30 



The Florists^ Review 



OCTOBBB 23, 1919. 



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EsUblished, 1897. by a. L. GRAITr. 



PnblUhed every Thursday by 

 The Florists' Publishino Co., 



Sr)-SQO Oaxton Bulldlnfr, 



808 South Dearborn St.. GbicaffO. 



Tele., Wabash 8196. 



R«Kl4tered cable addrew, 



Florrlew, Chicago. 



Entered as second class matter 

 Dec. 3, 1897. at the poet-office at Ohl- 

 cacro. lU., under the Act of March 

 8,1879. 



Subscription price, fl.SO a year. 

 To Canada, $2.60; to Enrope. 18.00. 



Advertlslnir rates quoted upon 

 request. Only strictly trade ad* 

 Tcrtialnff accepted. 



EESULTS. 



We give them. You get them. 



We both have them. 



The trade's growth depends upon the 

 skilled help within it. Ours needs more. 



Frost heavy enough to kill outdoor 

 stock has held off remarkably in many lo- 

 calities. 



The mild weather so far this autumn 

 has saved many a car of coal, but it won 't 

 last always. 



Ir this month equals last year 's figures 

 in flower sales, it will be a notable record. 

 For, all are thankful, the cause of last 

 year 's high mark is absent this season. 



Philip Breitmeyer told the F. T. D. 

 convention at Buffalo his store had a wait- 

 ing list instead of a wanted list of em- 

 ployees. Others would like to have cul- 

 tural directions. 



The success of Philadelphia 's ' ' Say It 

 with Flowers" week will cause a much 

 wider observance of the event next sea- 

 son. Washington's will be watched ^vith 

 interest November 3 to 8. 



From all directions comes the report 

 that the predicted winter scarcity of mer- 

 chandise has begim to be felt. It soon will 

 be apparent in everything florists use, 

 from twine to baskets and ribbons. 



If the railroads, the express companies 

 and the PostoflBce Department are all co- 

 operating to try to help you pack and 

 ship your goods more safely, isn 't it 

 worth a little care and thought on your 

 part, too? 



Anyone who commits any act resulting 

 in depressing the value of flowers hurts 

 us all. Florists all must reckon on higTier 

 costs this winter than ever before, and 

 they must keep their own prices up in 

 self-defense. 



Canada is making itself felt in trade 

 circles far more prominently than in years 

 past. At Detroit and at Buffalo Dominion 

 florists were strongly represented. Last 

 week a second Canadian retailer was 

 elected to the board of directors of the 

 F. T. D. 



Many shippers have tried to save the in- 

 creased cost of packing materials by using 

 inferior stuff, and lost their goods in- 

 stead. Their shipments help to swell the 

 million dollars lost each month through 

 express shipments improperly packed and 

 marked. 



Loyalty is a powerful aid in employees. 

 It is worth cultivating carefully. 



Sunday closing has its converts and 

 backsliders each month. But the former 

 greatly outnumber the latter. 



The apprentice that you train today 

 will fill the position of manager that you '11 

 need tomorrow. Look ahead. n. 



It is plain that the price of coal is due 

 for another jump and that, in the mean- 

 time, production may be suspended. 



Though waiting for crisp weather to 

 put snap into flower buying, the trade in 

 general seems to have felt the impetus of 

 autumn already. 



The demand for rose novelties in retail 

 stores causes growers who have an eye to 

 profits to scan carefully the possibilities 

 of those being introduced. 



Business optimism in the face of 

 strikes and threatened strikes on every 

 hand betokens a firmer basis in the pres- 

 ent prosperity than some believed. 



Always one of the livest of trade or- 

 ganizations, the F. T. D. held its most 

 successful convention last week at Buffalo. 

 Its rapid growth is a certain indication of 

 the possibilities of the telegraph business. 



DOWN ON TWO COUNTS. 



Over the windows was only the name 

 ' ' Connor ' ' — though that is not the real 

 one — in gold letters. Behind the plate 

 glass were visible only three or four 

 large palms that screened the interior. 



' * Wonder if that 's a florist 's or an un- 

 dertaker 's shop." 



"You've got me." 



If the proprietor did not believe suf- 

 ficiently in publicity to designate his 

 business on the outside of his shop, 

 whether he went to the trouble of dis- 

 playing some flowers to the passers' 

 gaze or not, he could scarcely complaift 

 if a prospective flower buyer did not in- 

 vestigate, but left him to bury or be 

 buried, according to his trade. 



IT'S ALL IN THE VIEWPOINT. 



"Everybody seems to have an auto- 

 mobile in this town. That looks like 

 prosperity. Good times for florists, 

 eh?" 



"It's more like extravagance. Wait 

 till you try to collect the bills." 



Joy and Gloom, the inse{)arable twins, 

 are with us always. The difference is in 

 the point of view. To one who looks at 

 the possibilities, the prospect seems 

 roseate. But if he assumes a morose and 

 carping attitude, lie can find in them 

 clouds of blackness. 



The facts are the same to either pair 

 of eyes and to either mind. The differ- 

 ence lies in the interpretation. And it 

 varies as one j)uts a hopeful or a hope- 

 less meaning to it. 



The former is the tone of one who 

 tries, the aggressive worker. The latter 

 is the excuse of one who has quit, the 

 passive drifter. 



Have you got the right viewpoint? 

 For your sake; for the trade's sake. 



A CAUSE FOR COMPLAINT. 



There have been more than the usual 

 delays this season in the delivery of va- 

 rious kinds of stock. Imported stock has 

 moved forward with exasperating slow- 

 ness; it has been impossible for many 

 dealers to make shipments as quickly as 

 they had expected — and perhaps some of 

 them have not been too careful in the 



way they worded the statements of 

 what they expected to do. Also, grow- 

 ers have had so many orders that fre- 

 quently a part of them had to be held 

 until a successional batch of stock was 

 ready. Where the would-be buyers have 

 not been informed, they have felt that 

 it was not treating them fairly to hold 

 a remittance for days, or weeks, or 

 months, when immediate shipment was 

 expected. 



One buyer says that there could be 

 no criticism if these firms had published 

 the fact that they were booking orders 

 for future delivery, but they advertised 

 in such a way as to leave the impres- 

 sion that immediate shipment could be 

 expected. "It seems to me," says this 

 buyer, "that it is a species of misrep- 

 resentation and that any dealer impairs 

 the effectiveness of all his future adver- 

 tising by not being more exact in his 

 statements and in his treatment of his 

 customer. ' ' 



AND THE PROFITS. 



The florist knows how to pay out funds 

 in conducting his business and he knows 

 how to spend his salary, or whatever 

 he allots to his own and his family's 

 living expenses. But does he know what 

 best to do with the profits, especially 

 when they have been of good size of 

 late? 



' ' That 's a question the florist ought to 

 know the answer to," asserted Vincent 

 Gorly, of Grimm & Gorly, St. Louis, 

 ' ' and not have to wait until he is over 

 40, as I did, to find it out. 



"There is always the tendency to 

 invest it in real estate or in stock in 

 some other business. Even if the pur- 

 chase has been a good one, and not fake 

 oil or mining stock, there is always con- 

 cern, if not anxiety, as to the outside 

 investment. 



"And the florist can't afford to take 

 his mind from his own business, or di- 

 vide it between his own and another 

 business. He would do far better to 

 invest his profits in some safe municipal 

 or other kind of bond, on which the re- 

 turn would be five per cent or so. Then 

 he can lock them up in the safe deposit 

 vault and forget them, except when the 

 time comes to clip coupons once in six 

 months. He can give his undivided at- 

 tention to his own business and is more 

 likely to have additional profits to buy 

 more bonds to put hi the safe deposit 

 vault. 



"If one owns real estate the tenants 

 are forever telephoning about some dif- 

 ficulty, even when the florist is in the 

 midst of making-^ sale to a customer. 

 If he own? stock in a company he feels 

 he must keep an eye on it. The result 

 is that his trade suffers. And to get 

 ahead nowadays, one has to have his 

 mii:>i on his own business all the time." 



A VOICE FROM JERSEY. 



Many growers in the extreme east 

 miss the chance to get quick clearance 

 of their surplus stock by failing to of- 

 fer it in the Classified ads in The Re- 

 view. They forget that it is not where 

 a paper is printed, but where it is read, 

 that counts. Like this: 



The results of my advertlalriK In The Review 

 were very satlsfartory, digptwing of all the 

 plants I had to offer. — Robert W. Yeo, North 

 Borifon, N. J., October 18, 1919. 



If you hear a man complain of the 

 cost of advertising you can be pretty 

 certain he spends a good bit of money 

 elsewhere than in The Review. 



