30 



The Florists^ Review 



Fbbkuaby 6. 1919. 



It 



Batabllshed, 1897. by G. L. aRANT. 



Pabllabed every Thursday by 

 Thk Plcv sts* Pdblishing Co., 



Ba0-66ii Oaxton Buii^n?. 



906 Soath Dearborn St.. Ohlcatro. 



Tele., Wubasb 8195. 



RerlBtered cable address, 



Tlorvlew, ChlcaKo. 



Entered as second class matter 

 Dec. 8. 1897, at the pcst-oftice at Ohl- 

 caffo. 111., under the Act of March 

 8 1879. 



Subscription price, tlJBO a year. 

 To Canada, $2.60; to Europe, $3.00. 



Advertising rates quoted upon 

 request. Only strictly trade ad- 

 vertising accepted. 



k 



NOTICE. 



It is impossible to guarantee the in- 

 sertion, discontinuance or alteration of 

 any advertisement unless instructions 

 are received 



BY 4 P. M. TUESDAY. 



iiesults bring advertising. 

 The Review brings results. 



The ground hog always sees uis shad- 

 ow, but winter is on its last lap. 



Except for the war taxes this is rap- 

 idly becoming again a free country. 



The man who complains about low 

 prices usually is the one whose policy is 

 to ask just a little less than his competi- 

 tors. 



Quality is what is most needed. It 

 will not take long to again crowd tlie 

 markets with low grade stock. Grow it 

 good. 



The growers wear a sniile of content 

 and an air of satisfaction; the season 

 many feared would be their undoing is 

 turning out the best on record. 



For a quality carnation there was noth- 

 ing at last week's Cleveland convention 

 which could challenge Laddie, a Dorner 

 product. It also has made the highest 

 average prices in the market this season. 



The trade this season is paying its bills 

 with a promptness never before known; 

 the slow pay man has had to mend his 

 financial ways or get no goods. Let's 

 not backsli<le when conditions become 

 easier. 



One of the students lias figured it out 

 that only one family in fifteen in the 

 United States buys tJowers. Suppose we 

 all go to it to make it only two; the re- 

 sult, according to the War Industries 

 Board's census figures, recently published 

 in The Review, would be to add more 

 than $46,000,000 to the volume of a 

 year's business. 



Protests against the plant (piarantine 

 are the order of the day, if we are to 

 judge by reports of conventions and club 

 meetings, letters, circulars and various 

 exjiressions wliich reach the offices of 

 The Review in increasing volume, as the 

 seriousness of the effects of the measure 

 become more ajiparent and the date of its 

 going into eft'ect draws nearer. 



Another movement has been started 

 to organize a society of florists to include 

 all the southern states. 



Help was so short that the peony 

 specialists, as a class, did not divide 

 the usual number of plants in the last two 

 years. The result may be an unusual 

 (luantity of cut blooms next May and 

 June. 



The florist who is critical as to his 

 own work at length finds people praise 

 it, whereas the florist who saya of the 

 stuff that goes out, ' ' It is good enough, ' ' 

 eventually finds most of the customers 

 trading elsewhere. 



In a funeral notice, ' ' Please omit 

 flowers" does not mean no flowers will 

 be used, but that the family wishes to 

 provide its own flowers. If florists will 

 so explain it to the public a misconcep- 

 tion will be removed. 



It is said that the Hills, of Richmond, 

 have made a new world's record in the 

 dissemination of Rose Premier. Orders 

 run nearly to 400,000 and, with a little 

 more advertising, might easily be car- 

 ried considerably higher were it possible 

 to secure the Manetti to make the grafts. 



On the work bench in a certain flower 

 store stands a glass flower bowl, though 

 if the bench is out of sight a tin pan 

 would do as well. The bowl is nearly full 

 of wet sphagnum moss. Into it goes 

 every broken-stemmed flower and in the 

 making of designs many a penny is 

 saved. 



Everyone who holds a stock of high 

 cost merchandise or material is doing his 

 best to hol#prices up until he can unload, 

 but as soOTi as that person turns buyer 

 he joins the ranks of those who are calling 

 for lower prices. Everyone is buying only 

 for immediate needs and general business 

 is not brisk. 



Curiously, it is those who use the 

 public utilities, and not the owners of 

 them, who demand that the government 

 take its hands off the railroads, the ex- 

 press and wire companies at the earliest 

 possible date. In the experience of flo- 

 rists, the government has made no gain 

 in the operation of these utilities except 

 by lioing things the same government 

 forbade private owners to do. 



GENERAI. BUSINESS. 



A large New York bank, with connec- 

 tions all over the country, sizes up the 

 general business situation as follows: 



' * The tendency of prices to fall would 

 indicate that the readjustment of indus- 

 try to a peace basis is proceeding some- 

 what more rapidly than the more con- 

 servative prophets of two months ago 

 would have admitted was possible. This 

 tendency has spread out from the basic 

 industries and is now being felt in the 

 textile markets. Such reductions were 

 inevitable. Their immediate effect is to 

 curtail the orders of those who hope for 

 still lower levels soon and to stimulate 

 the efforts of those who have large 

 stocks on hand to dispose of them in for- 

 eign markets. Examples of heroic treat- 

 ment of the situation are not wanting 

 and many jiroducers and merchants are 

 scaling down their inventories and pock- 

 eting their losses, lioj)ing to offset them 

 somewhat through a resulting earlier re- 

 vival of business. There is considerable 

 idleness throughout the country, espe- 



cially in the industrial states, wber - 

 cancellation of war contracts and thv' 

 return of soldiers is creating a seriou 

 situation." 



? 



NOW EXPLAINING TO CONOBESS. 



The trade's protests are being hear< 

 in Washington, as witness the followin{ 

 newspaper dispatch, which shows w« 

 have got the Federal Horticultural 

 Board into the position of having tc 

 explain its acts to the power which creat 

 ed the board: 



"Congressmen are receiving many let 

 ters from nurserymen and florists pro- 

 testing against the quarantine against 

 foreign plants announced by the Federal 

 Horticultural Board to take effect June 

 1 next. A letter from C. L. Mallatt. 

 chairman of the Federal Horticultural 

 Board, was read to the House. The let 

 ter defended the order as necessary for 

 protection of fruit and agricultural in- 

 terests. Representative Mann said the 

 quarantine would affect a great many 

 florists and nurserymen disastrously. ' ' 



IS IT A KNOCK OB A BOOST? 



Our slogan, "Say It with Flowers," 

 has pull in it as well as sentiment. The 

 publicity campaign has not been in 

 vain if it makes this suggestion familiar 

 to the people, even if it is used at times 

 in ways the committee had not looked 

 for. One of the press syndicates has 

 sent to newspapers all over the country 

 a cartoon featuring a nondescript fig- 

 ure, of whom a legend below aflirms 

 that "Lafe Bud has dropped out o' th' 

 Red Cross an' is savin' up fer a floor 

 lamp. Talk is cheap unless you 'say it 

 with flowers. ' ' ' Anyway, the dear pub- 

 lic is becoming familiar with our slogan 

 to the extent that it has got into the 

 funny column. Let's wait and see what 

 the movies do with it. 



C3HICAG0. 



The Market. 



Shipping is keeping up beyond all ex- 

 pectations, with city business running 

 neck and neck. There is,, however, a 

 change in the supply of stock reaching 

 the market. Orders for St. Valentine "s 

 day are coming in heavily, and from 

 present indications there may not be 

 enough roses to go around; that is, in 

 the short and medium lengths. There is, 

 however, enough of the long-stemmed 

 .stock to answer immediate needs and 

 no shortage is looked for. Prices hold 

 lip. Beauties continue on the short 

 side. 



The carnation situation is changed, 

 there being enough to go around on ac- 

 count of a decreased demand. Prices re- 

 main satisfactory. Orchids are in re- 

 (|uest for St. Valentine's day and, 

 fortunately for the retailer, there is 

 and will be a large cut. Violets con- 

 tinue to come in heavily and, like the 

 orchids, there are more than enough for 

 immediate needs and there probably will 

 be plenty of them for St. Valentine 's 

 day. Valley remains scarce, with no 

 change in the situation looked for. 

 There are plenty of sweet peas in all 

 lengths of stem. The quality is good 

 and the prices satisfactory. 



Easter lilies continue short, also 

 callas. Yellow narcissi are extremely 

 scarce and are almost entirely off the 

 market, while Paper Whites are fairly 

 abundant. Tulips are arriving more 

 plentifully, but as the supjily increases. 



