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16 



The Florists^ Review 



JuNi 0. 1919. 



fl 



Established, 1897, by O. L. GRANT. 



Published every Thursday by 

 The Florists' Publishing Co., 



620-660 Oaxton Building, 



608 Soutb Dearborn St., Chicago. 



Tele., Wabash 8196. 



Regrintered cable address, 



riorvlew, Chicago. 



Entered as second class matter 

 Dec. 3. 1897. at the post-office at Chi. 

 ca«o. 111., under the Act of March 

 3,1879. 



Subscription price, $1.60 a year. 

 To Canada, $2.60; to Europe. $3.00. 



Advertlsintr rates quoted upon 

 request. Only strictly trade ad- 

 vertising accepted. 



n 



Besults bring advertising. 

 The Beview brings results. 



Fob the general welfare of the trade we 

 need, not more stock, but better stock. 

 The money is in the quality. 



As a general rule this season, buyers 

 have paid more and received less, which 

 has subtracted somewhat from the joy of 

 a middleman's life. 



A ONE-MAN florists ' business is a mighty 

 nice thing, but it has its strenuous seasons. 

 Why not take in a young fellow who likes 

 the trade and make it worth his while to 

 stick to it? 



The Holland bulb salesmen, each of 

 whom represents a large grower, tells you 

 to beware the man who is only a jobber; 

 he won 't be able to buy up the stock to 

 fill his orders with this season. 



It has been two or three years since 

 there have been good bay trees and box- 

 woods in quantity. There are plenty 

 now, but when the present supply is gone 

 it will be a long time before there are 

 any more, unless the quarantine is can- 

 celed. 



The American Sweet Pea Society will 

 hold its eleventh annual exhibition at tlie 

 American Museum of Natural History, 

 New York, opening June 21, with the an- 

 nual business meeting that afternoon. 

 Anyone wishing a premium list should 

 address William Gray, secretary, Bellevue 

 avenue, Newport, R. I. 



The trade never approached the quiet 

 summer time in such good financial con- 

 dition as now. With only a few excep- 

 tions, the trade has welcomed and taken 

 full advantage of the unexpected oppor- 

 tunity this season has afforded to make 

 collections and pay bills. Not in years 

 has the trade approached summer with so 

 few liabilities. 



The call for bedding stock runs down 

 fast after Memorial day, but there are 

 several reasons why it should continue 

 later than usual this season. In the first 

 place, May was a cold, wet month, and 

 over the greater part of the United States 

 bedding operations were delayed. In the 

 second place, tl^e trade has been unusual- 

 ly short of help and has not caught up 

 with planting orders. Also; geraniums 

 have not come into bloom as early as they 

 should, and the better stock ncJw becom- 

 ing available may be expected to create 

 continued demand. 



Is it reasonable to expect the best 

 stock when one seeks the lowest price? 



If buyers would not be quite so insist- 

 ent on early deliveries they might get a 

 little better stock. 



The addition of packing costs has 

 become so general that moderate charges 

 have almost ceased to cause comment. 



A YEAR ago everybody was storing coal 

 for domestic, manufacturing and all other 

 purposes. Now nobody is storing, a sure 

 sign of a scramble later on. 



Evidently the cyclamen is to be called 

 on to play a leading part in next sea- 

 son's plant business. Numerous growers 

 are bringing on large batches of young 

 stock. 



Did you read on page 80 of last week 's 

 issue of The Review the bill now pending 

 in Congress to provide penalties for ship- 

 ping stock not completely labeled and 

 true to name? If the bill becomes law it 

 will apply to greenhouse and field-grown 

 florists' stock. 



The end of the war again has brought 

 the middle west to the front as the part 

 of the country in which the greatest trade 

 development is likely to take place in the 

 next few years. Food production will 

 bring fabulous sums to the agricultural 

 states this year. 



The surest way to get something for 

 yourself is to do somethiag for others. 

 If you stop to analyze any successful busi- 

 ness, whether it be a greenhouse, a flower 

 store or a newspaper, you wUl find that 

 it has been built on that principle; by 

 serving well it prosper. 



ANOTHER BIO ONE. 



Memorial day has, gone on record as 

 in line with Christmas, Easter and 

 Mothers' day, bringing the largest de- 

 mand the trade ever has known at this 

 holiday. It becomes trite to say that 

 sach special flower day was "the big- 

 gest ever," but it is the fact this sea- 

 son. But the records will be hard to 

 beat next time. 



TAKE DR. OARFIEIJ)'S WORD. 



Last season we, as florists, as well as 

 all the other people, took Dr. Harry A. 

 Garfield 's word on coal matters, for he 

 had the say. When he told us, .as flo 

 fists, to cut our coal purchases to half, 

 what he said went. Today Mr. Garfield 

 says: 



The best time to put in oirfors for next win- 

 ter's coal Is NOW, when coal is plentiful and 

 demand for it light. Analysis of coal production 

 records since November 1 indicate that fuel will 

 be far from plentiful next winter if production 

 continues to fall. 



Unfortunately, Dr. Garfield 's words 

 do not now carry the weight of com- 

 mand. 



ENOUGH FLOWERS. 



For almost the first time since late 

 September there are as many cut flow- 

 ers, all over the United States, as can 

 be nsed. Unfortunately, with suffici- 

 ency has come overabundance, the 

 spring glut, as it were, but it is worthy 

 of note that the trade never in all its 

 history has enjoyed so long a season 

 of uninterrupted prosperity. There al- 

 ways comes a time each spring when 

 weather conditions force flowers to the 

 markets faster than they can be sold. 

 It is notable that the condition has 

 been so long delayed and it is not to 



be taken that this first glut in many, 

 many months indicates an end of the 

 good times. Not necessarily. In a few 

 days the oversupply will pass ajid the 

 trade will settle down to steady sum- 

 mer business, to the best summer busi- 

 ness, unless all signs fail, the trade ever 

 has enjoyed. Then, with returning 

 cool weather we shall open an autumn 

 season which will break all records for 

 volume of business. It may be that we 

 shall have more stock and less demand 

 than last autumn, but none of us would 

 wish for a recurrence of the conditions 

 which created the special call for fun- 

 eral flowers last fall. Instead, we shall 

 have a demand for social affairs next 

 season. 



DR. GALLOWAY WAS RIGHT. 



When Dr. Beverly T. Galloway told 

 the hecklers at Boston a few months ago 

 that the plant quarantine was going into 

 effect in spite of all h — (those may 

 not have been his exact words, but one 

 got the idea) and that the trade might 

 as well make the best of it, he was 

 right, absolutely right. 



The quarantine did go into effect, 

 June 1, and we might as well do busi- 

 ness — what we can. 



Let us agree that the quarantine is 

 an extremely crude piece of work; that 

 it does a great deal of needless and ad- 

 mitted injury to accomplish a debatable 

 amount of good; that it is the work of 

 men without practical knowledge, of 

 men obsessed with the sense of their 

 own power, and that it probably would 

 not have come to pass had not certain 

 growers supported it in the belief that 

 it would aet for them even more ef- 

 fectively than the most impossible tariff 

 wall. Let us agree to all that, and more 

 — the quarantine is in force. 



Now the question is, what can each oi ; 

 of us do to produce at home something 

 to replace the stock that is beyond our 

 reach f What can you do? Ask your- 

 self that. WeH, go do it! 



Dr. Gallowaj also is quoted as telling 

 the BostMiians thst-the quarantine not 

 only was going on, but that it will stay 

 on till. the proverbial hot place freezes 

 over. (Those may not have been his 

 exact words, but that seems to have 

 been the idea.) Perhaps! But it is 

 just barely possible tnat the present 

 bunch will be gone from vVashington 

 while the pitch is still hot and it may 

 be the next outfit will listen to reason 

 — unless we should happen to like the 

 quarantine when we all get adjusted 

 to it! 



SOLD OUT? 



It is apparent that a large number of 

 producers of plants for the trade have 

 sold out this spring before the demami 

 has been satisfied and that there is thi 

 opportunity for others to turn surpluses 

 into cash by the simple process of mak 

 ing known their offers. Like this: 



Please stop my ad of ageratum, as I am soUi 

 out. -F. Sokol, Worcester, Mass., May 24, 1919. 



We are entirely sold out on vincas and petu 

 nias advertised in the Classifled section of Tli' 

 Review. ^Wm. Schwan & Son, Fredonia, N. Y. 

 May 25, 1919. 



The ClassiQed ad cleaned up our itiinsics.- 

 Port Wnshington Floral Co., Port Wnshington. 

 Wis., May 24, 1919. 



Kindly discontinue one Display ad of spring 

 plants, as the stock is all sold. — C. H. Frey. 

 Lincoln, Neb.. May 26, 1919. 



When you hear a florist complain ol 

 the cost of advertising you may be 

 pretty certain he spends a good bit of 

 money elsewhere than in The Review. 



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