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Maech 13, 1919. 



The Florists^ Review 



15 



long run. Better ship every day and 

 have your carnations in a salable con- 

 dition. 



Watdiing Them Die. 



When I was asked to read a paper on 

 the retailer's viewpoint, the thought oc- 

 curred to me to try to see what can 

 be done toward selling carnations. To 

 one of our customers, a lady, I sug- 

 gested carnations. How often, Mr. Ee- 

 tailer, have you heard the same remark: 

 "Oh! I hate carnations." I asked why. 

 "Well," she said, "when I was in the 

 hospital a friend sent me some carna- 



tions and I was delighted, but toward 

 evening they seemed to close up. The 

 next morning when I saw the flowers 

 they were dead and had to be thrown 

 out. Imagine me lying there sick, watch- 

 ing those flowers simply curl up? and 

 die! It gave me the creeps and I have 

 hated carnations ever since." Get the 

 point, Mr, Grower? These conditions 

 must be remedied before the retailer 

 can become enthused over carnations. 



Carnations are in competition with 

 other flowers. You can readily see that 

 a matter of price is no bar to the sale 



of flowers providing the flowers are 

 select and of a quality. Justifying the 

 price, the grower must remember that 

 the retailer is his customer. If not 

 dealing directly, it is through the whole- 

 saler, and it is just as important that he 

 satisfy the retailer as it is for the store 

 man to satisfy his customers. Can we 

 retailers expect our customers to con- 

 tinue the purchase of carnations under 

 these conditions, or can the grower ex- 

 pect the retailer to push carnations 

 when it is more profitable and more sat- 

 isfactory to handle other flowers! 



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MEN, IDEALS AND SUCCESS 



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FIBST, DEFINE SUCCESS. 



Then Apply the Definition, 



What I wish to say is of the man who 

 grows carnations, handles them and 

 uses them. Where it has been my privi- 

 lege to see this flower at its best, suc- 

 cess has been attained by methods that 

 are common knowledge to most of you. 



This word success has varied mean- 

 ings. What does it mean to you? Ana- 

 lyze it from your individual viewpoint. 

 Is it the volume of worldly possessions 

 alone that you or your neighbor have 

 been able to accumulate? Suppose we 

 grant that this is the ordinary concep- 

 tion of its meaning. Therefore any man 

 who has been able to maintain an eco- 

 nomic balance throughout his life is a 

 success to a greater or less degree. A 

 50-50 man represents the lowest degree 

 of success on this basis for our rating; 

 he has been able to quit square. Sta- 

 tistics reveal some startling records rela- 

 tive to human effort and its relation to 

 this balance. 



The Human Prospect. 



To the insurance companies, with 

 their perfected organizations and their 

 intimate knowledge of the personal 

 affairs of millions of us, we can refer 

 for these facts. Beginning with 100 

 average men, age 25, we find, thirty- 

 five years later, thirty-six are dead, 

 fifty-three are dependent on i;ela- 

 tives or charity, six are self-supporting 

 and five are well off. When all have 

 passed over the Great Divide, sixty- 

 seven had been dependent upon some- 

 one else to defray funeral expenses and 

 only five had estates exceeding $5,000. 



This is not a particularly cheerful out- 

 look for the young man who is just get- 

 ing well started at twenty-five. 



What is the cause of this condition? 

 Is it lack of education? Is it because 

 we are not willing to make the personal 

 sacrifice to be in this select class of five 

 per cent? Are we overambitious and 

 take risks that can break or cripple us if 

 we have erred in judgment? Are we too 

 easily influenced by sales agencies, re- 

 gardless of the method used to reach 

 our pocketbooks? 



In answer to your question, "What 

 has this to do with carnations?" I 

 shall reply that the rudiments of success 

 are not materially different in the pro- 



A synopsis of a paper by Maurice J. Brlnton, 

 read before the Florists' Club of Philadelphia, 

 March 4, 1919. 



duction of this article of trade from that 

 of any other. It is the foreseeing and 

 forestalling of the factors that hinder 

 the highest development. It is the man 

 who can check his troubles when they 

 are in their infancy. Almost any of us 

 can effect some sort of a cure, even 

 though the cure be as bad as the dis- 

 ease, but it is the maintaining of con- 

 ditions that do not require a cure, that 

 gives us the best and most consistent 

 returns. 



The Cause of Success. 



While in the growing of carnations 

 there are seasons and elements over 



fOVERY now and then a welt 

 »9 pleased reader tpeakt the word 

 which ii the means of bringing a 

 new advertiser to 



Such friendly awistance is thoroughly 

 appreciated. 



Give us the name of anyone from 

 whom you are buying, not an adver- 

 tiser. We especially wish to interest 

 those selling articles of florisf s use 

 not at present advertised. 



FLORISTS* PUBLISHING CO. 

 530-60 Cazton Bldg. Chicago 



^vhich we do not have control, and at 

 times I have tried to excuse myself for 

 not getting better results for these rea- 

 sons, yet, when I see all kinds of houses 

 and soils and seasons producing splendid 

 results, I feel that finally it is the man. 

 I recently looked over probably 12,000 

 plants of White Perfection that seemed 

 to leave little to ask for. Some of us 

 thought this variety had passed on to 

 the list of discards. ' ' The cause of suc- 

 cess is in the fellow who succeeds." 



The production and trial of new varie- 

 ties is interesting, is essential and sup- 

 plies us with something to look forward 

 to; it adds charm to the work. How- 

 ever, as I look back to the days of Grace 

 Wilder and Portia, and even to La 



Purite and Edwardsii, I believe it to 

 be best to try out the new candidates for 

 favof in a limited way until their value 

 is pretty well established. I shall not 

 recall some of the notable instances 

 where much heralded varieties have be- 

 come strewn on the rocks of shy bloom- 

 ers, weak stem, poor color, broken calyx 

 and bad keepers. 



There is another kind of success; it 

 may be associated with material suc- 

 cess, but not necessarily to any marked 

 degree. It is the achieving of an ideal, 

 the realizing of the mental conception 

 that we regard as a standard of excel* 

 lence. 



Our Hope. 



Cannot it also be the answering to a 

 hope? Allow me to cite Mrs. C. W. 

 Ward, Matchless and the masterpieces 

 from the hands of Fisher and Corner. 

 Can we not look to these for the answer 

 to a hope as it applies to our subject for 

 this evening? Do we not all owe a debt 

 of gratitude to the patience and skill 

 in selection that have produced these 

 and other varieties which have stood the 

 test? It is the services of these lovers 

 of the beautiful that we value too little. 

 It is their assembling of the qualities 

 and beauties usually seen in different 

 individuals of their kind, eliminating al- 

 most everything defective, that has set 

 these men apart from the rest of us. 

 These are our supermen. Their efforts 

 have not been confined to limited hours. 

 The joy of realizing the ideal holds them 

 to years of painstaking care and atten- 

 tion. 



Probably he who has his heart in his 

 work, and whose ambitions are not too 

 largely guided by a mercenary return, 

 feels most keenly the last analysis of 

 this word success, "The attainment of 

 one's aims and the realization of one's 

 personal possibilities.^' 



Everyone has his ideals on some sub- 

 ject and "it is the faculties of the 

 human mind that are the tools to pro- 

 duce them." Have the knocks of busi- 

 ness life made some of us too practical? 

 Sometimes I feel that, within it all, so 

 many of us have become the football for 

 the others. 



Leaders of Men. 



From the beginning there have been 

 leaders of men, and let us hope until the 

 end there may be those whose sight and 

 vision are not clouded and whose will is 

 unyielding in the defense of the just re- 

 ward of diligent service. The superman 



