32 



The Florists^ Review 



: ■ . ■■ _ 7 ■','■< 



Max 18. 1916. 



(I 



Established. 1897, by Q. L. QRANT. 



Published every Thursday by 

 The Florists' Publishing Co., 



630-660 Oaxton Bulldlnff, 



SOe South Dearborn St., Ohlcago. 



Tele.. Wabash 8196. 



Registered cable address, 



Florvlew. Chlcagro. 



Entered as second class matter 

 Dec. 3, 1897. at the poet-offlce at Cbl- 

 caffo. 111., under the Act of March 

 3, 1879. 



Subscription price, $1.00 a year. 

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



Advertlslnir rates quoted upon 

 request. Only strictly trade ad> 

 Tertlslng accepted. 



NOTICE. 



It ii impossible t* (guarantee 



the insertion, discontinuance or 



alteration of any advertisement 



unless instructions are received 



BY ft P. M. TUESDAY. 



SOCIETY OF AITEBICAN FLOBISIS. 



Incsrporated by Act of Congress, March 4, 1901. 



Officers for 1916: President, Daniel MacRorle, 

 8a» Francisco; Tice-presidemt, R. C. Kerr, Hous- 

 ton, Tex.; secretary, John Young, 63 W. 2Stb 

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

 Baffalo. 



nirty-second annual conTentlon, HoustOH, 

 Texas, August 15 to 18, 1016. 



There are those, especially araotig 

 those who deal exclusively in cut flov/eis, 

 who report that Mothers' day was "bet- 

 ter than Easter. ' ' 



Labor shortage has become one of the 

 diflSculties with which the trade has to 

 contend, especially in the east, where 

 munitions factories are offering rates of 

 pay for unskilled labor that are im- 

 possible to plantsmen and cut flower 

 growers. 



Importers are awaiting anxiounly 

 some word regarding the spring ship- 

 ments of bay trees from Ghent. Cables fail 

 to produce a response. Shipment ia sup- 

 posed to have been made, but no word 

 has arrived regarding stock that usually 

 is in, unpacked and partly sold by this 

 date. 



In Washington park, Chicago, instead 

 of massing the bulbs in large beds as 

 heretofore, they were scattered along at 

 the edges of the extensive plantations of 

 shrubbery. The effect this spring has 

 been admirable and the plan is to be 

 commended wherever the bedding method 

 has become monotonous. 



The thirteenth annual meeting of the 

 American Peony Society will be held at 

 New York June 9 to 11, when the usual 

 exhibition will be staged at the American 

 Museum of Natural History in coopera- 

 tion with the Horticultural Society of 

 New York, Secretary A. P. Saunders, 

 Clinton, N. Y., has issued what he calls 

 an unofficial premium list, aimed to gain 

 amateur participation to a greater extent 

 than usual. When the complete list is 

 ready George V. Nash, secretary New 

 York Horticultural Society, Bronx park, 

 will supply copies. 



RESULTS. 



We give them. You get them. 



We both have them. 



As profit margins narrow credits 

 tighten up. It does not pay to sell to 

 the man who does not pay. 



One of the excellent features of Me- 

 morial day business is that it makes 

 no demand on one's originality. Bou- 

 quets or wreaths for the cemetery are 

 what are wanted and one can focus his 

 effort on merchandising a quantity. 



HONORABLE MENTION. 



Not a few subscribers save them- 

 selves the bother of annual renewal by 

 sending The Review $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: 



two years. 



Constien, A. A., Upper Sandusky, O. 

 Donald, William, Santa Barbara, Oal. 

 Pindar, Mrs. N., Valdosta, Ga. ) 



Malm. Geo. D., Bilnxl. Miss. 

 Hagenburger Co., Cleveland, O. 

 Zearing, R. W.. Carlisle. Pa. 

 Rltter, H. H., Dayton, O. 

 Herwig, George, Chicago. 



The Review 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. 



individuals each did something indepen- 

 dently. The places where Mothers' day 

 cut no figure are the ones in which the 

 trade did nothing to arouse the public. 



AMERICAN ROSE SOCIETY. 



May 23, the members of the American 

 Rose Society are invited to meet at 9 

 a. m. at the store of Gude Bros. Co., 

 1214 F street, N. W., Washington, D. C, 

 and proceed to the test rose garden. The 

 invitation to attend this examination of 

 the hundreds of outdoor roses is cor- 

 dially extended to all who may be able 

 to do so. Benjamin Hammond, Sec'y. 



MOTHERS' DAY. 



Mothers' day has been a great suc- 

 cess, greater, indeed, than the most san- 

 guine expectations. 



But the success of Mothers' day, this 

 year the same as in other years since 

 The Review first advised the trade of 

 its possibilities, has been in direct pro- 

 portion to the effort florists put into the 

 work of apprising the public of the sig- 

 nificance of the day. While the id6a of 

 Mothers' day originated outside the 

 trade and the trade has had the assist- 

 ance of an act of Congress and numerous 

 proclamations by governors and mayors, 

 the real work of exploitation before, the 

 public would have remained undone 

 Avere it not for the trade — has remained 

 undone where the trade has not risen to 

 the occasion. 



Mothers' day makes a strong appeal 

 to the public, but the day is of such re- 

 cent origin and so lacking in association 

 with history or religion that its sig- 

 nificance must be advertised time and 

 again before the date will become fixed 

 in the minds of the public. During re- 

 cent months literally dozens of mem- 

 bers of the trade have written or tele- 

 phoned to The Review, "What is the 

 date of Mothers' day this year?" If 

 the men who get the profit out of the 

 day can not remember that it always is 

 the second Sunday in May, how can the 

 public be expected to remember? 



There are cities from which it is re- 

 ported that Mothers' day this year was 

 ahead of Easter on the sales of cut flow- 

 ers. Those are the cities in which the 

 florists got together and worked all the 

 avenues of publicity, or in which the 



LOCK UP YOUE INSECTICIDES. 



At Waukegan, 111., a murder trial waa 

 begun May 15, the turn of which will 

 hinge on the cyanide of potassium used 

 for fumigating in a greenhouse. 



February 10 the body of Marian Lam- 

 bert, daughter of Frank Lambert, head 

 gardener on the J. Kuppenheimer estate 

 at Lake Forest, 111., was found in the 

 woods near her home. There were crys- 

 tals of cyanide of potassium on her 

 cheeks and right hand. Will H. Orpet, 

 son of. E. O. Orpet, superintendent of 

 the C. H. McCormick estate at Lake 

 Forest, was arrested and now is on trial. 

 There is no direct evidence against him 

 thus far disclosed and the jury appar- 

 ently will have to decide from the cir- 

 cumstances whether young Orpet gave 

 the girl poison from his father's stock 

 of fumigant or whether for the purpose 

 of self-destruction she took some from 

 her own father's supply. The state is 

 trying to prove murder, the defense, 

 suicide; but either side would fall could 

 it be shown the fathers' stock of fumi- 

 gating materials was inaccessible to any 

 but the man in charge, as it ought to be. 



So far as the record goes, there is no 

 other case in which a charge of murder 

 has been based on the easily obtained 

 poison in a greenhouse, but several acci- 

 dental deaths have come about through 

 persons swallowing nicotine extract by 

 mistake. Near Chicago there have been 

 two cases in which children of florists 

 have thus lost their lives. 



Our greenhouse insecticides are sud- 

 den death. They should be handled with 

 the utmost care. The time to lock them 

 up is NOW. 



CHICAaO. 



Special Notice. 



The Review is advised that the sec- 

 tion north of Chicago is being can- 

 vassed by a person who offers The Flo- 

 rists' Review at cut rates or as a pre- 

 mium free to anyone who will subscribe 

 to the Farmers' Review. Any such 

 person is a swindler. 



The trade is again advised that The 

 Review employs no solicitors other than 

 the regular members of its staff, whom 

 nearly all florists know; that the paper 

 never is sold at cut rates and that it 

 never is offered with or as a premium. 



The Market. 



Not one dissenting voice is heard on 

 the market when one advances the 

 opinion that last Mothers' da.y week 

 was the best the Chicago trade ever 

 has experienced. Some wholesalers say 

 it was sixty per cent better than last 

 year, others say twenty-five per cent, 

 so it may be safely assumed that the 

 increase was gratifyingly large. Many 

 of the out-of-town florists who operate 

 greenhouses in connection with a retail 

 store and depend on their own houses 

 for the major proportion of their sup- 

 plies were sorely disappointed, as the 

 warm weather the early part of the 

 week, followed by the cool weather the 

 latter part, greatly reduced their cuts 

 and threw them onto the Chicago mar- 

 ket as buyers. This went to swell the 

 already heavy shipping demand. The 

 retail trade, owing to weather condi- 

 tions, did not come off as handsomely 



