26 



The Florists' Review 



OCTOBKB 11, 1817. 



Established, 1897. by G. L. GRANT. 



Pabllahed every Thursday by 

 The Flokists' Publishin(} Co., 



620-660 Oaxtoa Bnlldinf?, 



508 South Dearborn St., Chlcairo. 



Tele., Wabash 8195. 



Ke^lstered cable address, 



Florvlew, Chicago. 



Entered as second class matter 

 Dec. 3. 1897. at the poet-offlce at Chi- 

 cago. III., under the Act of March 

 3 1879. 



Subscription price, $1.60 a year. 

 To Canada, $2.50; to Europe. $3.00. 



AdvortlslnHT rates quoted upon 

 request. Only strictly trade ad- 

 Tertislng accepted. 



NOTICE. 



It is impossible to g^uarantee 



the insertion, discontinuance or 



alteration of any advertisement 



unless instructions are received 



BY 4 P. M. TUESDAY. 



SOCIETY OF AMESIOAN FLOBISTS. 

 iBcorporated by Act of CongreBs, Marcli 4, 1901. 

 Officers for 1917: President, Robert O. Kerr. 

 ■•nat«n, Tex.; rice-president, A. L. MUUr, Ja- 

 ■laica, N. Y. ; secretary, John Toung. 68 W. 28th 

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

 Omaha, Neb. 



Offlcert for 1818: President, Charles H. Totty. 

 Madison, N. J.; Tlce-presldent, Jules Bourdet. 

 St. Louis; secretary and treasurer as before. 



Thirty-fourth annual convention and Fifth Na- 

 tional Flower Show, St. Louis, Mo., April « to 

 IS. 1918. 



Results briiifj advertising. 

 The Review brings results. 



' ■ He who serves boat profits most." It 

 is a truism, a (IcMiionstration of which 

 iiiav be seen among tlie florists of cvovy 



tOWJl. 



I. L. I'li.i.suritv. iircsidcnt of the Illi- 

 nois JStatt' Florists' Association, is active- 

 ly engaged in prejiaring for the meeting 

 and flower show to be lield at Galesburg 

 Xo\eniber (5 and 7. He iiojies to make it 

 much the best yet. 



TllK trade lias lost one of its best men 

 in the untimely death of .1. .\. V-ilontine, 

 of Denver. Recruit<>d from auotuer pro- 

 fession, he was a tower of strength for 

 our business and a credit to our craft. 

 Would we had more like him. 



Willi. K the usual (|u;jntities of ficdd- 

 grown carnation jdants have been sold, 

 many seem to be still on liand, imlicating 

 that the favorable summer weather re- 

 sult^'d in a miicli lai'ger supply ;ind in 

 more hamls than in rect^it year< 



TnKl!K are few of us who ha\(' the 

 courage to aclo|it the business nu)tto, 

 ''The customer is always right." Tt may 

 1)0 good j)olicy, but at first sight it Ictoks 

 to be costly to allow every (laim. The 

 customer also unist live up to the rules 

 of tli.' game. 



AzALKA.s will not lie out of the matkot 

 this season by any means. Large num- 

 bers of plants that were rocoivoil last 

 year in a damaged condition have been 

 grown on during the summer and many 

 a man now has the finest, if not the 

 largest, lot of azaleas in his business ex- 

 liorionce. 



THE F. T. D. MEETING. 



It is with reason that the members of 

 the Florists' Telegraph Delivery Asso- 

 ciation are well pleased with themselves 

 over last week's convention at Detroit, 

 for there never has been a livelier meet- 

 ing of florists. It is a truism that the 

 F. T. D. rei)resents the cream of the 

 retail flower sellers of America; these 

 are the nuui who put the most thought 

 into their business; there are other good 

 men not members, but as a body the 

 F. T. D. represents the progressive ele- 

 ment in the trade. 



It was a noteworthy feature of the 

 meeting, full of snap and go frofn first 

 to last, that the basic subject of the de- 

 livery of flowers by telegraj)h received 

 less attention than did almost any other 

 ]ihase of flower selling. So far as con- 

 cerns the telegraph delivery idea itself, 

 not much remains to be said. It is well 

 understood that the development of this 

 branch of the business depends on edu- 

 cating the })ublic with regard to the 

 facilities offered. To make the business 

 run smoothly it is necessary to educate 

 the trade, including some of the mem- 

 bers of the F. T. D., to employ better 

 and more systematic methods. Abso- 

 lute integrity is demanded and the 

 wheels will not work smoothly until 

 every detail connected with sendiitg, 

 filling, collecting for and paying for 

 each order is atteiuled to right on the 

 dot. Slipshod nu'thods will not do; at 

 l>resent they are the bane of the secre- 

 tary's life. 



Princii)al attention at this second 

 uu^eting of the F. T. I), was given to 

 other subjects connected with retail 

 store management. First of all, pub- 

 licity for flowers interests retail florists. 

 It was the consensus that all general 

 publicity efforts should be centered in 

 the work recently undertaken by the 

 S. A. F. and important sums of money 

 were pledged for that purpose. 



The discussion of the cost of doing 

 business and the necessity for knowing 

 the costs in estimating the selling prices 

 was among the imj)ortant matters dis- 

 cussed. It was apparent that only a 

 few retail florists have an exact knovvl 

 edge of what it costs to do business or 

 what their selling prices must be to 

 make a jtrofit. It was apparent that 

 the lietter service now being given by 

 all who make })rotense of being first- 

 ( lass florists has materially increased 

 the overhead expense, so that old 

 nu^thods of figuring prices must bo re- 

 viso<l if a satisfactory jnofit is to be 

 had in the business. 



The best feature of the meeting was 

 the way in which it set those jirosont 

 to thinking. In all lines of business 

 there is a tendency to rely too much on 

 work and to do too little thinking. No 

 florist can achieve his best success un- 

 less he works his head as well as his 

 liands anil his feet. The Detroit meet- 

 ing set many a florist to thinking 

 thoughts he never thought before. Tlu> 

 result will be a distinct improvement 

 in the methods of many a flower store. 

 .\lso, it will result in a still larger 

 F. T. D. nu'etiiig at Cleveland next 

 Octoboi'. 



among those present were Messrs. White, 

 Vick, Rosiii, Adams, Slattery, Mills, 

 Bates, Thorpe, Snyder, Farnham, Lums- 

 den, Eastwood and Workman. 



The balloting for officers resulted in 

 the reelection of President Pierson, Sec- 

 retary White and Treasurer Adams. 

 The following officers were appointed: 

 First vice-president. Dr. Bates, Syra- 

 cuse; second vice-president, Hugh Mc- 

 Cartliy, Syracuse; third vice-president, 

 C. H. Vick, Rochester; fourth vice-presi- 

 dent, Anton Schultheis, College Point; 

 fifth vice-president, F. A. Danker, 

 Albany. 



The records of the last meeting were 

 read and approved. The treasurer re- 

 ported funds on hand to the amount of 

 $21.').80. President Pierson, Dr. Bates 

 and Commissioner Wilson reported that 

 plans were under way for the erection 

 of the horticultural building on the fair 

 grounds. It was their opinion that work 

 would be begun during the coming year, 

 but that it was not certain the building 

 would be finished in time for the ex- 

 hibition next year. 



It was moved and carried that a reso- 

 lution be sent to the New York State 

 College of Agriculture, requesting that 

 an amount necessary to build a range of 

 greenhouses for investigational pur- 

 poses, at Cornell University, be in- 

 cluded in the appropriations for 1917-18. 

 The president appointed a committee of 

 seven to appear before the trustees of 

 Cornell University to urge that the an- 

 nual budget provide for a range of 

 greenhouses. The committeemen are 

 F. R. Pierson, Charles Vick, W. H. 

 Workman, .lohn Young, Henry Fibers, 

 F. A. Danker and J. R. Clancy. 



Dr. E. M. Mills was appointed chair- 

 man of a committee of five for the or- 

 ganization of flower societies in diflPor- 

 ent sections of the state. It was sug- 

 gested that the next meeting be with 

 the affiliated society at liuflfalo, in Xo- 

 vember. 



CHICAGO. 



NEW YORK FEDERATION. 



The annual meeting of the New 'York 

 Federation of Horticultural Societies 

 and Floral Clubs was held last month 

 at the New York state fair grounds, at 

 Syracuse. The meeting was called to 

 order by President F. R. Pierson, and 



The Market. 



Market conditions have shown fur- 

 ther improvement during the week un- 

 der review. Frost has cleared the (uit- 

 door stock and flowers produced under 

 glass are the solo reliance. Roses ap- 

 pear to be in short supjdy in other mar- 

 kets and many buyers are ordering 

 who have not been hoard from in 

 months. Prices have stiffened all along 

 the line. 



While roses are in j)rincipal demand, 

 all other stock shares the increased busi 

 ness. Russell is the most abimdant rose 

 and is of good quality. Milady and 

 Iloosier Beauty are in favor. 



Carnations are coming in slowly. 

 They clear well. Violets are more plen- 

 tiful and sell moderately well. 



Chrysanthemums are not equal to 

 the demand, creating an opportunity for 

 the importation of California stock; 

 most of the wholesalers believe it jioor 

 jiolicy to handle this stock, but sev- 

 eral retailors are getting shipments di- 

 rect from the coast. 



Orchids are more al»undant. (iladicdi 

 are gone, as are asters. There is little 

 variety in the stock in the market at 

 jirosont, the assortment being about at 

 the low mark for the year. 



(Jroens are plentiful. 



Club Meeting. 



Thtt o;)ening session of the ('hicago 



