26 



The Florists^ Review 



March 8, 1917. 



Bstabltehed, 1897. by G. L. QRANT. 



Published every Thursday by 

 The Florists' Pbblishino Co., 



620-660 OaxtoD Bulldlnir, 



608 South Dearborn St., Chicago. 



Tele., Wabash 8196. 



Registered cable address, 



Florvlew, Chicago. 



Entered as second class matter 

 Dec. 3. 1897, at the post-ofBce at ": i- 

 cago, IIU. under the Act of Mar 'i 

 8.1879. • 



Subscription price, $1.60 a year. 

 To Canada, $2.50; to Europe. $S. 0. 



Advei-tlsing rates quoted upon 

 request. Only strictly trade ad- 

 vertising accepted. 



NOTICE. 



It is impossible to §^uarantee 



the insertion, discontinuance or 



alteration of any advertisement 



unless instructions are received 



BY 4 P. M. TUESDAY. 



SOCIETT OF AKEBIOAV FL0KI8TS. 

 Incorporated by Act of OonKreaa, March 4, 1001. 



Offlcera for 1917: President, Bobert O. Kerr, 

 Hooatoo, Tex.; Tlce-preatdent, A. L. Miller, Ja- 

 maica, N. Y.; secretary, John Tonnr. 03 W. 28U) 

 Bt., New York City; treasurer, J. J. Hesa, 

 Omiaha, Meb. 



Thirty-third annual conyentlon, New Yort, 

 N. Y.. Auffuat 21 to 24. 1917. 



Reaulti bring advertising. 

 The Review brings results. 



There will be no shortage of stock at 

 Easter unless weather conditions play 

 pranks with the plans of the plantsmen. 



Announcement comes from Pittsburgh 

 that all makers of steel and iron pipe 

 again have advanced prices, this time $4 

 to $6 a ton. 



Now is the time for florists who retail 

 seeds to resurrect the display cabinet from 

 the storeroom, fill in the lithographed 

 packages and give the case a prominent 

 place "up front." 



The Review has been notified to dis- 

 continue the mailing of the paper to its 

 subscribers in Belgium for the reason, so 

 the postmaster says, that the mail service 

 to that country has been suspended. 



It is worth while to note that the men 

 who seem to be permanently most suc- 

 cessful in this trade are not ' ' Cheap 

 Johns ; ' ' they produce a consistently 

 good grade of stock and ask fair prices 

 for it. 



The plantsmen have adopted the Euro- 

 pean practice of charging the customer 

 for packing materials, or at least a con- 

 siderable number of the leaders have. Of 

 course, such a charge carries with it the 

 obligation to pack well and lightly, so 

 there should be a distinct gain to the buy- 

 ers if the careless ones also adopt the 

 custom. 



"In the Review I often see growers 

 telling how good their stock is," writes 

 L. H. Haney, of Greenfield, Ind., "but I 

 do not see that I need to take a back seat 

 among the sweet pea growers. In case 

 the editor is from Missouri I am mailing 

 a sample of my Rose Queen." The flow- 

 ers that accompanied the letter had stems 

 twenty inches long. 



Growers who find the cost of coal 

 burdensome, and who seek relief through 

 the us*««»f crude oil, find that the latter 

 fuel also has advanced in price, fully a^ 

 much as has been the case with coal. ' 



A CONSIDERABLE number of growers 

 have obtained their fuel this year at con- 

 tract price, if with some difficulty on the 

 score of transportation, but they find that 

 when the old contracts expire new con- 

 tracts cannot be made except at? an ad- 

 vance of at least $1 per ton. 



Alois Frey, Crown Point, Ind., last 

 week sent The Review a box of his Rain- 

 bow freesias. It was not the first time, 

 and they always have been good, but 

 these were the best yet. Mr. Prey is 

 making steady improvement in his stock 

 by selection for size of flowers, brightness 

 and purity of color and robustness of 

 habit. It is understood he is flowering 

 this season some 20,000 seedlings pro- 

 duced from his best varieties of previous 

 years. 



IT SELLS FOB ALL. 



It makes no difference where the flo- 

 rist is located. The Review sells for all. 

 Like this: 



We carried an ad of Francis King gladioli ex- 

 oliisivt'ly in The lleview und find that we are 

 entirely sold out of that variety. — Los Robles 

 Nursery & Garden, Santa Cruz, Cal., February 

 22, 1917. 



Please stop the ad, as I am compelled to return 

 checks after having sold all I had. The only 

 way to keep up with The Review is to have a 

 Kreat many more of an article than you think 

 .vou can possibly sell.— Ernst Manthey, Jr., St. 

 hernard, O., February 26, 1917. 



When you hear a man complain of the 

 cost of advertising you can be pretty 

 certain he spends a good bit of money 

 elsewhere than in The Review. 



FLOEISTS OF NEW YOEK. 



In a circular letter sent to all the 

 florists in New York state, A. L. Miller, 

 vice-president of the S. A. F., urges non- 

 members to join the S. A. F. at once. In 

 this connection he gives some interest- 

 ing facts as to the extent of the trade 

 in his state. That paragraph of his 

 letter is as follows: 



"Greater New York has 914 live flo- 

 rists; the state of New York has 1,898, 

 making a grand total of 2,812. The 

 present membership of New York state 

 in our national society is 252. Although 

 this is the highest state membership, I 

 regret to say that it is a poor showing 

 for the Empire state. Would it not be 

 gratifying to have a membership of 

 1,000 at the opening of the convention ? ' ' 



Vice-president Miller does not indi- 

 cate the source of his information re- 

 garding the number of florists in New 

 York state. When the government took 

 the census of 1910 it enumerated 1,398 

 florists' establishments in that state. 

 The government counted only florists 

 having glass, greenhouses or hotbeds, but 

 it included any whose principal occupa- 

 tion was something else but who derived 

 twenty per cent of their annual income 

 from the sale of plants or flowers. 



GLASS PRICES GO UP. 



In accordance with the forecast made 

 in The Review earlier in the year, the 

 prices of glass still are going up. There 

 was another advance March 1, in ex- 

 planation of which the following state- 

 ment wrfs given out at Pittsburgh, the 

 headquarters of the window glass in- 

 dustry: 



"The window glass output is still 

 being curtailed, and the operating cost 



at the factories has been greatly in- 

 creased. In view of this the Johnston 

 Brokerage Co. has withdrawn its prices, 

 and the American Window Glass Co. 

 has announced new discounts in price 

 of slightly better than ten per cent in 

 lieu of price vdthdrawal. 



"The Johnston Co., in announcing its 

 decision, issued the following statement: 

 ' During the last month fully half of the 

 factories of the cofPtry have been out 

 of blast, and at certain periods two- 

 thirds of the plants have been closed, 

 owing to lack of fuel and material, poor 

 railroad service and freight congestion. 

 This has retarded the completion of our 

 old contracts and has made deliveries of 

 new business uncertain until our sold 

 business has reached a point where the 

 factories do not care to increase it at 

 present discounts at this time; therefore 

 we are instructed to withdraw our prices 

 and to quote only on specifications as 

 thev are submitted.' " 



HOLLAND MAIL LOST. 



The trade is notified that all the mail 

 for Holland that arrived at New York 

 between January 19 and February 17, 

 almost a month, accumulated there and 

 was lost when the Laconia went down. 

 It included a large number of orders for 

 1917 imports. 



Mail lost when the Laconia was sunk 

 included that addressed to European 

 countries, except Germany, Austria- 

 Hungary, Bulgaria, Turkey and Russia, 

 received at New York from noon Feb- 

 ruary 14 to noon February 17, as well as 

 that for South Africa, West Australia 

 and India. Mail for Holland received 

 at New York from January 19 to Feb- 

 ruary 17, and for Norway, Sweden and 

 Denmark from February 1 to February 

 17, and parcel post mail for Great Bri- 

 tain and Ireland received at New York 

 from January 27 to February 17 also was 

 lost. 



CHICAGO. 



The Market. 



City trade has been dull, due in a large 

 measure to Lent, and houses which have 

 little shipping trade are agreed that 

 business has been poor indeed. Those 

 whose trade consists in large measure 

 of out-of-town business", however, were 

 more cheerful, as the demand from this 

 source was steady and fairly large. 

 Roses are at present off crop with most 

 growers, but the supply is more than 

 enough to meet the demand and prices, 

 on the whole, are lower. Growers are 

 sizing up their crops to see what they 

 will have for Easter and present indica- 

 tions are that the supply of roses will 

 be about normal. Long-stemmed Amer- 

 ican Beauties are expected to be in a 

 little short supply, but an abundance of 

 medium length and shorter stock is ex- 

 pected. It also seems probable that the 

 supply of carnations will be none too 

 plentiful, as there has been a heavy 

 crop cut and the new crop with most 

 growers will probably not come in until 

 after Easter. This should create a 

 larger demand for roses and bulbous 

 stock. 



There was an immense quantity of 

 bulbous stock on the market last week, 

 amounting almost to a glut. The de- 

 mand was poor and prices sank low, 

 in many cases being not much higher 

 than the original cost of the bulbs. 



American Beauties are perhaps the 

 one important item which sold up to 



