26 



The Florists^ Review 



January 8, 1920. 



flf 



Estobllsbed, 1897. by Q. L. GRANT. 



Pabllshed every Tbarsday by 

 The Florists* Publishing Co^ 



020-660 Oaxton Balldlngr, 



808 Soath Dearborn St., Ohlcaffo. 



Tele., Wabash 8196. 



Reelatered cable address, 



Florvlew. Oblcago. 



Entered as second class matter 

 Dec. 3. 1897, at the poet-office at Ohi> 

 caffo. 111., under the Act of March 

 4, 1879. 



Subscription price, $1.00 a rear. 

 To Canada, $2.60; to Europe, 13.00. 



AdvertlslnK rates quoted upon 

 request. Only strictly trade ad- 

 Tertislng accepted. 



Besults bring advertising. 

 The Review brings results. 



Has anyone lost through Sunday clos- 

 ing* 



Grow good stock and you can sell it 

 at a profit. 



Nobody ever got better prices without 

 asking for them. 



The sale with a kick in it is the wrong 

 kind of a sale to make. 



Unusually dark weather has reduced 

 the supply of cut flowers in many mar- 

 kets. 



It is apparent that Eose Premier will 

 be more heavily planted next season than 

 any other variety. 



Neither glass, cypress nor steel is 

 likely to be lower in price during the 

 building season of 1920. 



The demand in this trade at tlie start 

 of 1920 is not so much for increased 

 wages as for shorter hours. 



After six months of wartime proliibi- 

 tiou has the florists' business any cause 

 for regret in the near approach of the 

 permanent article? 



What the trade needs most of all is 

 improvement in its business methods — 

 an advance in quality, better packing, 

 greater accuracy in office detail — a gen- 

 eral rise in dependability. 



Five double page advertisements last 

 issue, five again this issue and four al- 

 ready ordered for January 15 — who says 

 the trade does not know how to use 

 printers' ink to best advantage? 



The bonus system does not seem to 

 have made any great hit in this trade. 

 With those who have tried the payment 

 of periodical bonuses as a means of hold- 

 ing and stimulating the interest of as- 

 sistants the almost unanimous report is 

 that they failed of their purpose and that 

 straight salary propositions will be used 

 hereafter. 



V 



DeIiAYS followng the printers' strike 

 in New York are responsible for the late 

 appearance of the November issue of the 

 S. A. F. Journal, which reached members 

 this week. In that number appears the 

 final instalment of the Detroit convention 

 proceedings. The charter and the con- 

 stitution and by-laws, as amended at De- 

 troit, are reprinted also. 



Use of the St. Valentine's day stamps 

 sold by Secretary Young's office will be 

 to your own individual profit. 



Hesitation about charging the con- 

 sumer the fourteen per cent increase in 

 miners' wages has been lost by the coal 

 dealers. Nearly everyone is paying the 

 addition now. 



Advertisers will assist materially in 

 keeping down the cost of printing and 

 keeping up the quality of service if they 

 send their instructions Thursday, Fri- 

 day and Saturday. Practically every ad- 

 vertisement received Tuesday calls for 

 the payment of overtime. 



Across the water the horticultural 

 trades interestedly watch the progress of 

 "collective advertising," as they call it, 

 in this country. The S. A. P. plan ap- 

 pears to them to be on a gigantic scale 

 and the word ' ' super-advertising ' ' is used 

 in description of it. Abolition of gluts 

 is of interest there, as here, and some 

 British florists would like to follow the 

 example of our national publicity cam- 

 paign. 



CHBISTMAS PRICES. 



"Forgive us our Christmases us we forgive 

 tliuse who Christmas against us." 



Our prayer has been answered — al- 

 though Christmas prices were higher 

 than ever before, practically the only 

 complaint was from within the trade ; 

 the public paid cheerfully and has kept 

 on buying. There has been little sign 

 of the usual after-Christmas reaction 

 this season. 



FOR ST. VALENTINE'S DAY. 



What florists reap in the way of busi- 

 ness for St. Valentine's day will de- 

 l)end a great deal upon what they sow 

 beforehand. A little effort will accom- 

 plish a great deal. Although some 

 blooms are sent as valentines, the use of 

 flowers on this day is hot so general as 

 it could be. This year, when a money- 

 spending people are in their most lavish 

 mood, the observance of February 14 

 should produce more business for the 

 trade than it ever has before. 



To do tliis would not necessitate much 

 effort. If tlie florist will begin now in 

 his preparation and, with a simple 

 folder, a few words to customers when 

 they make purchases and a little news- 

 paper advertising, remind his patrons 

 of the occasion, he will assuredly gain 

 many orders. Should a florist begin now 

 and ask each man who made a purchase 

 in his store, "Would you like to leave 

 an order for a corsage or some flowers 

 to be delivered St. Valentine's day?" 

 there is no doubt that he would accumu- 

 late many orders by February 14. The 

 effort is slight, yet the returns are, in 

 the aggregate, of much importance. 



Consistent effort on the part of re- 

 tailers during the four or five weeks 

 before St. Valentine's day will make 

 tliis holiday's business one of the most 

 important of the year. "Forehanded" 

 nearly expresses the value of early 

 preparation, if you get the pun. 



RESTRICTIONS ON OUTPUT. 



A year ago the production of flowers 

 was limited on account of the number 

 of greenhouses which had been shut 

 down during the war. Today it is being 

 hampered, but by a different cause — the 

 scarcity of help. Though war regula- 

 tions are over, fuel restrictions are off 



and ample capital is ready to build new 

 glass, the handicap of labor scarcity im- 

 pedes the advance of the trade at the 

 rate it wishes to go and no relief seems 

 in sight. 



Not all the employees who left while 

 the war was on came back to their old 

 places. And the inducements to those 

 unacquainted with the floWer business 

 to enter the trade are not popularly 

 alluring. A liking for their work has 

 been the chief hold the profession has 

 had upon those who followed it; thought 

 of the monetary return has usually been 

 secondary. So, when the trade no longer 

 liolds the sons of florists in its ranks, 

 there is danger ahead. 



The danger is greater now that the 

 demand for flowers and the ability to 

 pay for them lias increased so rapidly. 

 Publicity, it would seem, has out- 

 stripped production. If the trade is to 

 advance still farther, which, with the 

 impetus it now has, it surely must, new 

 hands must be brought into our ranks 

 to help meet the problems of production 

 the growing demand has put before us. 



Prices are properly high when they 

 must cover the cost of production. But 

 when they are forced up by the scarcity 

 of stock, beyond reasonable limits, they 

 react on the demand. Valley, for ex- 

 ample, has become so high that it is 

 little asked for. If scarcity of labor 

 restricts the output of our greenhouse 

 ranges so that it is far below the de- 

 mand, a dangerous reaction may follow 

 in like manner. 



CONFIDENCE WITH CAUTION. 



"A spirit of confidence, tempered by 

 caution,^' in the words of a business re- 

 view, "characterizes the attitude of 

 business on the threshold of the new 

 year. The recent coal strike and such 

 disturbing elements as the continued 

 rise of production costs have had a 

 sobering effect, which will undoubtedly 

 react upon business and emphasize the 

 need for a more intensive study of un- 

 derlying conditions. 



' ' During the latter part of last month 

 the attention of the public and of retail 

 merchants generally was so concentrated 

 on the record-breaking holiday trade as 

 to cause the ultimate effect of the fuel 

 shortage, resulting from the coal strike, 

 to be overlooked. Present indications 

 from nearly all centers are to the effect 

 that an unparalleled holiday business 

 was done during December. 



"The chief problem of merchants is 

 still to secure goods necessary to main- 

 tain depleted stocks, while the stringent 

 fuel restrictions have acted as a severe 

 eheck on production in some industries 

 and still further delayed the time when 

 production can anywhere nearly catch 

 up with consumer demand. 



"An element of the danger in the 

 situation is indicated by the reports 

 from some sources that many dealers, 

 in their efforts to protect themselves on 

 deliveries, have contracted for more 

 than their maximum capacity for some 

 time to come. The dangers attendant 

 upon such a policy become increasingly 

 clear a.s the policy becomes more gen- 

 eral. The trend of the consumer buy- 

 ing cannot be fairly judged by the vol- 

 ume of holiday trade, but thus far the 

 warnings against extravagant spending 

 have had little apparent effect, though 

 merchants will do well to watch keenly 

 the trend of consumer buying during the- 

 early weeks of 1920." 



/ 



