18 



The Rorists^ Review 



Mat 29, 1919. 



^^^^^S^ji 



55r 



Established, 1897, by G. L. GRANT. 



Pabllshed erery Thursday by 

 The Flokists' Publishing Co., 



620-560 Caxton Bulldlnc, 



608 Soutb Dearborn St., ChlcagTO. 



Tele., Wabash 8195. 



Retrlstered cable address, 



Florvlew, Chicago. 



Entered as second class matter 

 Dec. 3, 18>J7, at the post-onice at Cbl- 

 ca«ro. 111., under the Act of March 

 3.1879. ■ 



Subscription price, $1.60 a year. 

 To Canada, $2.50; to Europe. $3.00. 



Adveitislntf rates quoted upon 

 request. Only strictly trade ad- 

 vertising accepted. 



Eesults bring advertising. 

 The Review brings results. 



Chrysanthemum plants from 2%-inch 

 pota never have sold so well as this sea- 

 son, many growers having cleaned out 

 at a date when the strongest demand or- 

 dinarily is just beginning. 



The American people have more money 

 than ever before and are spending it 

 with a freedom that is without precedent. 

 There is no reason why the flower busi- 

 ness should not hold out as long as the 

 supply of money does. 



Take an afternoon off and visit a few 

 growers ; it will show that the description, 

 say 4-inch as applied to geraniums, is 

 absolutely no indication of their value. 

 One man's stock in a designated size of 

 pot may easily be worth twice as much 

 as another's. 



Geraniums have been slow to bloom 

 this season in many localities, due to late 

 propagation and unusual weather. Good 

 4-inch stock in bloom has been scarce 

 so far, but there are quantities which 

 will not have a flower before the time the 

 demand usually lets down. 



The census taken by" the government 

 last year showed that the coal consumed 

 by 8,412 greenhouse establishments in the 

 United States amounted to 1,527,876 tons. 

 This census was far from being complete, 

 but from these figures an idea can be had 

 of the importance of the coal question 

 to commercial growers. 



A GOOD many of the smaller growers of 

 bedding stock who do local wholesale and 

 retail business, have not advanced their 

 prices as much as larger operators thought 

 necessary. Where a man does most of 

 the work himself, with the aid of his 

 family, digging in twice as hard as hired 

 hands will do, he is apt to miscalculate 

 his costs and not get paid in proportion 

 to the effort. 



A. F. J. Baur, secretary, has sent to 

 members the pamphlet report of the twen- 

 ty-eighth annual convention of the Amer- 

 ican Carnation Society, held at Cleveland, 

 January 29 and 30. The list of members 

 also is included and an insert says: 

 "Have you or a member of your family 

 been in the United States military serv- 

 ice during the late war? If so, please 

 communicate the facts to the secretary, 

 giving full name and present address. ' ' 



Henry Penn, chairman of the S. A. F. 

 publicity committee, is not alone in his 

 optimism about the future of the florists ' 

 business. 



The Dutch Bulb Growers' Society al- 

 ready is planning for another great open- 

 air exhibition, in 1921, similar to the one 

 held in the Haarlem Wood in 1910, when 

 the organization celebrated its golden 

 jubilee. It is expected that by the spring 

 of 1921 conditions of travel will have re- 

 turned to normal. 



ASE TOU AMONG THESE? 



Day aftei day gr tifying letters from 

 pleased advertisers pour into the office 

 of The Review. These are samples of 

 how they all sound: 



Cancel pelargonium advertisement. It has 

 done the business. — S. C. Templln & Son, Gar- 

 rettsviUe, 0., May 17, 1919. 



Two Insertions cleaned us up on 2.000 petu- 

 nias and we have had to return several checks 

 already. Some came from Montana.— D. U. 

 White. Sandusk.v. O., May 22. 1919. 



Kindly discontinue our chrysanthemum ad for 

 the present. Our stock Is practically exhausted. 

 —Ellis the Florist, Griffin, Ga., May 18, 1919. 



When you hear a man complain of 

 the cost of advertising you can be p tty 

 certain he spends a good bit of money 

 elsewhere than in The Review. 



A BIO MONTH. 



It is doubtful if the trade as a whole 

 ever has had so big a month as the one 

 now closing. May, 1919. At no other 

 time have flowers been in greater esteem 

 or request, nor has the business been on 

 a better basis. The prices the trade has 

 obtained, as a rule, fully compensate 

 for the increased cost of production and 

 distribution, with the result that May 

 has been perhaps the largest, most 

 profitable and, on the whole, the most 

 satisfactory month in the history of the 

 trade. 



The Review is pleased to report that 

 its own business also has been the 

 largest for any May in the history of 

 the paper. 



A LIVE WIEE CLUB. 



Here are just a few things that the 

 Milwaukee Florists' Advertising Club 

 is doing in the line of bringing the sub- 

 ject of flowers before the public. It is 

 placing ads in six daily, one weekly and 

 one semi-weekly newspapers, the com- 

 bined circulation of which is 350,000. 

 Every week over 2,000,000 advertise- 

 ments, featuring the slogan "Say It 

 with Flowers," go out among the peo- 

 ple of the city. Every florist in Mil- 

 waukee has that slogan in or on the 

 window of his store. Every other street 

 car in Milwaukee has a card advertise- 

 ment vdth the slogan "Say It with 

 Flowers." And, when the billboards 

 along the motor highways are painted 

 up, the club expects to miss no one but 

 the totally blind. 



"SAY IT WITH CANDY." 



Manufacturers and sellers of candy 

 are about to flatter florists in a most 

 sincere manner — by imitating them. At 

 the recent convention of the National 

 Confectioners' Association, at Spring- 

 field, Mass., it was decided to begin a 

 publicity campaign along the lines of 

 our campaign for flowers. 



The candy men, like florists, suffered 

 during the war because of government 

 regulation and now see a new era dawn- 

 ing. They realize that the way to grasp 

 the opportunity is to use publicity, in- 

 telligently and consistently. 



Among the features of the advertis- 

 ing campaign contempliated by the con- 

 fectioners is a plan to educate the pub- 

 lic regarding the problema faced by the 

 manufacturers of candy. This idea also 

 is one on which our florists' committees 

 have been working. 



The makers of sweets are in favor of 

 legislation for the standardization of 

 manufacturing conditions, so that candy 

 quality may be kept high; then they 

 feel they will be in strong position • to 

 appeal to the public. 



HANDS OFF. 



During the war the people of the 

 United States willingly accepted all acts 

 of the government as for the general 

 good, although it was apparent even 

 then that some of the decrees, like the 

 one on heatless Mondays, did more harm 

 than good; but now we want hands off. 

 As Elbert H. Gary, head of the Steel 

 Corporation, said in a public statement 

 last week: 



* ' It is time that industry and enter- 

 prise in the United States shall be en- 

 couraged and protected instead of at- 

 tacked, interrupted and destroyed." 



Mr. Gary was not speaking of the ac- 

 tivities of the Federal Horticultural 

 Board, and it is doubtful if he ever 

 heard of that body, but his words need 

 not have been changed in the least de- 

 gree had he held that destructive 

 agency in mind. 



A BRITISH VIEW. 



' ' The approaching quarantine con- 

 tinues to occupy a large amount of space 

 in the American trade press," says the 

 Horticultural Advertiser (British), and 

 "as far as outsiders can judge, opinions 

 for or against depend almost entirely 

 upon the effect the quarantine is pre- 

 sumed to bring about with regard to the 

 financial interests of the writers. 



"As we remarked when the subject 

 was first discussed, the arguments about 

 the exclusion of insect and other pests 

 are mere 'camouflage' and are not ap- 

 parently taken seriously by any of the 

 parties concerned. 



"The organs which represent the 

 nursery trade proper, that is, the actual 

 growers of trees, shrubs, etc., are work- 

 ing on the assumption that prohibition 

 of imports will benefit the trade. It is, 

 of course, realized that the exclusion of 

 imports will cause temporary incon- 

 venience, but writers have a robust faitl 

 in the power of the American grower to 

 produce anything which the country re- 

 quires, if a profitable price is insured 

 by the cutting off of all outside competi- 

 tion. 



"On the other hand, the florists, who 

 form a much larger and more influential 

 body than with us, see plainly that pro- 

 hibition means the loss of several profita- 

 ble lines and the cutting down of their 

 profits. Their three leading papers, 

 which, without flattery, occupy a very 

 high position in the trade press of the 

 world, unite in condemning the quaran- 

 tine from every point of view and in 

 encouraging the agitation which is being 

 carried on against it. 



' ' We would not like to prophesy which 

 side will win, but in view of the mis- 

 chief which this new law will do, not 

 only to oilr own trade, but also that of 

 our friends on the continent, there is no 

 need to make any declaration as to the 

 direction in which our sympathy lies. ' ' 



