Tilt I%sfsts^ Review 



iCAMs«.«au 



Kstabltahed, 1897, by G. L. GRANT. 



Published every Tbareday by 

 The Flouist3' Publishi.no Co., 



52^-360 Oaxton BuUdlnRr, 



S08 South Deal born St., Chicago. 



Tele., Wabash 81!)6. 



Refri<<tered cable addreM, 



Florview. Chicago. 



Entered as second class matter 

 Pec. 3. I8U7. at the post-oWce at Chl- 

 caffn. 111., under the Act of March 

 8, 1879. 



Subscription price, 11.60 a year. 

 To Canada. $'2 SO; to Europe, |3.00. 



AdTertismsr rates quoted upon 

 request. Only strictly trade ad- 

 ▼ertlslnff accepted. 



■ - 



NOTICE. 



It is impossible to guarantee the in> 

 sertion, discontinuance or alteration of 

 any advertisement unless instructions 

 are_received 



BY 4 P. M. TUESDAY; 



Besults bring advertising. 

 The Review brings results. 



Be your own severest critic; in that 

 way will come improvement. 



Everybody, it seems, wants to try Lad- 

 die carnation for next season. It is dif- 

 ficult to locate any young stoclc. 



Let the public know flowers are cheap- 

 er; some of your customers may think you 

 still are charging Christmas prices. 



A SUBSCRIBER writes that on his last 

 visit to England he saw one batch of 20,- 

 000 fair-sized kentias being packed on a 

 single order for America. We can grow 

 our own kentias, but it takes time. 



A SMALLER number than usual, of car- 

 nations, was benched last summer, but 

 the splendid prices this winter will have 

 the effect of inducing many growers to 



f:o back into carnations to full capacity 

 or next season. 



Importing houses will make great ef- 

 fort to bring over as much stock as they 

 can before the quarantine becomes eCFec- 

 tive June 1, shutting out Belgian azaleas, 

 French peonies, English palms, etc., but 

 they will not worry about German valley 

 pips — these can come any time after the 

 peace treaty is signed. 



Any order which is not to be filled at 

 once should be acknowledged and informa- 

 tion given as to the date of shipment. 

 The firms which get the cream of the 

 trade are those that send a post-card 

 acknowledgment of every order they do 

 not ship same day; some even send a 

 postal advising that shipment has been 

 made, and how. It pays. 



Recognizing that good packing costs 

 something, the trade has made no com- 

 plaint over the addition of moderate 

 charges on plant bills, but there seems to 

 be a disposition to object to charges above 

 five or six per cent of the cost of the 

 stock in the cases. This charge does not 

 cover the cost of packing pot plants, 

 which usually runs from seven to ten per 

 cent of the value of the plants. 



BmruDOtimxMT iuts % igxsat Jeal to 4* 

 witli temperament, we are told bj &e sci- 

 entists. Then why have not all floriats 

 beautiful natures? 



That dark cloud which was hanging 

 over the florists a year ago seems to have 

 turned itself inside out, diadoang the pro- 

 verbial silver lining. 



Easter will be a record-breaker in the 

 trade, there is no doubt, and may make 

 the Christmas business of 1918 look some- 

 what smaller to us all than it does at 

 present. 



Advertising experts agree almost 

 unanimously that * ' Say It with Flowers ' ' 

 is one of the best, if not the best, trade 

 slogan ever coined. No florist should fail 

 to use it. 



Preparedness is as necessary to the 

 trade as to a nation. Florists should 

 make certain that they are not caught 

 napping when the opportunity to do big- 

 ger business presents itself. 



There is a story, said to be true, of a 

 man who made a fortune selling sweet- 

 ened water for medicine, simply by ad- 

 vertising. How much more business he 

 might' have done if he had been selling 

 real value, as florists do, is a matter for 

 thought. 



Now that spring is so near at hand it 

 may be permissible to speak of the win- 

 ter which is drawing to a close. It has 

 been a most unusual season and most sat- 

 isfactory to nearly all florists. May the 

 spring hold as much for the trade — that is 

 our hope. 



* * Propaganda " is a word that has ac- 

 quired a bad reputation because of its 

 use in tales of Teutonic intrigue in the 

 newspapers, but it is a good word for 

 florists to look up in the dictionary when 

 trying to think of a way to place the 

 "Say It with Flowers" idea before the 

 public. 



Each of the recent seasons has seen an 

 increase in the popularity and production 

 of forced flowers of Iris tingitana. Iris 

 is one of the things which will be excluded 

 by the approaching quarantine. Some of 

 the best tingitana have come from the 

 Channel Islands, but the bulk of the im- 

 ports has been from Holland. 



IJINT DOES NOT HURT. 



Ash Wednesday, which in 1919 fell 

 on March 5, did not see a falling off 

 in business as it did in years when the 

 use of flowers was less general than it 

 is now. Probably Lent never will be 

 the time for large social affairs, but it is 

 not so widely or strictly observed as it 

 once was and the use of flowers now in- 

 cludes so many purposes that some 

 diminution in social activity produces 

 little apparent effect. The arrival of 

 Lent has been almost unnoticeable in 

 the florists' business for the last two 

 years, because social affairs wore few 

 during the war, and there is little reason 

 to expect any other experience in 1919; 

 flowers no longer are Considered a so- 

 cial extravagance to be eliminated dur- 

 ing Lent, but rather as a solace and 

 refinement to be employed in days of 

 calm. 



GREENHOUSES SELLING WELL. 



Greenhouse property, which has been 

 practically unsalable except at a sacri- 

 fice during the last two years, is in re- 

 quest. The improved conditions and 

 prospects for the trade have resulted in 



the ■MBaraaco of :. Iinsk demand for 

 green n o ua e prope r ty aad -watwcal ettab- 

 UshmentB which .have been on the mar- 

 ket for some time recently have changed 

 hands at excellent prices. 



It usually has been the case that well 

 located aveidl eattibimAmtmiB have tofsn 

 easily sold, to then -mbo were making a 

 start in business, but that large places 

 were slow sale, because the beginners 

 could not command the capital for other 

 than a modest start. Recently, how- 

 ever, some establishments of good size 

 have been reported sold at good figures 

 and the condition has resulted in sev- 

 eral others being offered for sale. The 

 For Sale columns of The Review the last 

 few weeks have contained many inter- 

 esting offers, ranging all the way from 

 little one-man places to ranges of 275,000 

 feet of glass. There is evidence that the 

 For Sale columns will be widely and 

 closely read during the next few months. 



THE COST OF COAL. 



This is the last month of the coal 

 trade's old year and thoughts already 

 are turning to the new one. The grow- 

 ers have been looking forward to a 

 material reduction in the cost of fuel 

 now that the war is over, but it is not 

 yet in sight. While it is possible to buy 

 coal on track at some concession in price, 

 usually in proportion to the quality of 

 the coal, it is not possible to buy for 

 next season at prices in line with grow- 

 ers^ ideas. Indeed, some of the better 

 liked coals are selling above the discon- 

 tinued government maximum. 



Operators are closing coal mines 

 rather than sell at lower prices. 



The trouble appears to lie largely in 

 the cost of labor. Wages are still at the 

 top and it is impossible to produce coal 

 more cheaply than during the war. 



Unless conditions change unexpectedly, 

 another difiScuIt situation will arise next 

 winter. Whereas everyone bought coal 

 in the summer of 1918, nobody will buy 

 in the summer of 1919, with the result 

 that there will be another flurry, per- 

 haps a famine, next winter. 



THE SEASON'S PRICES. 



In certain quarters there is an in- 

 sistent demand that the prices of stock 

 come down, and the assertion frequently 

 is heard that the season's average in- 

 crease in wholesale prices has exceeded 

 what the retailers could get from the 

 public. Without doubt the retailers have 

 had difficulties, but there are one or two 

 points they should keep continually in 

 mind. 



In the first place, the wholesale prices 

 are regulated absolutely by supply and 

 demand, the conditions or October to 

 February being wholly new, due to con- 

 ditions none of us foresaw or could con- 

 trol. In the second place, the time of 

 extreme shortage is past and the con- 

 ditions which brought it about are likely 

 never to return. 



But, most important, if prices in this 

 trade should fall faster than they do in 

 other lines we all shall suffer. Growers 

 can not pay big prices for coal, labor 

 and supplies and sell their output low. 

 To do so will be to drive us all toward 

 the financial shoals, to curtail produc- 

 tion, lower quality and create again a 

 situation such as existed a year ago. 



The growers must receive profitable 

 prices if they are to maintain the pro- 

 duction all others in the trade require 

 as the basis for their own activities. 



