JLOfilSTS' 



MAKING HAY WHILE 



^ THE SUN SHINES 



Filled ivith confidence as the result of the largest season's business on 

 record, the Trade is making preparations for Easter on a greater scale than 

 ever before. The only thing that dampens our enthusiasm is the absence of 

 certain kinds of stock heretofore relied on for this big special flower day. 



F ever there was a class of 

 men trained more than an- 

 other to practice that old 

 precept, "Make hay while 

 the sun shines," we are 

 that class, we who deal in 

 plants and flowers. And 

 we all are getting ready 

 for Easter with a whole- 

 hearted enthusiasm that in- 

 dicates a unanimous belief that the third 

 week of April, 1919, will be the "sun- 

 niest" we ever have known. 



This has been a record season for all 

 of us who were able to carry on in the 

 face of the obstacles imposed by the 

 war; not the largest, perhaps, in quan- 

 tity of stock produced or handled, but 

 the largest in point of money value and, 

 with many, largest in point of profit. 

 The growers never have had so good a 

 season as this one and those who felt 

 obliged to close part of 

 their houses because of 

 the fuel restriction or 

 other difficulties have 

 done splendid work in 

 getting their idle glass 

 back into production. 



Big Business. 



While retailers have 

 fared less well, perhaps, 

 than growers, their prin- 

 cipal trouble has been to 

 obtain as much stock as 

 they needed; the only 

 limits to demand were 

 those set by the reduced 

 supply of flowers and the 

 higher prices which were 

 a natural corollary. 



There has been no let- 

 up in flower selling from 

 October to April; the 

 boom began with the 

 epidemic that swept the 

 country last autumn and 

 the heavy demand has 

 continued steadily all 

 season. It was by far 

 the greatest Christmas 

 the trade ever has 

 known, limited only by 

 the possibility of sup- 

 plying flowers, and the 

 readiness with which the 

 public paid the higher 

 prices was a revelation 

 to the large number of 

 florists who had failed to 

 appreciate their own 

 merchandise as fully as 

 do the American people 

 as a whole. Flowers 

 never have been wanted 

 more than now. 



For many years Easter was the big 

 day on the trade's calendar. Eecently 

 Christnias has gone ahead in dollars, 

 but not in number of sales; indeed, 

 there are any number of us whose cus- 

 tomers have not yet adopted the custom 

 of sending such unutilitarian Christmas 

 gifts, but who, nevertheless, can be 

 counted on with certainty to buy flowers 

 to grace their own front window Easter 

 morning. 



Easter the Best Yet. 



We all can reckon safely that Easter 

 will give us the opportunity to make a 

 larger number of sales than at Christ- 

 mas, or at any previous Easter. 



Those who had watched the business 

 grow, year by year, some time ago came 

 to realize that the sales for Easter, 

 under the conditions heretofore prevail- 

 ing, were not limited by the supply of 

 stock, which was abundant, but by the 



A Typical Easter Morning Scene. 



(Plant deliveries were made the day befoie; cut flower orders now (^olng out.) 



individual florist's ability to wait on 

 trade. The public habitually puts off 

 buying until the last moment — then, 

 there is a most unholy rush. 



But it is different this Easter. Not 

 that the last-minute rush will be less 

 heavy, but that the supply of material 

 this Easter will be much reduced. To 

 catalogue the facts with which the trade 

 must reckon: 



The supply of lilies is possibly one- 

 tenth of what it has been in recent 

 years, due to the War Trade Board's 

 embargo on the importation of bulbs 

 from Japan last autumn. The lilies 

 available are almost all from the 1917 

 surplus of bulbs carried over in cold 

 storage, although there are a few grown 

 from 1918 bulbs obtained from Ber- 

 muda and the Azores. Pot lilies are al- 

 most unobtainable and, under the cir- 

 cumstances, the wholesale price of cut 

 lilies in advance of 

 Easter naturally is the 

 owner's conception of 

 what the traffic will 

 bear. 



Plants All Scarce. 



Next in importance 

 comes the reduced sup- 

 ly of Dutch bulbous 

 stock. In the first place, 

 the quantity of bulbs im- 

 ported last season was 

 only about one-third 

 what it was in 1917 and, 

 in the second place, 

 Easter is so late this 

 year that even this small 

 supply has flowered and 

 is gone. This is a seri- 

 ous loss to the smaller 

 florists, meaning those 

 who sell to people who 

 do not buy the more cost- 

 ly flowers. 



There is a general 

 shortage of blooming 

 plants. A late Easter 

 seldom sees many aza- 

 leas; there are scarcely 

 any this year, although 

 a few eastern plantsmen 

 are making the effort to 

 flower plants imported 

 since Belgium was freed. 

 Pot roses, hydrangeas, 

 spira?as, lilacs, callas, 

 rhododendrons, primulas, 

 daisies, genistas, cinera- 

 rias, schizanthus, lilacs, 

 etc., are seen in some- 

 what increased quanti- 

 ties, but there are so few 

 in proportion to the in- 

 creased demand that 



