OCTOBSB 5, 1916. 



The Florists' Review 



• 15 



8. To make Its members pay their bills 

 promptly to other retail _ florists and demand 

 nrompt payment of bills owed to them. 



4. To help Increase the membership not alone 

 In the various cities and towns but all through 

 the country. Remember every new town added 

 to our list win save us a job worrying 'about an 

 order for such a town and it will broaden our 

 field constantly. 



6. To help expose retail florists who take 

 orders for a certain amount, then relay the 

 order for about one-half or one-third. 



6. To make retail florists fill orders for the 

 full amount the order calls for; in other words, 

 fill any order for another florist In a town maybe 

 a thousand miles away just as conscientiously 

 as he would If the order were for his best 

 customer. 



7. To educate retail florists not to relay too 

 small an order. Remember especially in larger 

 towns an order for $1 Is a pretty hard proposi- 

 tion to deliver. Leave a little leeway for the 

 man filling the order in a far-away town where 

 perhaps an altogether different variety of flow- 

 ers are grown than in your locality. 



8. To make retail florists see a twenty per 

 cent discount is a good clean business proposi- 

 tion and that it pays well; yes, just as well 

 to send orders and solicit orders from your 



?iatrons as It does to receive orders from out of 

 ovni. The more orders you send out of town 

 the more you Increase your business and there 

 is no better advertisement than this service to 

 the public. 



9. To make its members send any bills not 

 paid within forty-flve days to the secretary, 

 who has established a sort of clearing house 

 for all such bills. He will collect them or try 

 to collect them whether they are owed to you 

 from members of the P. T. D. or non-members. 



10. Anyone not satisfied with a net profit of 

 twenty per cent on an order he sends to another 

 florist is not worthy of being an F. T. D. 

 member. 



11. - Anyone allowing you more than twenty 

 per cent on an order you have sent him has not 

 and cannot give your patron the service that 

 you wish to give him. 



12. Remember the Florists' Telegraph De- 

 livery is not run by its officers and directors for 

 any personal gain; every member shall take the 

 same interest and further the good cause as 

 much as possible. Every member must learn to 

 consider the F. T. D. work as a branch of his 

 own business; the more interest each member 

 takes the more it spells dollars and cents to his 

 business. 



13. If our association would limit membership 

 to one concern in each town there would be 

 one-tenth of the business carried on, just be- 

 cause If you were the member it is not said 

 that your five or ten competitors do not send 

 out or cannot send out orders: we want to lead 

 all these orders into the F. T. D. channel and 

 If your brother florist sends me an order from 

 your town you and I shall believe in reciprocity. 



PEBENNIAI.S FOB DESIGNS. 



Can you tell me what perennials to 

 plant for use in spray and design work 

 in late August and September, and 

 when to plant themt A. A. S. — Mass. 



The following would prove useful to 

 you: Pyrethrum uliginosum, white; 

 Artemisia lactiflora, creamy white; 

 Anemone Japonica alba, pure white; 

 Anemone Japonica rosea, pink; phloxes, 

 such as Mrs. Jenkins, Le Cygne and 

 other pure white varieties, as well as 

 other colors; Aconitum Wilsoni and A. 

 autumnale, dark blue; Veronica longi- 

 folia subsessilis, dark blue; Aster um- 



Standing Wreath Made by Spokane Florist Co. for Big Orders* 



bellatus, white; A. Fardel, rose; A. 

 White Queen, white; A, Perry's Pink, 

 pink. The delphiniums, or larkspurs, 

 also give a good second crop of flowers 

 during the last part of August and last 

 until October. They come in various 

 shades of blue. Buddleia magnifica, a 

 shrub, but cut back to the ground an- 

 nually, would prove valuable; also, 

 Boltonia asteroides, white, and B. 

 latisquama, pink. C. W. 



a>CN LCTTER^y^ READERS 



THE DEPABTMENT STOBE. 



In The Eeview for September 14 

 there appeared a paper, "Department 

 Stores vs. Retail Flower Shops," read 

 by A. Zech before the Chicago Florists' 

 Club. At the end of this article Mr. 

 Zech asked for some retailer or grower 

 to speak or write on the same subject. 

 I believe this subject should have a 

 country-wide consideration. The de- 

 partment stores are taking advantage 



of our business and are the worst of 

 our competitors. 



Mr. Zech blames mostly the retailers 

 for this, saying that the retailers are 

 not buying enough to consume the stock 

 of the growers and wholesalers; he 

 states that the retailers are not able 

 to dispose of the stock which loads the 

 wholesale markets. 



If the grower of plants would look 

 around in the florists' trade he would 

 find a retailer to whom he could dis- 



pose of his stock and he would not 

 need to dispose of same at a sacrifice 

 price to the department stores. The 

 growers sell their plants at reduced 

 prices to department stores, but will 

 not cut their prices to a retail florist 

 who is looking for stock. 



If the wholesalers would offer the 

 cut flowers to the retailers at a price 

 which would protect them in case of 

 loss, then they would not need to look 

 to the department stores for a buyer. 



Mr. Zech suggests two different plans 

 for the retailers to dispose of an over- 

 supply. One of his plans is as follows: 

 The retailer should have handbills 

 printed to be distributed from house to 

 house, announcing a special low price 

 sale of cut flowers. My reply is that 

 the retail florists of today try to main- 

 tain themselves and their trade on a 

 plane above all other retail business and 

 especially above all jobbing. The flo- 

 rists ' business of today is, on the part 

 of the grower, a science and, on the 

 part of the retailer, an art. Handbills 

 are good for cheap and ordinary trade, 

 but are not proper for a high standard 

 business of a florist. 



The second plan of Mr. Zecji's is: 

 Let the retailer buy the oversupply of 

 cut flowers and use it as an advertise- 

 ment, sending to each of his customers 

 a box of flowers. Naturally, then, he 

 has to stand, besides the price of the 



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