68 



The Florists^ Review 



Januakx 22, 1920. 



qHRISTMAS COMES AGAIN 



NOTE NOW YOUR NEEDS FOR NEXT YEAR 



|HEN Christmas comes again 

 in 1920 we shall have the 

 same worries, the same hur- 

 ries, the same hustling and 

 bustling to get ready for the 

 big rush. How I sometimes 

 envy the florist in the coun- 

 try town with his range of greenhouses 

 at his backyard! How little does he 

 imagine how we florists in the larger 

 cities have to calculate every hand- 

 stroke and every motion in advance to 

 pull through Christmas in good fashion! 

 I do not want to say with big profits; 

 I only want to say with our colors flying 

 after the battle is won, so that our 

 friends before Christmas will be still 

 our friends when Christmas is over. 



Before the war — not our Christmas 

 war, but the world's war — it was com- 

 paratively easy for us to adjust our 

 work in accordance with the manifold 

 increased demand as far as plants were 

 concerned. The stock was to a certain 

 extent of much larger and hardier varia- 

 tion. We had different richly colored 

 hardy plants, berried types of aucubas, 

 ardisias, azaleas, flowering shrubs, dif- 

 ferent varieties of heathers, acacias and 

 camellias and other odd plants, in a far 

 greater number than we have now. 

 They gave color to the interior of a 

 flower shop and by their variation alone 

 added to the festive 

 holiday decoration. 

 In many flower 

 shops one finds a 

 variation with color 

 now, too, but it is 

 produced in some in- 

 stances with so 

 much ribbon that 

 the flower shop 

 looks more like an 

 assembly of dressed 

 up dolls, and we 

 scarcely know where 

 nature ends and 

 frills begin. 



Olden Times, 



We city florists, 

 a few years ago, re- 

 ceived our stock of 

 plants from the 

 growers five, six or 

 seven days ahead, 

 the decorative green 

 plants even eight 

 or nine days 

 ahead, and we were 

 able hy careful 

 treatment, if the 

 stock arrived in 

 good condition, to 

 plant our baskets 

 and to decorate our 

 specimen plants far 

 in advance and still 

 could depend that 

 the good quality of 

 the stock would last 

 a satisfactory time 

 with our customer 

 after it was sold. 



BY MAX SCHLING. 



Business conditions have changed en- 

 tirely in the last four years. Some va- 

 rieties of plants are scarce and will be 

 scarce until our growers will have done 

 sufScient propagation to bring the dif- 

 ferent varieties back to the old stand- 

 ard, in the same numbers as we were 

 used to when we could draw on Europe 

 to replenish our stock. The hardier and 

 slow-growing plants are far from being 

 plentiful. Some of them, like arau- 

 carias, which were such valuable plants 

 for our Christmas holidays, are obtain- 

 able only in small quantities in small- 

 sized plants. Against that, the output 

 in softer stocky like poinsettias, be- 

 gonias, solanums and primroses, has 

 been increased sufficiently to take the 

 place of the hardier plants. "^ 



False Figures. 



Many florists who do not keep strict 

 books give credit for their increase to 

 the larger quantity of stock grown or 

 sold. It is not so. Only a small part 

 of the increase is due to greater busi- 

 ness. A large part of it is due to in- 

 creased prices. A few years ago we 

 could buy our plants for much lower 

 prices. Now we are paying fifty and in 



Max Schllng. 



some instances seventy-five per cent 

 more and cannot get the variety* we 

 want. But soon our growers will catch 

 up with the production and until such 

 time we have to do the best we can. 



The day before Christmas I had sev- 

 eral requests from florists to let them 

 have poinsettia plants. They had orders 

 for them, had poinsettias on hand which 

 had no foliage, and were anxious to se- 

 cure some plants for orders placed with 

 them a few days in advance. 



After the holidays I visited some of 

 these florists and I found that many of 

 them did not order their stock the way 

 they should. Almost all florists order 

 under the impression that they have to 

 have the stock in their store several 

 days in advance and that they should 

 be able to have everything decorated 

 and ready for the customer to see, and 

 they work long in advance preparing 

 for the big rush. 



There should not be any loss in a well- 

 conducted business except from acci- 

 dental breakage or damage which could 

 not be prevented. A florist who has no 

 greenhouse at his disposal within easy 

 reach should gauge the keeping quality 

 of plants to such an extent that none of 

 the plants should be hurt by being 

 kept too long in an atmosphere which 

 is not beneficial to plant growth. 

 Plants like ardisias, 

 crotons, ferns, pan- 

 danus,drac8enas and 

 other hardy stock, 

 can reach the store 

 seven days in ad- 

 vance, and baskets 

 of such combina- 

 tions can be planted 

 easily and be i n 

 p e r f e ct condition 

 for Christmas and 

 after. 



Stock to Show. 



Of all other stock 

 the florist should 

 only receive three 

 or four plants of 

 each kind, in order 

 to be able to show 

 hia custbmers what 

 lie has and what he 

 can offer them for 

 the holidays. This 

 will be sufficient for 

 him to take a num- 

 ber of orders in ad- 

 v a n c e . Heathers, 

 cyclamens, oranges 

 and all hardier stock 

 he should not get 

 in earlier than four 

 or five days ahead 

 of time. Peppers, 

 poinsettias and be- 

 gonias should not 

 come to the city any 

 sooner than three 

 days before Christ- 

 mas. The two big- 

 gest sales days for 



