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22 



The Florists^ Review 



December 19, 1018. 



n 



Established, 1897. by O. L. GRANT. 



Pabllshed every Thursday by 

 The Flokists* Pubushino Co., 



620-860 Oaxton BaUdln?, 



608 South Dearborn St., Ohlcaffo. 



Tele.. Wabash 8196. 



Re^stered cable address, 



Florrlew. Chicago. 



Entered as second class matter 

 Dec. 8. 1897, at the pcst-offlce at Ohl* 

 cago, lU., under the Act of March 

 8 1879. 



Subscription price.njH) a year. 

 To Canada, $2.60; to ICurope. IS.OO. 



Advertising rates quoted upon 

 request. Only strictly trade ad- 

 vertising accepted. 



II 



NOTICE. 



It is impossible to guarantee the in- 

 sertion, discontinuance or alteration of 

 any advertisement unless instructions 

 are received 



BY 4 P. M. TUESDAY. 



Besults bring advertising. 

 The Review brings results. 



Fathers' day will not down, but at- 

 tempts to push it only bring a laugh. 



Geranium cuttings, although pro- 

 duced in large quantities this season, are 

 far short of the demand. 



There never was a Christmas at which 

 the supply of greens was so small when 

 compared to the demand. 



What the trade needs is quality — 



there are too many growers who seek 



maximum production without regard to 

 the quality of their stock. 



There seems to be no surplus of any- 

 thing this season, except work; there is 

 plenty of that to go around among all 

 who are capable of doing it. 



The mild weather so far this season is 

 doing far more than any government 

 activity ever did to conserve the fuel 

 supply. Growers are duly thankful. 



If a plantsman wants to become abso- 

 lutely independent, let him always do 

 unto others as he would be done by, es- 

 pecially in the matter of shipping only 

 such plants as he would be glad to re- 

 ceive. 



Growing palms from seeds is not a 

 business attractive t6 Americans. It 

 takes too long to get the crop ready for 

 market; your American plantsman wants 

 to finish a crop every four months, not 

 every five years. 



It will be a good many years before 

 the government of the United States 

 hears the last of the plant exclusion or- 

 der. The governments of several other 

 countries are pretty sure to take a hand 

 in the matter as soon as larger questions 

 are settled. 



The average florist, like the small 

 dealer in other lines, still awaits the re- 

 appearance of the demand he knows ex- 

 ists; he does not seek to develop and di- 

 rect new demand. Those who have the 

 ability to create business soon pass out 

 of the small-merchant class. 



Root all the geraniums you can. 



Our stock seldom looks to others as 

 good as it looks to us. 



R. Vincent, Jr., White Marsh, Md., 

 was 75 years of age December 16. 



'i HE supply of canna roots for spring, 

 1919, is the smallest in many years. 



Good gracious, but won't there be a 

 tremendous lot of wedding work when 

 the boys come home I 



Nothing could stimulate production to 

 a greater degree than is being done by the 

 present heavy demand and high prices. 



If you can not fill an order right away, 

 do as you would be done by, ac^owledge 

 its receipt and state when it will be 

 filled. 



The supply houses never were so bare 

 of merchandise as now; it will take them 

 many months to restore their stocks to 

 normal size. 



The income tax laws have forced to 

 keep books many florists who never did 

 so before, but they have not got all of 

 them to the point of knowing how much 

 they owe. 



Why should a florist complain that he 

 is not popular with his competitors? If 

 he were popular with them, would it not 

 be a sign that his measure had been tak- 

 en and that his competition was not to 

 be feared? 



One of the interesting and significant 

 facts is that in practically every bank- 

 ruptcy case the debtor's list of liabili- 

 ties fails to correspond with the cred- 

 itor's claims; in almost every case the 

 liabilities prove to be larger than the 

 books show, while the assets shrink. 



Curiously, a few months ago, when 

 prices were low, everybody was urging 

 that we get more money for our mer- 

 chandise, but today, with prices higher 

 than ever before, still nobody seems 

 happy. Note that in New York this 

 week a mass meeting of the trade was 

 called on account of having too much of 

 what everybody, almost, was crying for 

 not long ago. 



WOBEINO OB BUZZING? 



A business man had his desk covered 

 with papers and he hurried from one 

 task to another. To a friend who was 

 standing near, he said: "I am terribly 

 busy, you see." "You are not busy," 

 said the friend. "You are only con- 

 fused. ' ' 



Much of our busyness is mere confu- 

 sion, and our activity beating the air. 

 Motion is not necessarily work. 



Think it over. Are you doing some- 

 thing or merely buzzing around? 



"ONLY." 



The salespeople in the flower stores 

 used to say, in answer to the query, 

 "How much?" "Only four dollars I " 

 And if the customer was pretty nearly 

 sold anyway, or if the price was any- 

 where near a right price, the deed was 

 done, and all that was left was wrap- 

 ping and delivery. 



But now the salesperson doesn't say 

 that. Salespersons are very human, and 

 usually in private life good bargainers 

 and careful managers. So now when 

 the price is asked the salesman or sales- 

 woman says: "Four dollars — ain't it 

 awful?" And the customer agrees 

 heartily that it is. 



But it may be that it is fostering in 



the patron a confidence he never had 

 before in salespeople. And after the 

 war has been won for a little while, per- 

 haps our old friend "Only" will return 

 and we shall have confidence in him. 

 For we shall have been through the mill 

 with the salesman, and know "only" 

 prices when we see them. 



EVEBYTHINa IN BEQUEST. 



All things seem conspiring to make 

 the season a big one for the trade. So 

 stock is moving at a lively rate, with 

 gratifying returns to the grower. The 

 following is one of many letters of ap- 

 preciation arriving daily at the ofSces 

 of The Review: 



Please discontinue my ad for calendulas. I am 

 much pleased with the results The BeTiew 

 brought, as I haye sold close to 5,000 plants from 

 one insertion. — Greenwood Avenue Greenhouse, 

 Chicago, 111., December 4, 1918. 



When you hear a man complain of 

 the cost of advertising you can be pretty 

 sure he spends a good bit of money else- 

 where than in The Review. 



OHIOAOO. 



The Market. 



Chicago never has had so strong a 

 market as in the week now under re- 

 view. From December 11 to December 

 17 Christmas prices have prevailed; in- 

 deed, prices have not been so stiff at 

 Christmas for several years as they have 

 been in the last week or ten days and 

 there is no one in the market who can 

 remember a time when high prices have 

 prevailed for such a length of time. 



A change, however, is beginning to be 

 apparent. The excitement has sub- 

 sided. Buyers have found that the rise 

 in the market was more than a flurry 

 and many of them are changing their 

 method of operations to meet the con- 

 ditions. Quite a few buyers have 

 stopped ordering and the majority have 

 reduced the size of their orders; stand- 

 ing orders in many cases have been cut 

 down or canceled. It is to be consid- 

 ered that the market always is quiet 

 just before the Christmas rush, and the 

 same report might possibly have been 

 made had the price level been no more 

 than normal this week. The commis- 

 sion men are not unreservedly in favor 

 of the high prices, believing that there 

 comes a place where they will be harm- 

 ful to the business, but the growers, 

 who have been under high expense and 

 reportedly without profit for a long 

 time, urge that hay be made while the 

 sun shines. They point out that the 

 prices are justified by the fact that no 

 flowers are being lost, either by whole- 

 salers or retailers. The public is taking 

 everything the market affords. 



The somewhat reduced demand, how- 

 ever, is making it possible this week to 

 fill a much larger percentage of the or- 

 ders than it was possible to fill a week 

 ago. Carnations are the shortest item 

 on the list and, compared to normal 

 prices at this season, carnation prices 

 are the highest. There have not been 

 enough to go around at 15 cents, which 

 was the price for a good average grade 

 in any color at the end of last week 

 and the beginning of the present one. 

 The man who wants the fanciest grade 

 of roses and is willing to pay for them 

 is not having much trouble in getting 

 what he needs; the call for short to 

 medium roses is much more robust and, 

 naturally, the price is higher in propor- 

 tion. 



