26 



The Florists^ Review 



Fbbrdaby 24. 1916. 



n 



Eatebllsbed. 1897, by a. L. ORANT. 



PabllBhed every Thursday by 

 Thb Florists' Publishing C!o„ 



630-660 Caxton Building, 



606 South Dearborn St., OhlcaffO. 



Tele.. Wabash 8196. 



Registered cable addreao, 



Florview, Chicago. 



Entered as second class matter i 

 Dec. 3, 1891 , at the post-ofBce at Obl- 

 cago, IIU. under the Act of March 

 3, 1879. . 



Subscription price, Sl.OO a year. 

 To Canada, $2.00; to Europe, $3.00. 



Advertising rates quoted upon 

 request. Only strictly trade ad- 

 vertising accepted. 



NOTICE. 



It iB*impoaBible to g^uarantee 



the insertion, discontinuance or 



alteration of any adTertisement 



unless instructions are received 



BY 6 P. M. TUESDAY. 



SOCIETY OF AHEBICAN FLORISTS. 

 Incorporated by Act of Congress, March -4. 1901. 

 Offlcers for 1916: President, Daniel MacRorie, 

 Ban Francisco; vice-president, R. C. Kerr. Hous- 

 ton, Tex.; secretary, John Toung, 63 W. 28th 

 St., New York City; treasurer, W. F. Hasting, 

 BufTalo. 



Thirty-second annual convention, Houston, 

 Texas, August 16 to 18, 1916. 



Besults bring advertising. 

 The Beview brings results. 



Wrapping papers, also tissue and wax 

 papers, have advanced in price forty 

 per cent in the last few months. 



The market prices of the materials 

 of which paper boxes are made are said 

 to have doubled within the year. 



The specialists in greenhouse building 

 material report a larger number of in- 

 quiries, and for more important building 

 projects, than in any season in recent 

 years. One of the special features is the 

 large percentage of inquiries which con- 

 cern wide houses, from fifty to ninety 

 feet. 



The margin of profit in retailing from 

 one's own greenhouse has been so good 

 any happy-go-lucky method of manage- 

 ment sufficed. But rising costs are cut- 

 ting down the florists' profit. It soon 

 will be necessary to watch the pennies if 

 there are to be any dollars in the busi- 

 ness. 



The call for geraniums for growing 

 on is the heaviest ever known. Many 

 growers report the number of cuttings 

 obtained last autumn as much less than 

 usual, because of unfavorable weather 

 conditions. Under glass, in many oases 

 the stock plants have not given a good 

 account of themselves. 



To build a really large florists' busi- 

 ness calls for talents rarely found in one 

 man, the artistic and the financial. The 

 best combination is a partnership in 

 which one man's abilities are directed 

 toward turning out high class stuff and 

 the other's are centered on seeing that 

 the firm takes in more than it agrees to 

 pay out. 



THE WAS HITS OUB OOVEB. 



The basis for the dye used in produc- 

 ing the orange cover which has become 

 so well known as a distinctive mark of 

 The Eeview is a chemical named aura- 

 mine. It is a coal tar product manufac- 

 tured exclusively in Germany. The 

 supply in America is exhausted. Last 

 week The Eeview used the last of its 

 supply of the orange cover and this 

 week appears with the nearest obtain- 

 able substitute. It is nowhere near so 

 good, though it cost considerably more 

 than the stock heretofore used. Next 

 week something entirely different will 

 be used; after that, no one knows what. 

 Papers of bright, attractive colors are 

 practically out of the market. There 

 is no chance of obtaining a fresh supply 

 of the orange cover until the war is 

 ended, or until the United States has 

 developed a dye industry of its own. In 

 the meantime, if The Eeview becomes 

 a vaiiegated journal, it will not be 

 chargfcable to the editor, but to the war 

 in Europe. 



HONORABLE MENTION. 



Not a few subscribers save them- 

 selves the bother of annual renewal by 

 sending The Eeview $2, $3, or some- 

 times $5, instead of the dollar bill that 

 insures fifty-two visits of the paper. 

 Among those who have this week en- 

 rolled themselves for more than one 

 year in advance are: 



FIVE YEARS. 

 Thomas. J. C, Clarkdale. Ariz. 

 Green, C. H., Fremont, Neb. 



TWO YEARS. 



De Vrles, Thomas, Santa Barbara. Cal. 

 Hemwick, Owen A., Stamford, Conn. 

 Richards Bros., Toughkenamon, Pa. 

 I^wls, Edward, Kansas City, Mo. 

 Winkler, Cl.irence, Hastings, Neb. 

 Nlessner, H., Johnstown, Pa. 

 Nielsen Bros., Chicago. 



The Eeview stops coming when the 

 subscription runs out. The green no- 

 tice with the last copy tells the story; 

 no bills are run up; no duns are sent. 



AGAIN, CAN YOU BEAT IT? 



"While Eeview ads never sleep, it is 

 in the early months of the year that 

 they seem most wakeful. While re- 

 turns are almost uniformly good, the 

 results at this season often are sur- 

 prising; advertisers get returns so 

 great as to be almost unbelievable when 

 compared with the cost of selling mer- 

 chandise by other methods. The evi- 

 dence multiplies: 



Please discontinue my ad for geraniums and 

 coleus, as two Insertions cleaned me out. — A. J. 

 Peterson, Washington, la., February 10, 1916. 



Please do not run that ad again; we are sold 

 out and It is costing much postage to return the 

 orders still coming in. — J. S. Bennett, Pawpaw, 

 111., February 13, 1916. 



The Bevlew gave good results this week. We 

 enclose $35.55.— F. W. Rochelle & Sons, Chester, 

 N. J., February 12, 1916. 



Ple.ase discontinue mv ad for geranium rut- 

 tings and give me a chance to catch up. Your 

 paner is enough to swamp any man with orders. 

 — James Moss, JohnsvlUe, Pa., February 14, 

 1916. 



Please cancel my ad in The Review, as it has 

 brought me all the orders I can handle. — W. B. 

 Currey, De Land, Fla.. February 7, 1916. 



It is worth while noting that some 

 of these advertisers' offered plants, 

 while one offered dirt bands, but the 

 last one offered greens, his advertise- 

 ment of two lines having appeared 

 three times. He says he got "all the 

 orders I can handle" and the cost was 

 60 cents! 



When you hear a man complaining 

 of the cost of advertising you can be 

 pretty sure he spends a good bit of 

 money elsewhere than in The Eeview. 



ONE OF THE DANQEBS. 



It s6ems quite possible that business 

 in this country now has become so good 

 that it is to the disadvantage of florists 

 as a class. The unprecedented export 

 demand, together with a shortage in 

 certain classes of raw materials, has 

 resulted in a tremendous rise in prices, 

 including almost every article used in 

 greenhouses or flower stores. Of course 

 general prosperity has some effect on 

 the demand for flowers, enabling many 

 to buy who can not do so during periods 

 of unemployment, but it is a question if 

 this has not now been fully offset by 

 the increase in the prices of the necessi- 

 ties of life. The difficulties of doing 

 business have been greatly increased by 

 car shortages, the impossibility of se- 

 curing prompt deliveries of necessary 

 articles, and by other factors which 

 make the average florist as much 

 trouble as he was having a year ago, 

 when the country as a whole was not 

 nearly so well employed. 



CHIOAOO. 



The Market. 



So gradual was the change wrought 

 in Chicago market conditions during 

 the last week that it was effected with- 

 out shock. Whereas there has for two 

 months been a marked shortage in sev- 

 eral standard items, there is now some- 

 thing approaching a glut in all but a 

 few lines. A quite common state of 

 affairs has prevailed as relates to de- 

 mand. Shipping trade has maintained 

 a normal volume, while local trade has, 

 with the exception of a slight revival 

 during the week's end, been decidedly 

 lethargic. 



The status of Beauties remains prac- 

 tically unchanged. There are scarcely 

 enough of them, of even passable grade, 

 to cut any figure on the market. Al- 

 most all other varieties of roses are 

 plentiful, and though prices are some- 

 what lowered as a result, there is no 

 difficulty experienced in clearing re- 

 ceipts. This condition has quite natu- 

 rally had its effect on the demand for 

 other kinds of stock. 



Carnations of every kind are in large 

 supply. The red varieties, however, 

 seem to have the lead in demand. There 

 is still too large a percentage of splits 

 to be satisfactory. The supply of val- 

 ley continues short. This, of course, 

 is a strategy of the growers, who figure, 

 and rightly, that any item kept on the 

 short side of the market remains an ob- 

 ject of interest and one to be coveted. 

 Of Easter lilies there are more than 

 enough. Callas, too, are fully sufficient 

 to meet the demand. Cattleyas, on the 

 other hand, are none too plentiful. The 

 greater part of the last seven days vio- 

 lets moved in a most unsatisfactory 

 manner, but February 19 and 20 a sud- 

 den demand for them for corsage pur- 

 poses relieved the situation. But this 

 demand ceased with the opening of the 

 week. Sweet peas are decidedly scarce. 

 All week the white varieties have been 

 at a premium. This is undoubtedly at- 

 tributable to the trouble growers have 

 been experiencing with buds dropping. 

 There are not a great many daisies to 

 be found on the market, and as a result 

 they clear readily. Snapdragon, calen- 

 dulas and mignonette are not in large 

 supply. Paper Whites are clearing well, 

 but the supply is not large. There are 

 liberal quantities of Eomans, daffodils 

 and jonquils and they move well con- 



