lowed the above rule I never failed to 

 have a good crop for May 30 in this 

 climate. Alexander Skillin. 



Maine. 



FAHRENHEIT AND CENTIGRADE. 



In The Review of January 20, on 

 page 22, you speak of the bill that has 

 been introduced in Congress to abolish 

 the Fahrenheit thermometer scale and 

 substitute therefor the centigrade 

 scale. After reading the article it oc- 

 curred to us that an easy formula for 

 converting centigrade readings to 

 Fahrenheit would be of interest to your 

 readers. The formula is as follows: 

 Multiply any centigrade reading by 

 nine-fifths, then add thirty-two to the 

 result. As an example, take the boiling 

 point of water on the centigrade scale, 

 which is 100 degrees. In changing this 

 to Fahrenheit the formula works like 

 this: 100X9/5 = 180; 180 + 32 = 212. 

 Therefore the boiling point of water 

 in Fahrenheit is 212 degrees, which is, 

 of course, common knowledge. To con- 



vert Fahrenheit to centigrade the for- 

 mula is reversed, thus: Subtract 

 thirty-two from the Fahrenheit read- 

 ing and multiply the result by five- 

 ninths. By this rule 212 degrees 

 Fahrenheit will become 100 degrees 

 centigrade. George W. Haas & Son. 



MORE ABOUT LABEXJNG. 



I have read with interest a question 

 in The Review where someone wants to 

 know what is the correct way of label- 

 ing plants on a bench, and I would 

 like to offer my opinion on this sub- 

 ject, because I also find that almost 

 every new man the boss hires, and who 

 is put to work under my supervision, 

 has a new way of labeling plants or 

 cuttings; also, each new way is the 

 only correct way. The trouble is that 



FREESIAS FROM SEED? 



We usually have saved and planted 

 our own freesia bulbs, which were long 

 and slim and seldom failed to bloom, 

 but during the last few years we had 

 to cut the foliage with the blooms and 

 thereby naturally killed the bulbs. The 

 only bulbs we can purchase in the mar- 

 ket are round and thick, of which a 

 good percentage never come up. Re- 

 cently we noticed in a catalogue that 

 freesias from seed will bloom the first 

 year. Has any reader tried this? If 

 so, is it practical? F. Blondeel. 



THE MRS. HEAL BEGONIA. 



The Review several times has spoken 

 of the Mrs. Heal begonia as a promis- 

 ing Christmas pot plant for the trade. 

 Probably the most successful grower in 

 the United States has been William 

 Downs, whose plants, shown at Boston, 



A Good New Christmas Plant, Begooia Mrs. Heal. 



