10 



The Florists^ Review 



NOTDMBIIB 7, 1918. 



winners in the uncertain times. 



While the American florists are hav- 

 ing trouble with the fuel question, they 

 may be consoled with their lot by the 

 contemplation of the trials of their breth- 

 ren in England. After several attempts, 

 the Horticultural Advertiser, London, 

 announces that it has been able to se- 

 cure an official pronouncement on the 

 fuel question. It is: 



* * Commercial greenhouses primarily 

 devoted to food production may use 

 seventy-five per cent of their normal 

 fuel supplies. 



"Greenhouses devoted to plants and 

 flowers may use only twenty-five per 

 cent of their normal supplies." 



And the government over there says: 

 "The use of anthracite for the purpose 

 of heating greenhouses should be en- 

 couraged. ' ' 



Coal for Private Places. 



What will interest the gardeners on 

 the private estates in New York state 

 will be the recent order of Delos W. 

 Cooke, State Fuel Administrator for 

 New York. The order reads: 



"All private greenhouses are privi- 

 leged to receive bituminous coal in an 

 amount equal to one-half of their nor- 

 mal requirements, but under no con- 

 ditions are they to receive or be allowed 

 to burn anthracite coal." 



THE LONDON MABKET. 



Business With Our Allies. 



The consensus being that the future 

 of the war-time flower business in the 

 United States will be much like the ex- 

 perience in England, several readers of 

 The Review have asked as to the pres- 

 ent conditions at Covent Garden, the big 

 trade center in London. The following 

 is an extract from a market report in 

 the Horticultural Advertiser, and deals 

 with conditions in mid-October: 



"Supplies have been low, and retail- 

 ers who needed a fair quantity of flow- 

 ers, or blooms of special quality, have 

 had to come early to market and be pre- 

 pared to pay a high price. Outdoor 

 flowers are practically over, although 

 a few early chrysanthemums, solidagos, 

 Michaelmas daisies and asters remain. 

 Early risers occasionally see a few or- 

 chids, but these disappear so mysteri- 

 ously that it is evident the demand is 

 always ahead of the market. Semi- 

 early chrysanthemums sell well, espe- 

 cially yellow, white and bronze sorts, 

 but supplies that come through Covent 

 Garden are low. Indeed, there is a sort 

 of "Hush! don't tell" air overhang- 

 ing the flower market and its immediate 

 surroundings. No doubt the recent dull 

 and cold weather has retarded chrysan- 

 themums and probably a week of fine 

 weather will improve matters, but, of 

 course, the production of food has re- 

 duced flower production to a side issue. 



"It is pretty much the same with 

 plants just now. The popular palms and 

 ferns are in moderate supply and do not 

 go begging. Hydrangeas wear an auto- 

 cratic aspect and heaths scarcely have 

 time to breathe the air of Wellington or 

 Tavistock streets ere they are whisked 

 off. 



"The supplies of foliage are interest- 

 ing. Bunches of plumy retinisporas and 

 golden cupressus, sheaves of yellow and 

 purple beech, green and ruddy oak, tint- 

 ed prunus and spiraea, green and varie- 

 gated box, laurel, veronica, golden priv- 

 et and even laurestinus are provided 



and a good business is done in them. 

 For moss and gray lichen there is a mod- 

 est demand and there is no difficulty in 

 disposing of statice in variety. 



"No one seems to worry much as to 

 whether a luxury tax will be placed on 

 flowers, as there is a general belief that, 

 tax or no tax, carnations and roses are 

 sure to sell^ and as there are not enough 

 of these to go around, there will be room 

 for anything else that can be sent. 

 Melody, Sunburst, Mme. Abel Chatenay 

 and Richmond roses are good for the sea- 

 son and they do not remain long to adorn 

 the market. They have business other- 

 where, chiefly in our hospitals and ceme- 

 teries." 



DAISIES. 



Will you please write an article on 

 daisies, giving the blooming time of 

 Shasta daisies? Is Mrs. Sander good 

 for growing outdoors? Mine do not 

 come true. C. M. G. — 111. 



The Shasta daisies are hardy peren- 

 nials, forms of Chrysanthemum max- 



imum, and flower outdoors from June 

 until August, according to latitude. 

 They can be lifted also in late fall, 

 planted in deep flats or benches and 

 gently forced under glass. By sowing 

 seeds in winter in the greenhouse, a 

 few seedlings will flower the first year, 

 if set out in nursery rows in the spring. 

 The culture of Shasta daisies is easy. 

 They need well drained ground and 

 must not have too much winter mulch 

 applied, or they are liable to rot. 



Daisy or Marguerite Mrs. Sander is a 

 splendid outdoor bloomer and the ma- 

 jority of the flowers come double. It 

 also makes a most satisfactory bedding 

 plant. Under glass it is not a satisfac- 

 tory winter bloomer like the old Chrys- 

 anthemum frutescens, white, and 

 Etoile d 'Or, yellow, but is splendid from 

 March onward. The bulk of the flowers 

 under glass will come single or semi- 

 double. If they are grown in pots or 

 shallow benches you will get more and 

 earlier flowers from this white margue- 

 rite than by giving it a more extended 

 root run. C. W. 



CREDIT ASSOCIATIONS. 



Something over a year ago the whole- 

 sale florists of Cleveland joined a credit 

 association having country-wide ramifi- 

 cations and time has served to vindi- 

 cate the wisdom of the move. Nobody 

 has been put out of business and credit, 

 as usual, is extended to the worthy. 

 The careless buyer has been taught to 

 purchase more conservatively and hence, 

 benefited; the fellow who will not pay 

 his bills promptly has been forced into 

 other markets; competition is cleaner 

 because the unscrupulous sells his goods 

 with the knowledge that they have been 

 paid for; delinquent lists that formerly 

 covered two or three typewritten pages 

 have now ceased to exist; and last, but 

 not least, business in general has been 

 placed upon a more salutary basis. 



Addressing the public instead of a 

 limited number, as does the wholesaler, 

 the problem of credit for the retailer 

 is necessarily a more complicated one. 

 But protection against substantial losses 

 and the material reduction of long- 

 drawn-out book accounts might be at 

 least partially secured through con- 

 certed action. Nine times out of ten 

 the smaller florist points to his book 

 business as a reason for his inability to 

 take care of bills when due, the accounts 

 extending from one to three months and 

 even longer and in the end a goodly per- 

 centage lost. This is a bad state of 

 affairs and should be obviated as early 

 as possible. 



It would seem that much could be ac- 

 complished in this direction by a uni- 

 form extension of credit by retailers. 

 Regular meetings at which credit mat- 

 ters were discussed and records mutually 

 shown could not fail to be productive of 

 ultimate good. Advertising campaigns 

 designed to educate the flower-buying 

 public to the importance of thirty-day 

 settlements might be initiated at such 

 meetings with appreciable results. The 

 grower must be paid semimonthly; the 



wholesale account must be settled 

 monthly; and that this may be done the 

 retailer must get his money in with 

 reasonable promptitude. Mac. 



OUR RETIRED FLORISTS. 



At times the nation is confronted with 

 the problem, what to do with its ex- 

 presidents; on the same theory, the 

 peculiar conditions brought about by 

 the war have caused the voluntary re- 

 tirement of so many florists in the prime 

 of life as to make pertinent in the coun- 

 cils of commercial floriculture the ques- 

 tion, how best to utilize the talents of 

 its prematurely retired members. The 

 facetious might suggest that they be 

 Oslerized; but as the doctor had only 

 the unsuccessful in mind when he pre- 

 scribed his famous treatment, it would 

 scarcely apply. 



In Cleveland there are a half-score 

 of florists who have retired from active 

 business after having amassed a com- 

 petency, a fact which should serve as an 

 inspiration to the beginner. They are 

 still comparatively young men, with 

 many useful years of life ahead of them, 

 men with practical knowledge and spe- 

 cific business acumen extracted from 

 constant and intelligent application for 

 a quarter-century. They also enjoy 

 health, which is the heritage of men who 

 work with flowers. W-hat a valuable 

 asset to a profession! 



In every community there are men so 

 circumstanced and, having the time, it 

 would seem that they are the ideal per- 

 sons to supply leadership in our florists' 

 clubs and other trade organizations. The 

 columns of the trade papers also are 

 open to them and, as they necessarily 

 possess much information valuable to 

 their fellow-craftsmen, therein lies a 

 vast sphere of usefulness. By all means, 

 the retired florist, where qualified, 

 should be kept in harness and his great 

 influence for good capitalized by the pro- 

 fession. Mac. 



