The Florists^ Review 



December 5, 1918. 



EstabllBhed, 1897. by O. L. ORANT. 



Pabliahed erery Thursday by 

 The Florists' Publishing Co., 



S20-660 Oaxton Building, 



606 South Dearborn St., Ohtca^ro. 



Tele., Wabaah 8196. 



Reelatered cable addreu, 



Florvlew, Oblcago. 



Entered as second class matter 

 Dec. S. 1897. at the pcst-offlce at Chl> 

 caffo. 111., under the Act of March 

 S 1879. 



Subscription price, flJSO a year. 

 To Canada, $2JX): to Europe. $3.00. 

 * AdvertlslniT rates quoted upon 

 request. Only strictly trade ad- 

 ▼ertislng accepted. 



n 



NOTICE. 



It is impossible to guarantee the in- 

 sertion, discontinuance or alteration of 

 any advertisement unless instructions 

 are received 



BY 4 P. M. TUESDAY. 



800IETT OF AKEBIOAM FLORISTS. 



Incorporated by Act of ConKress, March 4, 1901. 

 OfBcers for 1918: President, Charles H. 

 Totty, Madison, N. J.; Tice-president, Jules 

 Bourdet, St. Louis, Mo.; secretary, John Toung, 

 1170 Broadway, New York city; treasurer, J. J. 

 Uess, Omaha, Neb. 



Officers for 1919: President, J. F. Ammann, 

 BdwardsviUe, 111.; vice-president, B. A. Fetters, 

 .Detroit; secretary and treasurer as before. 



Thlrty-flfth annual convention, Detroit, Mlcb., 

 August 19 to 21, 1919. 



Results bring advertising. 

 The Review brings results. 



The Editor's Desk has been adorned 

 with a vase of cornflowers cut in the open 

 November 23 by Frank Winans, Petoskey, 

 Mich. He says he has been cutting in 

 quantity all through the autumn. 



Some idea of what the influenza did 

 for, or to, the florists in cities adjacent to 

 the army training camps is shown by the 

 report from Louisville that during the 

 height of the epidemic there were eighty- 

 eight deaths in one night at Camp Taylor. 



The Christmas number of the Rotarian, 

 widely known as the organ of the body 

 from which it takes its name, carries a 

 full-page advertisement by the Asso- 

 ciated Rotary Florists, telling all Ro- 

 tarians to "send flowers for Christmas." 

 The advertisement explains how it may 

 be done by telegraph. 



George F. Struck, East Orange, N. J., 

 announces that he severed his connection, 

 November 30, with the Heathcrhome Seed 

 & Nursery Co., of which he was one of 

 the organizers. Mr. Struck is widely 

 known in the trade, first as a traveler and 

 later as a member of the Knight & Struck 

 Co. He will not be connected with the 

 florists' business in the future. 



Collections in the trade were better 

 in November than for many months, but 

 it can not be said that the same was true 

 of the trade's collections from the public; 

 the increased speed with which money 

 has circulated in the trade has been due 

 to increased retail sales, particularly 

 those for cash, rather than to improved 

 collections for the smaller florists, most 

 of whom still are without definite collec- 

 tion systems. 



The average florist finds that in' the,. 

 easy times of old he wasted enough to 

 represent a pretty fair profit. 



The florist who takes no cognizance of 

 accounts that have passed the due date 

 sooner or later finds himself where he 

 can not meet his own bills as due. 



The Editor's Desk has been decorated 

 for several days with a fine vase of 

 anemone-flowered and single chrysanthe- 

 mums grown by Alois Frey, Crown Point, 

 Ind. 



The Florists' HaiHAssociation is In 

 admirable condition ; e^fery claim thus far 

 presented this year has been paid and 

 there is a balance of $5,000 for subse- 

 quent losses, besides $45,000 in the re- 

 serve fund. 



After nearly five years, the steamer 

 business soon will come back to New 

 York retailers in volume far greater than 

 ever. It will give another tremendous 

 impetus to the rapidly developing trans- 

 fer order system represented by the F. T. 

 D. and the Pink Section of this paper. 



The florists who have established repu- 

 tations as prompt pay wUl profit by it 

 now. With many lines of stock far short 

 of the demand, the slow payer, the man 

 who "flies off the handle" when asked 

 to settle an overdue account and the one 

 who seeks an excuse for a kick may ex- 

 pect to see the men who pay on dot get 

 first call on the merchandise. 



WHERE THE PIOKENa'S GOOD. 



There is a saying current with our 

 boys in France that "the place to get 

 doughnuts is where they're bein' 

 passed." It is just another way of in- 

 dicating that the number and variety 

 of advertisements in The Review con- 

 stitute an attraction for the buyers. 

 Like this: 



We are sold out of cinerarias, thanks to The 

 Review.-^B. E. Constlen, Upper Sandusky, C, 

 December 2. 1918. 



Our 5-Inch cyclamens are sold up; again the 

 little classified ad In The Review did the work. 

 — Fred H. Lemon & Co., Richmond, Ind., Decem- 

 ber 2, 1918. 



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. 



THANKSGIVINa BUSINESS. 



It is no news to say that Thanksgiving 

 made a new record in the trade; that it 

 would do so had been foreseen from 

 Victory day. 



The report is unanimous that the fio- 

 rists' business never profited by the ob- 

 servance of Thanksgiving as it did this 

 year. Every available flower was called 

 into use. That the increase in sales was 

 not greater was due solely to the fact 

 that supplies of stock were inadequate 

 to m'eet the demand. Individual in- 

 creases in sales were in accordance with 

 the individual 's supply of stock and his 

 idea of what the public would stand in 

 the way of prices. Flowers never 

 fetched the prices they did this Thanks- 

 giving. While it may be that some buy- 

 ers were deterred by the prices, there 

 were plenty who were willing to pay 

 whatever was asked. While values gen- 

 erally were close to what the trade has 

 become accustomed to call Christmas 

 prices, it seems generally to have been 

 true that more flowers could have been 

 sold at these prices or even somewhat 

 higher prices. With the supply short 

 and no price cutters in sight, flowers 

 seem to be worth what one is pleased to 

 ask for them. 



THe trade has special reasoa^^^r 

 thanksgiving. While florists came 

 through the war in better shape than 

 most other lines of so-called luxury 

 trades, there have been few lines that 

 have been benefited more promptly or 

 to a greater extent by the caving in of 

 the Central Powers. 



NONESSENTIALS IN DEMAND. 



The weekly review of general busi- 

 ness conditions by the Dun commercial 

 agency shows that the florists' trade 

 is not the only one of the so-called non- 

 essential lines which has been stimu- 

 lated by the ending of the war. Says 

 Dun: 



Retail business in the last two weeks has been 

 gaining momentum steadily until it is now as 

 large as or larger than ever before was known, 

 with prospects that these conditions will con- 

 tinue through the holidays. Although It is rather 

 early for the heaviest Christmas rush, shops are 

 crowded. The change in the character of the 

 buying is most noticeable and many lines, such as 

 evening clothes and the more expensive grades of 

 wearing apparel, knick-knacks, toys and others 

 of recently much exploited "nonessentials" have 

 come into their own with the removal of restric- 

 tions, governmental and conscientious. 



The trade improvement seems to be general In 

 the central states. The large mail order houses 

 have done in November a business twenty-flve 

 per cent or more in excess of that for the corre- 

 sponding month last year. One of them reports 

 an increase of 100 per cent in the sales of pianos. 

 These gains are especially significant because the 

 "nonessential" business of these establishments 

 normally is rather small in proportion to the 

 whole. 



Orders to wholesalers for immediate delivery 

 are ahead of last year, but there is still 

 noticeable a slight disposition to hold off on 

 future commitments. Money is plentiful, with 

 signs of approaching easiness for the first time 

 in many months. Collections are uniformly good. 



It speaks for a big winter's business 

 for all florists who are able to supply 

 the demand. 



CHIOAOO 



The Market. 



Remembering that the Thanksgiving 

 business in 1917 was unusually good, it 

 still seems to be well within the facts 

 to sum up the Thanksgiving business 

 of 1918 as double that of last year. It 

 is a record the like of which never has 

 been known in the Chicago market. 



It really is a matter for more than 

 passing remark that the largest houses 

 in the market should have been able to 

 double their Thanksgiving sales. They 

 did. One house reports that for twelve 

 consecutive business days its sales ap- 

 proximated $5,000 per day in cut flowers 

 and greens alone, over $100,000 in the 

 month. These are figures which seem 

 almost incredible to the older genera- 

 tion of florists, but which show how 

 wonderfully the Chicago market has 

 grown and how important it is to those 

 in the trade over a wide radius in the 

 central part of the United States. 



The report of the Thanksgiving busi- 

 ness of the Chicago market really is a 

 record of the trade activities in the 

 whole central part of America, for an 

 enormous volume of shipping was done, 

 reaching almost every town from Win- 

 nipeg to the Rio Grande and the far 

 southeast. The fact that prices were 

 the highest ever known at Thanksgiving 

 seemed to have no effect whatever on 

 the demand from out of town. With 

 the out-of-town florist it seemed not a 

 question of price, but of the ability to 

 secure flowers. The city buyers had a 

 hard time of it. The majority of them 

 "shop." They go from house to house 

 and buy where they can get the best 

 stock for the least money. Those who- 

 place the bulk of their business regu- 



