14 



The Florists' Review 



NOVBMBBB 2, lOlG. 



OPEN LETTER^^" DEADEn^ 



MOEE ON CHEAP SALES. 



I have read with interest the articles 

 in The Review dealing with the injury 

 done the trade by department stores 

 selling flowers and plants at ridicu- 

 lously low prices. This cut-price com- 

 petition has been brought to my atten- 

 tion by my own customers, who have 

 frankly told me that they can purchase 

 roses in the department stores at 10, 

 15 and 25 cents per dozen. My defense 

 has been to point out that the flowers 

 offered by the big stores at cut prices 

 are poor and vastly inferior to mine; 

 but the average customer cannot dis- 

 tinguish a good flower from a poor one. 



One or two of my customers have 

 suggested that we florists organize some 

 sort of union, the purpose of which it 

 should be to fight the big stores and 

 prevent them, as far as possible, from 

 buying flowers at sacrifice prices. I in 

 turn have suggested this idea to both 

 retailers and wholesalers, but most of 

 them think the plan unfeasible. Of 

 course the plan won 't work if we don 't 

 try it! 



Let us assume that retailers, whole- 

 salers and growers got together and 

 formed an organization, the object of 

 which would be to prevent the big 

 stores from buying flowers — at least at 

 low prices. Any union grower or whole- 

 saler who violated the rule by selling 

 to the department stores would be ex- 

 pelled from the organization, and retail 

 members would refuse to purchase at 

 his store thereafter. As the wholesaler 

 and grower usually sell only their sur- 

 pluses to the big stores, and really make 

 their profits on sales to retailers, it 

 would behoove them to behave them- 

 selves and remain with the organiza- 

 tion. Conversely, a retailer of the 

 union who bought stock from an out- 

 lawed wholesaler or grower would meet 

 with a difliculty in procuring stock 

 from members of the union. There may 

 be many obstacles to overcome — but 

 united we stand, divided we fall. 



P. F. Deurinek. 



STIMULATING INTEREST. 



I have recently come to the Iowa 

 State College, at Ames, to take charge 

 of the development of floricultural in- 

 terests. November 10 and 11 I am 

 planning on staging a flower show, hop- 

 ing thereby to stimulate an interest in 

 floriculture in several ways. Some of 

 these ways are to interest the public 

 in flowers and to teach them how to 

 use them, to make the students of the 

 college and the visitors realize the im- 

 portance of the floricultural industry at 

 the present day and also to get the 

 florists of the state to send in exhibits 

 and have them work together. The 

 latter is to my mind an important thing 

 which the college will attempt to do 

 in connection with the coming show. 

 There was an attempt to stage a flower 

 show, by the florists of the state, in 

 Des Moines this fall, but the support 

 given us was not sufficient to warrant 

 the expenses which would be connected 



with staging such a show. Therefore, 

 I am endeavoring to stimulate a 

 greater interest among the florists and 

 trying to obtain their support in exhib- 

 iting flowers by providing several 

 classes for the commercial florist. 



I have provided nineteen competi- 

 tive classes which are open only to the 

 commercial florists of the state and 

 awards will be made for the three best 

 exhibits in each of these classes by a 

 committee of judges. A circular letter 

 and statement of the classes has been 

 sent to about eighty of the florists in 

 the state. This matter has received 

 the endorsement of some of the larger 

 and more prominent florists in the state 

 and at the present time entries are be- 

 ing made in these various classes, 



A ciall is being sent out for a meet- 

 ing of the florists of the state here 



November 10, in connection with the 

 show. A program is being arranged 

 which will be followed by a banquet. 

 In addition to the competitions which 

 are open to the commercial florists, 

 competitions have been provided in 

 home floral decoration, open only to the 

 senior students in home economics. 



Another thing which will be of great 

 interest to the florists will be the ex- 

 hibit of novelties. Several of the 

 larger florists in the middle west have 

 promised to send in novelties in carna- 

 tions, roses and chrysanthemums. Last, 

 but not least, will be a fine exhibition 

 of chrysanthemums grown by our gar- 

 dener, John Reardon. One large house 

 is filled to overflowing with specimen 

 plants which are now beginning to 

 show signs of their future glory. 



A. S, Thurston, 



Crown Point, Ind. — Alois Frey re- 

 cently has installed two Lord & Burn- 

 ham low-pressure steam boilers to heat 

 his new iLord & Burnham steel-frame 

 greenhouse, 60x200. Either boiler has 

 capacity for taking care of the house 

 in ordinary weather, but two were in- 

 stalled for the sake of safety. The 

 older houses are heated by two hot 

 water boilers on the same principle. 



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SEASONABLE mt 

 Mf SUGGESTIONS 



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Schizanthus. 



The schizanthus requires a cool house 

 to grow it satisfactorily. A tempera- 

 ture of 45 degrees at night is suflS^- 

 ciently high and, if given a light, sunny 

 bench in a well ventilated house, the 

 plants will make a nice, sturdy growth. 

 Our earliest plants now are in 6-inch 

 pots and will be given a further shift 

 into 8-inch pots when well established. 

 The schizanthus is a strong-rooting sub- 

 ject and needs a rich soil and rather 

 frequent doses of liquid manure when 

 the pots are well filled with roots. A 

 second batch now is in 3-inch pots, 

 while a last sowing has just been made. 

 The earliest batches will flower about 

 the end of February, while successive 

 batches will persist until the end of 

 May. S. "Wisetonensis, or one of the 

 so-called improvements on it, is much 

 the best variety for pot culture. One 

 good point about the shizanthus is that 

 the flowers have excellent keeping qual- 

 ities when cut and, being light and airy, 

 make delightful centerpieces. 



Snapdragons. 



The earliest planting of snapdragons 

 has been giving a fine crop of spikes 

 for some time, and plants from which 

 all flower spikes have been cut are 

 breaking away strongly from the base 

 for the second crop. Do not make the 

 mistake of keeping the plants too 

 warm; 48 to 50 degrees at night should 

 be the absolute maximum. Unless you 

 want a large number of small to me- 

 dium stalks, it is well to reduce the 

 number of shoots per plant. If you 

 want fancy stalks, leave five or six per 

 plant, but rub off all the weakest breaks 

 anyway. Plants in 2i4-inch or 214-inch 



pots, nicely rooted, are suitable to use 

 as a succession crop to early and mid- 

 season mums. Before planting them, 

 give the beds or benches a good coating 

 of well rotted manure and fork it in 

 well, or, if this is not at hand, a good 

 dressing of sheep manure and fine bone 

 will answer well. 



Cyclamens. 



Now is the season of rapid growth 

 with cyclamens and the plants will need 

 spacing apart a little about once a fort- 

 night. Those intended for Thanks- 

 giving or Christmas sales now need a 

 temperature of 52 to 55 degrees at 

 night and a fair amount of sunshine. 

 Plants intended for spring flowering 

 must be grown quite cool; a tempera- 

 ture of 40 to 42 degrees at night is 

 ample. Look out for thrips and aphis. 

 Either fumigate or spray once a week. 

 If a spray is used, let it be a nicotine 

 solution. Young plants for next season, 

 if the seed was sown early in August, 

 should now be ready to prick off into 

 shallow flats of light, sandy soil. Grow 

 them along in a temperature of 60 de- 

 grees at night. 



Ericas. 



Plants of Erica melanthera, E. gra- 

 cilis and E. Mediterranea which have 

 flower buds well advanced should be 

 moved into a temperature of 50 degrees 

 at night, in order to have them in nice 

 bloom for Christmas. All other ericas 

 should be kept in a cold greenhouse, or 

 in a cold pit from which frost can be 

 excluded. As these hard-wooded sub- 

 jects are easily injured by anything 

 approaching dryness at the root, be sure 

 that they have an adequate supply of 

 water at all times. 



