Where Ingenuity Will Win 



EOVEEBIALLY the most 



P uncertain of all special 

 flower days, Christmas this 

 year presents a different 

 I and wholly new problem. 



\^_^ It is a problem individual 

 in character, as the same 

 solution may not apply in 

 different cases, but it is a 

 problem in which we have 

 a common interest for the reason that 

 the correct answer, found by each in- 

 dividual, will result in the greatest ad- 

 vance the trade as 

 a body ever has 

 made. 



This year's spe- 

 cial Christmas 

 problem comes 

 from the fact that 

 the demand for 

 stock undoubtedly will exceed all prev- 

 ious records, by some percentage un- 

 determinable in advance, while the sup- 

 ply is short all along the line — how 

 short we do not know, as the peculiar 

 conditions make for widely varying re- 

 ports. 



There is no shadow of doubt that 

 the demand will be unusually great; 

 that it would be something phenomenal 

 if only the trade had the stock to per- 

 mit of normal prices, and the assistants 

 to make easy selling, was made appar- 

 ent by the tremendous business done at 

 Thanksgiving. But a year of war and 

 pressure on the industry has put us 

 where, as a class, we have neither the 

 stock nor the help to take full advantage 

 of the opportunity. 



Under the circumstances, the resource- 

 ful man will win. 



There is a saying, particularly among 

 the older generation of florists, that it 

 always is either a feast or a famine in 

 the flower business. Eight now we 

 have the world's rec- 

 ord feast of business 

 and famine of flow- 

 ers. Not that there 

 are no flowers, for 

 there are many flow- 

 ers, but that the de- 

 mand never before 

 has so far exceeded 

 the available supply. 

 Demand has grown 

 amazingly, while pro- 

 duction has been re- 

 duced. 

 io what degree the supply has been 

 «ut down by the pressure under which 

 ine trade has labored for the last year 



no man can tell. A few fortunate flo- 

 rists have been able to run their places 

 exactly as usual, but 

 the majority have suf- 

 fered more or less, prin- 

 cipally because of labor 

 shortage, although se- 

 vere weather last win- 

 ter, fuel restriction or- 

 ders by the government, 

 the cessation of plant im- 

 ports, transportation dif- 

 ficulties and the high cost of many 

 necessary supplies all have influenced 

 the production of stock for Christmas. 



On the whole it does not seem that 

 production has been reduced so much 

 as demand has increased. There was 

 a temporary shortage of stock last win- 

 ter, but as soon as milder weather camQ 

 market conditions returned to some- 

 ing approximating normal. There was 

 enough stock to meet the needs of a 

 summer business in many places rather 

 better than usual and autumn was 

 marked by no uncommon circumstance 

 until the wave of influenza brought a 

 rush of funeral work which swept the 

 country bare of flowers. Since then 

 everything has been selling clean and 

 there has been a call for more. Peace 

 brought a boom and Thanksgiving a 



v 1 u m e of 

 sales seem- 

 ingly limit- 

 ed only by 

 the possibil- 

 ity of get- 

 ting flowers 

 and not at 

 all affected 

 by the rising 

 prices, while 

 the whole- 

 sale markets 

 continued to 

 stiffen and 

 advance as 

 chrysanthe - 

 mums went out and early Christmas buy- 

 ers made their appearance. 



The production of Christmas plants 

 never has equalled the trade's ability 

 to sell them, but it has been large 

 enough in recent years to affect the 

 value of cut flowers, the prices of which, 

 at wholesale, are governed absolutely 

 by the ages old law of supply and de- 

 mand. This year, however, flowering 

 plants are, if anything, less plentiful 

 than cut flowers and they exercise no 

 influence at all on the values of other 

 articles. Foliage plants also are in 



small supply. The popular Christmas 

 greens are affected by the lack of labor 

 and the preconceived idea that trans- 

 portation would be uncertain. Even 

 lines of manufactured accessories are 

 less extensive and diverse than usual 

 because of the influence of war. 



Opposed to this condition of relatively 

 short supply, which seems to be general 

 in the principal centers, there is a de- 

 mand which, were it not restrained by 

 the scarcity of material, would exceed 

 the greatest previous records. How far 

 prices can be carried upward without 

 causing an injurious reaction, no one 

 can say. It probably varies with each 

 florist's clientele. 



But it is plainly 

 evident that the 

 florist who makes 

 the most out of 

 the big holiday de- 

 mand will be the 

 one who displays 

 the greatest in- 

 genuity, the man 

 who can make his 

 stock go farthest. 

 It will be a great 

 success for the flo- 

 rist who can make attractive arrange- 

 ments with little material — in a word, 

 for the man who can mix art with mer- 

 chandise, thereby increasing the quan- 

 tity. 



Florists proverbially are resourceful; 

 face to face with necessity they, as a 

 class, rise to the emergency and acquit, 

 themselves with credit to the profession 

 and satisfaction to the public. Fore- 

 warned, as we are this Christmas, won- 

 ders will be accomplished. 



First of all, of course, reliance must 

 be placed on the supply houses, for 

 baskets, ribbons, ruscus, frieze, greens, 

 etc. With these accessories flowers may 

 be made to go much farther than they 

 do when abundant. When flowers are 

 plentiful many flower stores, especially 

 those catering to the transient trade in 

 the larger cities, sell nothing but cut 

 flowers, loose. These are the ones which 

 will be hard- 

 est put to it 

 to find stock 

 this season. 



The stores 

 which will 

 show the best 

 records of 

 sales and prof- 

 its will be the 

 ones which 

 habitually do 



