22 



The Florists' Review 



Makcu 1, 1917. 



EBtabllshed, 1897, by Q. L. aRAKT. 



Pnbllshed every Thursday by 

 The Floeists' Publishing Co., 



620-660 Oaxton Bnlldlngr, 



008 South Dearborn St.Ohicaffa 



Tele., Wabash 8196. 



Registered cable address, 



Florrlew, Chicago. 



Entered as second class matter 

 Dec. 3. 1897. at the post-office at ":>i. 

 cago. 111.* under the Act of Mar h 

 8.1879. • 



Subscription price, $1.60 a Tear. 

 To Canada, $2.60; to Europe. |s. 0. 



Advertising rates quoted upon 

 request. Only strictly trade ad> 

 Tertlslng accepted. 



NOTICE. 



It ia imposaible to f^arante* 



the inaertion, diacontinuance or 



alteration of any adTortiaoment 



anleaa inatrnctiona are reeeiTOd 



BY 4 P. M. TUESDAY. 



SOOIETT OF AMS&ZOAN FL0SI8T8. 

 Inoorpwated by Act of Oonsress, Ifuch 4, 1901. 



Offloen for 1017: .President, Bobert O. Kerr, 

 Honatoo, Tex.; Tlce-presldent, A. L. Miller, Ja- 

 maica, N. Y. : secretary, John Toang, 68 W. 28tb 

 St., New York City; treasurer, J. J. Heaa, 

 Omaha, Neb. 



Thirty-third annual convention, New Xork. 

 N. T.. Anrost 21 to 24, 1917. 



RESULTS. 



We give them. You get them. 



We both liave them. 



All winter many greeiiliouse men have 

 been on the ragged edge of having their 

 places freeze up. We liope they do not 

 get an all-summer drought. 



This will be a great year for the home 

 ; gardens. Ever}' florist should prepare 

 himself, for there will be many demands 

 for advice, and for seeds and plants. ' 



Advertisers are urged to act promptly 

 in the matter of cutting out offers of 

 stock that is becoming sold out, also to 

 specify in the advertisements as nearly 

 as possible when the stock offered will 

 be ready for shipment. 



The human family is a gay and con- 

 fident lot. The fact that two experi- 

 enced florists have made a failure of a 

 certain flower store would not for a 

 moment deter a third, perhaps less ex- 

 perienced, .from trying his luck. 



The growth of the trade eomos about 

 principally in one or the other of two 

 ways: either an amateur makes a small 

 beginning commercially or an employee 

 sets up for himself, usually in an unpre 

 tentious way. There are few instances 

 in which men without experience have 

 entered the field and continued in it any 

 length of time. 



Those who fumigate with hydrocyanic 

 acid gas can not bo too careful. Last 

 week a grower visited The Review in 

 search of suggestions for a quick crop to 

 take the place of cucumbers completely 

 ruined by the gas just as they came into 

 bearing. The space was 65x450 ! In this 

 case the grower laid the loss to chlorine 

 in the gas, but the wholesale druggist's 

 clerk had sold the chemical for potassium 

 cyanide ninety-eight per cent pure. 



In view of the rapid advance in the 

 cost of production and considering the 

 risks involved in this phase of the busi- 

 ness, members of the Rochester Florists' 

 Association at last month 's meeting went 

 on record as favoring an increase in the 

 rentals of palms and ferns. The aver- 

 age charge, a speaker said, is $4 per 

 dozen plants; it was proposed that the 

 j)rice be raised to $6. If the members 

 follow their resolutions with concerted 

 action in charging the higher rentals, the 

 Rochester body will have set a precedent 

 for other trade organizations in the mat- 

 ter of raising prices through cooperative 

 effort. 



Last week The Review published forty- 

 three for-sale advertisements as against 

 twenty-nine in the corresponding issue of 

 last year. One is inclined to consider 

 the comparison significant, though it is 

 not wise to put too much stress on one 

 week 's showing. At first glance — the ma- 

 jority of the ads offered greenhouse es- 

 tablishments for sale — it would seem that 

 many florists are desirous of quitting the 

 business, or, to put it more strongly, 

 many find the business unprofitable. Un- 

 doubtedly in most cases the so-called rea- 

 son is the high cost of doing business, 

 coal, materials, etc. But perhaps in 

 many other cases the advertisers were 

 not sure of their costs — did not base 

 their selling prices on the actual cost 

 prices. 



"SEND HEB EASTEB FLOWERS." 



One of the largest advertisers in pub- 

 lications of general circulation is Hart, 

 Sc'liaffiior & Marx and to them florists 

 <;we a return for the excellent boost 

 given ill the current magazii^s. The ad 

 ill ilio Saturday Evening Post for Feb- 

 ruary 17, for instance, cost about $5,000. 

 It shows a young woman receipting for 

 llowers in a box from "Easter & Co., 

 florists, ' ' and the offer to send the H. S. 

 & M. style book begins, "Before you 

 send her Easter flowers," etc. 



The suggestion to the Post's "more 

 than two million a week" that it is the 

 proper and conventional thing to send 

 "lior" flowers at Easter is worth more 

 limn a little to this trade. 



THAT $7,000,000,000 RAISE. 



.\ statistician of repute has estimated 

 that the so-called tremendous prosperity 

 of the country has resulted in an addi- 

 tion of seven billion dollars to wages 

 alone during the last year. Now, it has 

 been ascertained that, on receiving a 

 larger compensation for his work, the 

 average wage-earner advances his rate 

 of living; that is, he expends a part or 

 all of his augmented earnings for the 

 better things, including some of the 

 luxuries that formerly were beyond his 

 reach. From this it may be assumed 

 <:hat an appreciable number of the coun- 

 try's workers have, for the time being 

 at least, graduated into the flower-buy- 

 ing class. Perhaps this will act as an 

 incentive to the florist who believes in 

 educating potential buyers to the uses 

 of flowers. This year there are likely 

 to be more converts to retail advertis- 

 ing among florists than ever before, but 

 it is hoped that none of the converts 

 {>uts all his eggs in one basket. 



It seems advisable to point out that 

 the figure given covers the increase in 

 wages only. Many of those who enjoy 

 salaries or general incomes also have 

 been benefited by the prosperous times, 

 but there are no statistics, on salaries 



or incomes, except income tax statistics, 

 and these are admitted to be widely off 

 the mark, not only on account of the 

 great numbers of tax dodgers but also 

 on account of tax exemptions, etc. At 

 any rate, $7,000,000,000— per year, if 

 the war keeps on — is not to be over- 

 looked. The national debt is only a 

 little over a billion and Uncle Sam 

 bought Alaska for a mere $7,200,000! 



A GENTLEMEN'S AGREEMENT. 



It will, be well to turn to the Phila- 

 delphia letter in this issue of The Re- 

 view and read what the growers of 

 Easter and bedding plants in that dis- 

 trict have done to recoup the losses oc- 

 casioned by the high costs of doing 

 business. They feel, as do all other 

 florists, that higher selling prices are 

 necessary, and they have determined to 

 make an advance of about twenty-five 

 per cent all along the line. 



Wherever florists do not feel strong 

 enough to advance prices on their indi- 

 vidual responsibility, the action of the 

 Philadelphians suggests a means of 

 avoiding a profitless season. 



THE READERS' VIEWPOINT. 



When the rising cost of paper made 

 it necessary for The Review to increase 

 its subscription price to $1.50 per year, 

 it was done with some hesitation, not 

 because of doubt of the value given, but 

 because of reluctance to change in any 

 matter that had served satisfactorily 

 for years. But the weekly circulation 

 of The Review at the present subscrip- 

 tion price of $1.50 per year actually is 

 some 400 copies greater than it ever was 

 while the price w;as $1. It seems to 

 work like this: 



Enolospd lind S^lJti) for nnotluT fifty-two issues 

 of TliP Hfvit'W. If .voii raise tin- price to $5 I 

 shall liav<' to liavf The llpview Just the same.^ — 

 Frank H. Ford. Hiph Point. N. C February 19, 

 1917. 



When a publication is so useful to its 

 readers it naturally is equally useful as 

 an advertising medium, so when you 

 hear a man complain of the cost of ad- 

 vertising you can be pretty certain he 

 spends a good bit of money elsewhere 

 than in The Review. 



CHICAGO. 



The Market. 



) 



Shipping business last week, stimu- 

 lated by a funeral demand which was 

 heavy all through the country, was good. 

 In fact, although city trade has at times 

 been far from satisfactory, the out-of- 

 town demand has been uniformly steady 

 for the first two months of this year and 

 no cause for complaint can be found from 

 this source. The Lenten season has made 

 its arrival felt in some degree, especially 

 on city trade, this period being seem- 

 ingly observed more rigorously in larger 

 cities than in the smaller towns. 



A retrospect of business of the month 

 of February is not unsatisfactory. Al- 

 though, as has already been noted, local 

 trade has at times been lethargic, ship- 

 ping trade was evenly good and the mar- 

 ket cleaned out with regularity each 

 week, with the possible exception of a 

 few items of bulbous stock. Stock gen- 

 erally was scarce and prices held up 

 fairly well to the quoted figures. 



American Beauties still are scarce and 

 their quality is at present not good, it 

 being between seasons. Other varieties 

 of roses are in much larger supply this 

 week, but are morftig vrell. Pink Killar- 



