





NURSERY STOCK 



^ AS ^ SIDE LINE 



Many florists who take orders for outdoor planting, hut restrict them- 

 selves to the use of soft-wooded stock, might find it profitable to handle 

 also hardy shrubs and trees. Thus they could lengthen the outdoor sea- 

 son at both ends and pad it in the middle, meanwhile padding their 

 pocketbooks. 







URSERY stock as a side 

 line — yes, but what at 

 first is merely a side line, 

 an insignificant appendage 

 to the business, may de- 

 velop until it rivals the 

 so-called regular line, 

 keeping the force of help- 

 ers steadily busy and mak- 

 ing every week of the year 

 yield a revenue. As to whether or not 

 the side line will so develop, or will 

 shrivel into nonexistence, that will de- 

 pend on — more things than this writer 

 will be able to mention. 



Circumstances That Alter Cases. 



Each reader must decide for himself, 

 of course, whether the suggestions here 

 offered can be of any use to him. The 

 florist himself is the best judge of his 

 local opportunities. Those famous little 

 reconstructors of destinies, the circum- 

 stances that alter cases, are everywhere 

 active — not only the external circum- 

 stances, but also the mental attributes 

 of the florist himself. Some individual 

 florist may have unusually little love 

 or taste for anything in the nature of 

 landscape work, and may wish to con- 

 centrate his energies on the affairs for 

 which he considers himself best fitted. 

 Or his environment may be such as to 

 make the creation of a demand for 

 shrubbery an exceptionally difficult, al- 

 most hopeless undertaking. 



On the other hand, it is well known 

 that hosts of florists, florists of many 

 degrees and descriptions and in many 

 sorts of communities, derive a large 

 part of their income from the handling 

 of shrubs and trees. And they are not, 

 or need not be, in unfair competition 

 with the regular nurserymen. The 

 nurserymen generally share in the prof- 

 its and are glad to cooperate with the 

 florist-planters. 



The nursery business as a side line is 

 especially helpful, of course, in early 

 spring and late fall, but it may overlap 

 so as to cover other parts of the year, 

 filling many gaps in the oft-mentioned 

 volume of trade. And if a florist is 

 thus able to retain a permanent, good- 

 sized staff of assistants, keeping them 

 busy throughout the year, he then has 

 a reserve force of skilled helpers for 

 such emergencies as the Christmas or 

 Memorial day rush. Then he can wel- 

 come and encourage such rushes, with- 

 out fear of being overwhelmed by 

 them. The holidays will no longer be 

 a bugaboo. In all of this he would 

 display good management, the kind of 

 management that insures success. 



As Done in a Downtown Store. 



Alexander McConnell, the New York 

 florist whose nurseries are partly shown 

 in the illustrations, is only one of hun- 

 dreds who could bear testimony to the 

 fact tliat a nursery department is a prof- 



itable adjunct to a florist's business. 

 Mr. McConnell is typical of a distinct 

 class of florists, the high-grade down- 

 town retailers whose business radiates 

 widely into the suburbs. He takes his 

 orders at his fashionable Fifth avenue 

 store, and procures the hard-wooded 

 stock, or at least a part of it, from 

 his own nurseries near the metropolis 

 — the Woodside Nurseries, at New Ro- 

 chelle. 



Catching the Public Eye. 



There is no doubt that the Woodside 

 Nurseries, bordered by beautiful pri- 

 vate homes, form a good advertisement 

 of Mr. McConnell 's business, and it 

 may just as certainly be taken for 

 granted that Mr. McConnell gives the 

 nursery department all possible pub- 

 licity at the store, by means of the vari- 

 ous devices that resourceful storemen 

 employ. Each department in a well 

 organized business is an advertising 

 agency for all the other departments. 



By handling nursery stock, Mr. Mc- 

 Connell is able to start the outdoor 

 season in the chilly, unsettled days of 

 earliest spring, as soon as the condi- 

 tion of the soil permits, and he can 

 prolong the season in the autumn until 

 .Jack Frost proceeds to lock up the 

 ground for the winter. And it is not 

 likely that there is a complete cessation 

 of Mr. McConnell 's nursery work in the 

 otherwise dull summer months, when 



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