22 



The Florists^ Review 



Septbmbek 25, 1919. 



Established, 1897, by a. L. ORANT. 



Published every Thnrsday by 

 The Florists' Publishino Co.. 



520-560 Oaxton Building, 



608 South Dear bora St., Chicago. 



Tele., Wabash 8195. 



Resrlstered cable address, 



florrlew, Cblcago. 



Entered as second class matter 

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

 caKo. 111., under the Act of March 

 3.1879. 



Subscription price, $1.60 a year. 

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



Advertlslnfr rates quoted upon 

 request. Only strictly trade ad- 

 vertislng accepted. 



I 



Besults bring advertising. 

 The Review brings results. 



Got your coal in yet? 



Cyclamens are in big demand to take 

 the place of azaleas. 



Greenhouse space is as nearly all in 

 use as it ever will be. 



There are a good many ' ' it's ' ' in grow- 

 ers ' plans, but none is so big as expe- 

 rienced help. 



Greenhouse labor, if not the highest 

 paid in the country, is among the least 

 discontented. 



Express shipments are generally re- 

 ported to be handled better this autumn 

 than they were a year ago. 



Better hours and working conditions, 

 aside from the matter of pay, are neces- 

 sary to secure and hold the help needed 

 in this trade. 



The rapid growth of the F. T. D. dur- 

 ing the last year promises a larger and 

 more interesting meeting than ever, at 

 Buffalo, October 14 and 15. 



According to the almanac, the autumn 

 opened at 9:46 p. m., September 23, but 

 most florists ' cash registers, still an ex- 

 cellent index, indicate the fall season 

 arrived several days earlier. 



What the florists' business needs most 

 of all is improved average quality. The 

 best stock is good enough, but there is so 

 much low grade stuff offered as "the 

 best ' ' that skepticism is hard to over- 

 come. 



Why do men ship plant stock they 

 would not be satisfied to receive? Cases 

 of it frequently come to light concerning 

 growers with whom one would not hesitate 

 to leave a pocketbook without counting 

 the contents. 



Judging by the number of letters The 

 Review is receiving about the writers' de- 

 sire or inability to procure field-grown 

 carnation plants, there must be scores of 

 country florists who will have to send to 

 city markets for cut flowers this winter. 



For New York retailers Septeml)er zO 

 was a red-letter day; it marked the real 

 reopening of the steamer business on the 

 pre-war scale. That day eleven ships 

 cleared for European ports with 4,824 

 civilian passengers. Large quantities of 

 bon voyage flowers for them were de- 

 livered to the boats. 



A CHANCE FOR YOUR CITY. 



Is your city represented each week in 

 the news columns of The Review? If it 

 is not, you can "put it on the map"' 

 by contributing a news-letter — once a 

 week if there 's enough doing, once each 

 two or three weeks if you prefer. But 

 the trade wants to know once in a while 

 what you're doing in your town. The 

 Review pays space rates to regular cor- 

 respondents. 



A REASON OR AN OPPORTUNITY. 



The Mandarin cover on The Review 

 was chosen for a purpose — to make it 

 possible at a glance to pick this paper 

 out in any pile of stuff on a florist 's 

 desk. 



The telegraph delivery cards are 

 printed on paper of a different color for 

 a reason — so everyone can turn instant- 

 ly to them; no hunting. 



The result has been the almost uni- 

 versal use of the Pink Part when an 

 order is to be sent to a florist in another 

 town. 



Look it over. 



Those whose towns are represented 

 may find the reason why their own 

 telegraph delivery business is not so 

 large as they expected. 



Those who do not find their cities 

 represented will see their opportunity. 



HOLDING THE HELP. 



A rose grower near Chicago is dis- 

 couraged with a first attempt at en- 

 couraging the workers with a share of 

 the earnings of the place. Five men 

 are employed, a working foreman and 

 four assistants. Each was paid a fair 

 aalarv and, in addition, received a share 

 of the weekly check from the commis- 

 sion house, the foreman five per cent, 

 the others each one per cent. Theo- 

 retically, the bonus should have stimu- 

 lated each man to do his best to in- 

 crease production and the income, but, 

 practically, it had no such effect, ex- 

 cept, perhaps, for the first few weeks. 

 After that, the better income seemed 

 to inspire the desire to get the money 

 more easily — there was a demand for 

 additional help to make the work 

 lighter; the foreman wanted to drop 

 the word "working" from his title 

 and, his percentage being on weekly 

 income, not annual profits, ,ioined with 

 the men in asking for more help. Un- 

 der the circumstances the nine per cent 

 of the gross income given as bonus 

 proved to reduce the net to less than 

 the rental value of the property. 



SUMMER BUSINESS. 



The greatest success in the florists' 

 business has been, and probably will be, 

 made by the men who are able to note 

 changes in the trend of trade events, 

 and who can adapt themselves to them. 

 Such men are giving thought to the un- 

 questionable fact that the florists' busi- 

 ness ha,s become an all-the-vear-around 

 affair, as demonstrated by the summer 

 season recently closed. Old-fashioned 

 florists have difficulty eetting over the 

 idea that there is nothing doing in a 

 selling way from the time schools close 

 in spring until they reopen in the au- 

 tumn, but observing men have noted a 

 steady increase in the business for sev- 

 eral summers, until this year the de- 

 mand for all kinds of good stock has 

 been steady, even strong in many places. 

 Every florist who was in position to 



take advantage of the demand mad • 

 money right through the summer this 

 year. 



The question now is not what tii > 

 winter has in store — we are a unit ii 

 Relieving business will be big — but as 

 to next summer. It is time to plan for 

 next June to September. 



There is no reasori to believe the do 

 sire for flowers ever will be less than 

 it is at present; the demand will not gv 

 down except under the influence of con- 

 ditions over which florists have no di- 

 rect control. Summer business next 

 year might be reduced by unemploy 

 ment, or by unusually hot weather, but 

 these are almost the only factors which 

 can affect the demand the country over. 

 With everybody working, with an ab- 

 sence of those elements of excitement 

 which take minds off the routine of 

 life, the demand for flowers will not be 

 less next summer, or at any other time. 



A HINT HERE. 



The Review has more subscribers in 

 New York and Pennsylvania than in 

 any other two states, although in south- 

 ern New England the circulation is 

 greater than in any other district of 

 equal area, but some advertisers think 

 of where a paper is printed, losing sight 

 of the fact that it's where it is read 

 that counts: 



Enclosed find check for the renewal of m.v 

 subscription. The Review Is a good paper and 

 full of Interesting things. The only fault I have 

 to find with the advertising matter is that more 

 eastern growers do not advertise In It. — Allan 

 H. Faxon, Soutbbrldge, Mass., September 16, 

 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. 



CHICAGO. 



Tbe Market. 



There was a lull in the middle of 

 last week, but September 20 the mar- 

 ket enjoyed a rush of a character to 

 remind one of the conditions which 

 prevailed in the early autumn last year. 

 It was one year ago this week that the 

 tide turned. Our wave of prosperity 

 first was felt in the fourth week of 

 September last year. It gathered force 

 in the week that contained the last 

 days of September and the first days 

 of October, rising to the flood in the 

 first full week in October. After that 

 for months the market hr^ all the 

 business, and more, that could be man- 

 aged. We are now approaching the 

 time when it will be no inconsiderable 

 achievement to do as big a volume of 

 business as was done last year. 



So far, nearly all wholesalers and re- 

 tailers are ahead. One of the larger 

 houses reports that last week's sales 

 exceeded those of the same week last 

 year by thirty-five per cent and there 

 is no complaint from anyone who has 

 good stock ready for market. Prices 

 are good, better than a year ago. 



Roses continue to be the principal 

 commodity in the cut flower market. 

 The supply is not so large as it was a 

 few days earlier and the quality has 

 improved to a notable degree. Even 

 the most conservative chronicler would 

 not hesitate to record that this market 

 never has seen finer roses in September. 

 There are large quantities of fine Rus- 

 sell, splendid cuts of Columbia and Pre- 

 mier in all lengths, a good supply of 

 Ophelia and more than the usual quan- 



