18 



The Florists' Review 



Fhbruary 8, 1917. 



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VALENTINE'S DAY 



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GETTINa NEW BUSINESS. 



Ideas in Salefonanship. 



Bealizing that florists as a class have 

 given comparatively little thought to 

 that phase of salesmanship which re- 

 lates to drawing customers within 

 voice-range, HUmer V. Swenson has 

 prepared the following letter on meth- 

 ods of attracting attention at St. 

 Valentine's day: 



"To create business for St. Valen- 

 tine's day as much thought should be 

 given the advertising and sales prob- 

 lems as is ordinarily given to the selec- 

 tion of flowers. The new avenue for 

 sales, which St. Valentine's day has 

 opened, proves conclusively that you 

 don't have to rely entirely on the 

 every-day use of flowers for increased 

 business. 



"Suggestion has made St. Valen- 

 tine's day what it is for the florist — 

 and suggestion's most powerful tool 

 has been advertising. Advertising in 

 some form or other, whether it has 

 been by word of mouth, signs in win- 

 dows, ads in the newspapers, circulars 

 or what not, is responsible for the 

 great volume of business done on this 

 day and no one can dispute it. 



An Unlimited Field. 



"Other flower days as good as St. 

 Valentine's day, Mothers' day and 

 Thanksgiving, ean be eventually cre- 

 ated by suggestion or, in broader terms, 

 advertising. But the development still 

 to be done for St. Valentine's day is 

 today the most urgent problem, so let 

 us then consider a few ways and means 

 to accomplish this. 



"It has been proven that older 

 people make use of flowers as valen- 

 tines as much as younger people. 

 Therefore, your chance for appeal is 

 almost unlimited. We urge, then, that 

 you direct your advertising to the 

 older men as much as the younger and 

 we give, in the following, several sugges- 

 tions on how to go about it: 



"A good way to reach the younger 

 set is to obtain a list of members of 

 dancing and social clubs of your city. 

 In many cases, these clubs feature a 

 St. Valentine's day affair. Mail each 

 member a folder about four days be- 

 fore the date affair is to be given. 

 Every young man having an engage- 

 ment for this party will be a most ex- 

 cellent prospect for a flower valentine 

 purchase. One of our customers re- 

 alized 200 orders from 500 names cir- 

 culated in this manner. Another ex- 

 cellent way to get a good list of young 

 men is to obtain a list of all the school, 

 college or university fraternity mem- 

 bers. Nine fraternities out of ten give 

 a St. Valentine's function of some sort. 

 Aside from that, few fraternity mem- 

 bers are without a 'girl' and are prod- 

 igal in bestowing floral gifts on her. 



The Older Men. 



"Older men will respond to the sug- 

 gestion, 'Send her a Flower Valentine,' 

 and this class of business is extremely 

 satisfactory because of the larger 



amount of the purchase. One . of the 

 best means of reaching the right buy- 

 ers is to obtain a list of secret society 

 members. One of our customers ob- 

 tained a list of all the Shriners in his 

 city and mailed a folder the day before 

 St. Valentine's day, so that it reached 

 these men at their offices on the morn- 

 ing of St. Valentine's day. He informs 

 us his telephone was kept busy most of 

 the day. In soliciting the business man, 

 bear in mind that the average man is 

 busy, so don't mail the folder to him 

 a week before St. Valentine's day and 

 expect him to remember, no matter how 

 favorable the appeal to him. You must 

 catch the busy business man at the 

 psychological moment. 



Stunt Delivery. 



"Occasionally a 'stunt' is a good 

 thing. To those interested enough to 

 go to a little trouble, we suggest a plan 

 originated by us for one of our custom- 

 ers and which proved the talk of the 

 town in which he was located. He 

 selected a bright little boy about 8 

 years old, a nervy little fellow who was 

 not afraid to carry out his part. He 

 dressed this boy in a bright red suit, 

 attached a pair of wings to him, and 

 over his shoulder hung a bow and ar- 

 rows — in other words, he reproduced 

 Cupid. In a heart-shaped bag, this boy 

 carried a number of St. Valentine's day 

 folders. He then had the boy call on 



every business man in his neighborhood 

 and instructed him to deliver the folder 

 to the man personally with the remark, 

 something like this, 'Mr. (naming the 

 florist) requested me to deliver this mes- 

 sage to yOu personally, Mr. Smith.' The 

 method of delivery of these folders could 

 not help but make the busiest business 

 man stop and read the message and the 

 message was brought most forcibly to 

 his attention because of the unique way 

 the florist used to deliver it. This 

 stunt brought excellent returns in orders 

 and to this day is talked about in the 

 community. ' ' 



CAKPET BEDDING PLANTS. 



Are Alyssum Little Gem and Tom 

 Thumb suitable for bordering a bed of 

 alternantheras and similar bedding 

 plants? How far apart should these 

 plants be set? Do you think the blue 

 varieties of lobelias will do well in our 

 Minnesota climate? How far apart 

 should they be set? How far apart 

 should plants of dwarf Phlox Drum- 

 mondii be set? S. J. U. — Minn. 



Such alyssums as Tom Thumb and 

 Little Gem are of erect habit, growing 

 on the average to a height of six inches 

 and six inches in diameter. Plant them 

 five to six inches apart. Blue lobelias, 

 I am afraid, would only succeed mod- 

 erately well in Minnesota. Near the sea- 

 board, where the nights are cool, they 

 do fairly well. They are close-growing 

 plants and during spells of hot, moist 

 and sunless weather rot badly. I would 

 not consider them as dependable as alys- 

 sums, although they are beautiful where 

 they succeed. Dwarf Phlox Drummondii 

 should be set six inches apart for bed- 

 ding purposes. C. W. 



SHRAPNTT 



London, England. — Blockade restric- 

 tions on the importation of clover seed 

 into Norway have been abolished. 



London, England. — Because of war 

 conditions the E. H. S. has decided to 

 abandon tne Chelsea and Holland House 

 shows for 1917. 



Copenhagen, Denmark. — There are 

 said to be upwards of 6,000,000 lily of 

 the valley pips of German origin in 

 Danish hands, shipment of which is 

 prevented by the refusal of the British 

 authorities to issue permits for the 

 stock to pass the blockade. 



Belfast, Ireland. — Alex. Dickson & 

 Sons, Ltd., known the world over as the 

 introducers of about 200 varieties of 

 roses from the nursery at Newtownards 

 and allied with Eobert Scott & Son, of 

 Sharon Hill, Pa., have just opened a 

 new double 5-story building here for 

 the flower seed business. 



London, England. — An English trade 

 paper says: "There seems to be consid- 

 erable and not unnatural soreness among 

 American seedsmen over the confisca- 

 tion of remittances sent to Germany for 

 cyclamen and other seeds. Such re- 

 mittances are, of course, contraband and 

 a considerable number have passed into 

 the hands of the British authorities." 



London, England. — The war office has 

 given notice of its intention to take 

 possession of all raffia except stocks of 

 less than 200 pounds, no dealings being 

 permitted without special license. 



Hamilton, Bermuda. — The acreage of 

 Harrisii has again been reduced, be- 

 tween increased demand for food crops 

 and decreased demand for bulbs, and 

 it looks as though a continuation of 

 present conditions might result in the 

 practical extinction of the bulb industry. 



Paris, France. — The nursery and seed 

 trade interests in this country are look- 

 ing beyond the approaching season, to 

 the one in which war restraints shall be 

 removed. On every hand the discussion 

 is not of present conditions, but of the 

 conditions which must be met when the 

 war is over. The demand is for organi- 

 zation to meet German competition. 



London, England. — The plan of the 

 Board of Agriculture to regulate the 

 area and labor given to each crop, in the 

 interest of the national food supply, re- 

 sulted in a meeting January 15 of 150 

 leading growers of cut flowers and pot 

 plants, who organized the National Flo- 

 rists' Association of Great Britain to 

 look after the interests of market 

 growers. 



