18 



The Florists^ Review 



JONB 12. 1919. 



(I 



Established, 1897, by O. L. QHkHn. 



Pabltshed every Thnrsday by 

 The Florists' Publishing Co., 



620-S60 Oaxton BnildlnK, 



BOB South Dearborn St., Chicacro. 



Tele.. Wabash 8196. 



Regrlstered cable address, 



Florriew, Oblcavo. 



Entered as second class matter 

 Dec. S. 1897. at the poet-oflBce at Ohl- 

 ca«o. 111., under the Act of March 

 8. 1879. ■ 



Subscription price, tlJM) a year. 

 To Canada, $2.fi0; to Europe, 13.00. 



Advertising rates quoted upon 

 request. Only strictly trade ad- 

 Tertlsing accepted. 



n 



RESULTS. 



We give them. You get them. 



We both have them. 



Postage stamps cost less than either 

 telephone or telegraph messages, so why 

 not act -in time, save money and avoid 

 error ? 



So far geraniums have been selling as 

 fast as they come into bloom. There prob- 

 ably is a fortnight of good business left 

 for the plantsmen. 



Is the present industrial impetus the 

 optimistic rebound of restricted enter- 

 prise, or the reckless joy-ride of relieved 

 spirits before reason puts on the brakes? 



When retail florists are called upon to 

 bid against each other for a job, the man 

 who is willing to promise as much as he 

 must, and to supply just what he is paid 

 for, has all the best of the competition. 



Those who furnish equipment for re- 

 tail flower stores say they never have had 

 so much prospective business as now. 

 Large numbers of florists evidently are 

 planning to enlarge their sales facilities 

 during the summer. 



Growers note that with the better 

 wages now- being paid, some of the work- 

 ers manifest a disinclination to do man- 

 ual labor. It never will be possible to 

 use only one's hands or one's head in 

 successful greenhouse work. 



Is j'our business potboundf If it is, 

 shift to a larger size by getting increased 

 facilities and some competent assistants. 

 With trained help unprocurable, call in 

 a good man from some other line and 

 make it worth his while to learn. 



War, even if destructive physically, is 

 constructive spiritually, and one of the 

 biggest things it has done to this country 

 is to show business of all kinds that serv- 

 ice is what counts, not meaning patriotic 

 service in a uniform and with a gun, but 

 everyday service to the fellow citizens who 

 are one 's patrons. 



The examination of a considerable num- 

 ber of different lots of unsatisfactory 

 geraniums and chrysanthemums this 

 spring leads to the belief that some prop- 

 agators went wrong through ignorance 

 and some through cupidity. In both cases 

 they used stuff for cuttings that never 

 could make first-class stock. One can not 

 cut a plant to pieces and get an equally 

 good cutting out of every fragment. 



Bulb growing in the United States will 

 get a slow start because of the diflSculty 

 of procuring planting stock. 



After an excellent business during the 

 past season, southern florists expect con- 

 tinued strong trade, banking on the high 

 price of cotton. 



What the trade needs, today, more than 

 anything else is a body of capable young 

 assistants. The only reason we have not 

 got them is that we have been afraid to 

 pay attractive wages. 



If all your neighbors are storing coal 

 this summer, you may be reasonably sure 

 of an easy situation next winter, but if 

 nobody is storing fuel now look out for 

 the pinch that •mH come later. 



The plant brokers have had a fine sea- 

 son and have served a useful purpose, just 

 as the cut flower commission man does. 

 They enable the growers to devote their 

 whole thought and energy to increasing 

 production. 



Most florists' businesses are one-man 

 affairs. This is lovely until a boom strikes, 

 like this year. Then the one-man busi- 

 ness has growing pains. They are worst 

 at first. It is hard to make the start; 

 afterward, as the founder becomes ac- 

 customed to not trying to do it all alone, 

 growth comes easier. 



Gradual reduction of the taxes caused 

 by the war tend to increase the public's 

 inclination to loosen the purse-strings. It 

 is proposed in Congress to remove the 

 luxury taxes immediately, and to cut the 

 income and excess profits taxes further. 

 That means Mr. and Mrs. Jones will have 

 a few more dollars for extras — including 

 flowers. 



GOINa GOOD. 



Business never was better with The 

 Eeview and its patrons. The volume 

 of advertising carried in this paper in 

 May was greater than any other May 

 in its history and June has started far 

 ahead of last year. Probably it is be- 

 cause of letters like these: 



The ad has done the work. We sold a great 

 number of plants with It that we could not have 

 sold otherwise. — T. R. McGinniss & Son, South 

 WiUiamsport, Pa., June 2, 1919. 



All I have left is my glass, and I had several 

 chances to even sell that. — F. L. Henry, the Mil- 

 ford Greenhouse, Milford, III., June 2, 1919. 



When you hear a florist complain of 

 the cost of advertising you may be 

 pretty certain he spends a good bit of 

 money elsewhere than in The Eeview. 



NEW BLOOD. 



If the growers who complain that this, 

 that or the other fine old variety is not 

 so good as it used to be will examine 

 their methods they probably can find 

 the reason. 



Take, for instance, the geranium, at 

 this season occupying a conspicuous 

 place in the trade. How many gera- 

 nium growers have planted out or set 

 aside. their stock plants? Nine out of 

 every ten florists who propagate gera- 

 niums use as stock plants whatever 

 happens to be left, the slow growers, 

 the shy bloomers, the runts and the 

 blind, not to mention the diseased. With 

 such genealogy traceable through many 

 generations, is it any wonder favorite 

 varieties run out? Isn't it, instead, to 

 be marveled that they maintain their 

 health and original characteristics so 

 long as they do? 



Any student of genetics will say 



that quick decadence must result from 

 such a system, or lack of system, as the 

 growers follow. To work a stock up, 

 propagate only from the healthiest 

 plants, selected for the qualities one 

 wishes to perpetuate. To try to re- 

 vitalize a run-down stcok is too slow; 

 throw it out and bring in new blood by 

 buying the best, regardless of a little 

 extra cost. 



BAIL KATES MAY RISE AGAIN. 



Before florists have obtained their 

 next season's coal, railroad rates may 

 drive the freight cost on it still higher. 



' ' To provide for the greatly increased 

 cost of railroad labor, as well as labor 

 in industries supplying coal, steel and 

 other materials to the carriers, it seems 

 inevitable that the government must 

 soon advance railroad rates sufficiently 

 to provide at least from $300,000,000 to 

 $400,000,000 additional revenue." 



The foregoing statement, by Frank 

 H. Fayant, assistant to the chairman 

 of the Association of Railway Execu- 

 tives, he explained in the following 

 way: 



"The increased cost of railroad labor 

 since 1917 is $1,000,000,000 a year; the 

 average annual earnings per man have 

 risen from $1,000 to $1,500. The in- 

 creased cost of materials consumed in 

 the production of transportation is more 

 than $500,000,000 a year, and the bulk 

 of this increased cost goes to the work- 

 ers in coal mines, steel plants, and the 

 other industries producing railroad 

 materials. It is fair to say that of the 

 $1,500,000,000 added to the cost of pro- 

 ducing transportation all but a small 

 part is in wages. 



"To meet this increased operating 

 cost, the government has thus far in- 

 creased railroad revenues through ad- 

 vances in rates by about $1,000,000,000; 

 so that there is left $500,000,000 of in- 

 creased costs that have not been pro- 

 vided for." 



CARNATION PRICES IN ENGLAND. 



War's effect on cut flower prices waa 

 apparent in England long before it was 

 in the United States, because we were 

 about three years behind Great Britain 

 in all things pertaining to the cata- 

 clysm, and the trade phenomena we have 

 noted this season were felt with greater 

 force in the insular democracy. 



Take, for instance, carnation prices: 

 The Year Book of the British Carnation 

 Society, recently received by The Re- 

 view, contains a comparison of the 

 prices of 1914 and 1918 on such stand- 

 ard American varieties as Enchantress, 

 May Day, Mrs. Lawson, Winsor, Rose- 

 pink Enchantress, White Enchantress 

 and Beacon. 



Translating to American money, in 

 June, 1914, these flowers brought from 

 1% cents to 2 cents each (they are 

 quoted at Covent Garden by the dozen, 

 not by the hundred as here). In June, 

 1918, the London wholesale prices were 

 4 cents to 5 cents. The prices in January, 

 1914, were 5 cents to 6 cents and in 

 January, 1918, 8 cents to 12 cents. At 

 Christmas, 1914, the prices were 4 cents 

 to 6 cents and at Christmas, 1918, they 

 were 16 cents to 18 cents. These are 

 actual average returns to growers, not 

 advertised prices for selected stock. 



As the reason for the prices it is 

 stated that the supply in 1918 was only 

 about one-fourth what it was in 1914. 



