so 



The Florists^ Review 



March 13, 1919. 



ft 



Established, 1897, by O. L. ORA.NT. 



Pabllshed every Thnrsday by 



I The Florists' Publishing Co., 



620-560 Caxton Bulldlnfr, 



606 South Dearborn St., Olilcago. 



Tele., Wabash 8195. 



Retrlntered cable address, 



Florvlew, Chicago. 



Entered as second class matter 

 Dec. 3, 1897, at the post-ofUce at Chl- 

 cago. 111., under the Act of Alarch 

 3.1879, 



Subscription price, S1.60 a year. 

 To Canada, $2.S0; to Europe, $3.00. 



Advertlsinflr rates quoted upon 

 request. Only strictly trade ad- 

 yertlslngr accepted. 



i 



RESULTS. 



We give them. You get them. 



We both have them. 



The cineraria seems to be rising in 

 popularity; at least the quantity of plants 

 offered for sale has increased materially 

 in the last year or two. 



Talk about sticking close to one's 

 work, a Mr. Leak is spokesman for the 

 market gardeners affiliated with the 

 British Horticultural Trades' Association. 



Not so many years ago but that most 

 of us can remember it, rose plants taken 

 out of the benches were used to make a 

 nice bonfire. Now growers are asking 

 15 cents per plant for the popular 

 varieties. 



The Editor's table last week was 

 graced by a vase of Rainbow f reesias sent 

 by Alois Frey, Crown Point, Ind. The 

 bright, clear, distinct colors and the large 

 flowers indicate that Mr. Frey still is 

 making progress in the development of 

 his specialty. 



More than one florist is sweating over 

 the completion of his income tax return 

 this week because he has not kept the 

 records necessary to fill out the schedule. 

 The government is not content with 

 guesswork returns and it behooves every 

 florist who wishes to avoid trouble to be 

 prepared to show an exact record of his 

 financial affairs. 



The British Chamber of Horticulture, 

 a governmental body, is at work on a plan 

 to offer protection to the raisers of new 

 varieties, similar to the protection af- 

 forded other lines by patents, trade- 

 marks and copyrights. A plan for such 

 protection of ownership has been drawn 

 up by Laxton Bros., seed growers, and is 

 supported by other firms. The secretary 

 of the Chamber of Horticulture has in- 

 vited the trade to present its ideas on the 

 subject. 



Important quantities of azaleas from 

 Belgium are on the way, a few small 

 shipments having arrived during the 

 month of February. Two eastern forcers 

 are reported to have ordered 35,000 plants 

 each and many others are said to have 

 ordered smaller quantities. It seems 

 open to question if the stock imported 

 now can be flowered in salable shape this 

 season. Plants obtained in unsalable con- 

 dition can be grown on and flowered for 

 Christmas. 



If you feel that your flowers are worth 

 what you ask, no need to apologize for 

 them or the prices. 



There is little satisfaction in low grade 

 stock, either for the one who sells or the 

 one who uses. Look up. 



The cut flower trade will miss irises 

 next season, Spanish, tingitana, etc., to 

 be shut out of this country by the quar- 

 antine. 



It has come to be almost axiomatic that 

 shortages in the trade are not so great 

 as they seem; unexpected quantities of 

 stock are developed by the demand for 

 them. 



There are many short items, but gera- 

 niums seem to afford the only serious 

 scarcity and it is an even chance there 

 will be plenty of these toward the end of 

 the season. 



Unless a special delivery stamp is 

 used, it frequently takes a week for a 

 parcel post shipment of cuts from New 

 York, Philadelphia or Boston to reach 

 The Review. 



No man who really works has much 

 real cause for complaint in any branch 

 of the florists' business. The dissatisfied 

 ones usually could remedy the conditions 

 of which they complain if they would do 

 a real day 's work. 



Flowers played an important part in 

 the departure of the President and his 

 party from Europe and again at the land- 

 ing at Boston. They are as proper for 

 "good-bye" as for "welcome" in the 

 "Say It with Flowers" language. 



The law requires that income tax re- 

 turns be filed with the collector of in- 

 ternal revenue not later than March 15. 

 No doubt an extension of time will be 

 allowed, but the man who wants to be 

 on the safe side will not fail to do some- 

 thing about it this week. 



Some of the best articles on the care 

 of house plants, etc., which have appeared 

 in the daily and weekly newspapers of 

 home circulation were inspired by the 

 promotion bureau of the S. A. F. The 

 articles are sane and practical; they will 

 widen the popular interest in flowers. 

 Members of the trade can assist in this 

 work. If they send to Secretary Young 

 for manuscript to take to their local 

 papers they can secure free publication 

 of many articles which will serve to arouse 

 local interest in flowers, plants and gar- 

 dening matters in general. 



COMMERCIAL CASUAIiTIES. 



High prices make for a low business 

 mortality. This fact has again been 

 demonstrated by the report on com- 

 mercial failures for the year 1918. The 

 number of failures for the year was one 

 of the smallest on record. The total 

 number of failures in the United States 

 for the year, according to Dun's, was 

 9,982, as compared with 13,855 for 1917, 

 16,933 for 1916 and 22,156 for 1915. To 

 find a year with so few business fatali- 

 ties one must go back to 1899, when the 

 total was 9,337. 



If rising prices are the safety of the 

 business man, descending prices are re- 

 garded as his greatest danger. But, 

 though the price index has descended 

 several points since the war ended, the 

 number of failures continues to be ex- 

 ceptionally small. But this freedom 

 from failure may be accounted for by 

 the fact that declining prices so far 



have touched only the manufacturers' 

 and producers and have not reached in 

 any large extent to the army of small 

 retailers who are doing business on 

 small capital and furnish the bulk of 

 the commercial casualties. 



The failure list should begin to grow 

 rapidly within the next six months and 

 financial first aid will have to be ad- 

 ministered to hundreds of short-sighted 

 merchants. 



QUICK ACTION, 



The trade has become accustomed to 



getting prompt action when a Classified 



advertisement is inserted in The Review, 



but this season the response is even more 



prompt than usual, as well as in greater 



volume. This may be due to the special 



conditions this season, or it may be due 



to the continued progress of The Review, 



but it is all one to the man who has some 



stock he does not need for his local retail 



trade. Like this: 



Please cancel my ad of pansy plants, as I have 

 nearly sold out in one week. They sold so well 

 that I have moved 48,000 plants on one Inser- 

 tion of the classified ad In your Taluable paper, 

 -^ohn Faber, Kankakee, III., March 10, 1919. 



Mr. Faber 's advertisement occupied 

 three lines. At the price advertised the 

 sale of 48,000 plants would return $144 

 on the expenditure of 37% cents. 



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. 



TWENTY PINK PAGES. 



The Pink Part of The Review has 

 been a feature of this paper for a little 

 more than a year and it has done more 

 than any other agency to impress the 

 trade with the large volume of orders 

 now being transferred, by mail and 

 wire, from one retail florist to another. 

 This department of the florists ' business 

 has grown faster since The Review es- 

 tablished its Pink Part than at any 

 other time in the history of the trade. 



For mechanical reasons it is neces- 

 sary to print the pink section in mul- 

 tiples of four pages and sixteen pages 

 is the most economical number, actually 

 cheaper to manufacture than twelve. 

 The idea of the Pink Part was con- 

 ceived long before there were advertise- 

 ments enough to justify its inception, 

 but, once started, its growth has been 

 rapid. Because of the greater cost per 

 page of printing any other number, the 

 Pink Part has been held to sixteen 

 pages as long as possible, but it has 

 been overcrowded for several weeks 

 and with this issue the section is en- 

 larged to twenty pages per week — 

 twenty pages, that is, until there is an 

 increase in the advertising patronage 

 to justify twenty-four. 



The creation of the new space in the 

 Pink Part offers an opportunity to many 

 floristb who have not yet enjoyed their 

 share of this profitable business. There 

 still are a number of cities not repre- 

 sented. If a good florist finds his city 

 is not listed in the Index by Towns on 

 page 50 he will see the means by which 

 he may secure for himself practically 

 all the retail orders the trade is trans- 

 ferring into that territory. If he finds 

 his town already is represented, he will 

 see who is getting these orders in 

 steadily increasing number, for prac- 

 tically the whole trade consults the 

 Pink Part of The Review on each or- 

 der that is to go out for delivery in 

 some other city. 



