32 



The Florists^ Review 



Jandabt 29, 1920 



Eatablished. 1897, by Q. L. ORANT. 

 Pablished every Tbnraday by 



ThB FliOKISTS' PUBLISHINQ Co^ 



620-S60 Oaxton Bulldlnir, 



606 South Dearborn St., Ohicago. 



Tele., Wabash 8195. 



Regri'*tered cable address, 



Florvlew, Chicago. 



Entered as second class matter 

 Dec. 3. 1897, at the poet-oHice at Ohl> 

 caffo, lU.. under the Act of M»rch 

 a. 1879. 



Subscription price, (1.50 a year. 

 To Canada, $'2.S0: to Europe. 13.00. 



Advertlslnir rates quoted opon 

 request. Only strictly trade ad> 

 Tertlslnff accepted. 



BEST7LTS. 



We give them. You get them. 



We both have them. 



McKiNUET DAT, January 29! How 

 many were in position to push pink car- 

 nations f 



From all indications Premier will dis- 

 place Bussell within the next two or 

 three years. 



Have you the S. A. F. St. Valentine's 

 day posters in your windows and stamps 

 on your letterheads f 



There may be more profitable carna- 

 tions than Laddie, but certainly there 

 are no larger flowers. 



P. E. PiERSON, the mayor of Tarry- 

 town, celebrated his sixty-fifth birthday 

 anniversary January 22. 



The S. a. F. publicity committee, meet- 

 ing at Chicago last week, endorsed the 

 "Say It with Flowers" song written 

 by Albert Von Tilzer. 



Again this week The Beview makes 

 a new record for all regular issues, with 

 168 pages and cover. The paper for this 

 edition weighed almost six tons. 



Now is a splendid time to practice the 

 golden rule. Such treatment of one's 

 customers now will bring golden re- 

 turns when stock is a little more plen- 

 tiful. 



The annual meetings of the directors 

 of the S. A. F., to a man on the outside, 

 look almost like trade conventions. 

 There were twenty-five present at last 

 week's meeting at Cleveland. 



Increased business is testing the 

 organizing ability of store and green- 

 house owners whose enterprises have 

 ceased to be " one man ' ' affairs. Success 

 is bountiful for those who meet it. 



Too many florista begin by apologizing 

 for their prices. If they would keep 

 still a good many customers, accustomed 

 to high prices for everything else, would 

 buy without comment on what the fio- 

 rist asks. 



Printebis, like everyone else, do better 

 work when they are not rushed. You 

 can insure your advertisement's being 

 set in the best manner by mailing it in 

 time to reach The Beview several days 

 instead of several hours before the forms 

 close, at 4 p. m. Tuesday. 



Whether prices of construction mate- 

 rials will go higher next spring is not 

 easy to predict, but it seems a safe 

 prophecy that they will not be any lower. 



And now ripe olives are to be adver- 

 tised nationally by the California Olive 

 Association, which will assess its mem- 

 bers $5 a ton on olives grown and 

 packed to form its fund. 



Interest in dahlias on the Pacific 

 coast is maintained by the Dahlia So- 

 ciety of California and its bulletin, the 

 December issue of which, containing 

 twenty-six pages, has just been mailed. 



At the moment there is strong demand 

 for increased production, almost re- 

 gardless of quality, but it is unwise to 

 forget that only six weeks ago growers 

 for most of the big markets were com- 

 plaining that wholesale prices were be- 

 low cost. 



The 1920 bulletin of the American 

 Sweet Pea Society, just off the press, 

 contains short articles by Charles El- 

 liott, A. E. Thatcher, George W. Kerr 

 and William Gray, and the schedule for 

 the annual show, to be held July 10 and 

 11 at Boston. 



Babson, the business statistician, be- 

 lieves there is a rule as inexorable as 

 time, the law of opposite and equal 

 reactions. Applying it to the unprec> 

 edented scarcity of flowers in January, 

 we all may as well be getting ready 

 to cope with a tremendous spring crop. 



Lists of new members occupy almost 

 five pages in the December issue of the 

 S. A. F. Journal. The total number of 

 life members secured daring the year 

 reached 1,000. The rest of the issue is 

 chiefly devoted to addresses and reports 

 presented at the Detroit convention last 

 August. 



Scarcely a day passes without some 

 Chicago retail florist calling The Beview 

 on the telephone to get the name of a 

 florist to whom an order can be wired 

 for delivery in some city not yet repre- 

 sented in the Pink Part of this paper. 

 Frequently there are several such calls 

 in a day. 



The Consolidated Classification Com- 

 mittee has given notice of a proposal to 

 increase the freight rates on magnolia 

 leaves to double first class rates and to 

 make other less important advances in 

 rates or changes in classification on 

 various items of florists' supplies. The 

 hearing will take place at Chicago Feb- 

 ruary 17. 



The present course of events is in line 

 with experience as old as the records of 

 economics. The only difference is one of 

 intensity. But unless economic history 

 is to be ignored we must recognize that 

 sooner or later the swing will be in the 

 other direction. Each one, employer or 

 employee, must ask himself, "How am I 

 prepared to stand the next panic t" 

 There is only one way to become prepared 

 — it is to save money now. 



THE BOSES OF NO MAN'S LAND. 



No man 's land was a rough place, not 

 adapted to roses, so January 25, as the 

 first "Eose day" in honor of the Bed 

 Cross nurses, was not unfitting. The idea 

 of wearing roses on a specially desig- 

 nated day in honor of "the roses of no 

 man's land" deserves all possible en- 

 couragement, but this year the weather 

 was so bad, the demand for funeral werk 



has been so heavy and the supply of 

 roses has been so small that the trade 

 could do little if anything to make 

 "Eose day" a success. 



But florists will not forget. January 

 25 will be a big rose day in future years. 

 We can make it so by means of our pub- 

 licity campaigns. 



OUT OF PEOPOBTION TO COST. 



In these days when so many concerns 

 charge what the trafl&c will bear, it may 

 be permitted The Beview to call atten- 

 tion to its policy of keeping its rates as 

 low as consistent with the constantly 

 rising cost of doing business, of giving 

 its patrons as much as it can for their 

 money. Beturns to advertisers vary 

 with the seasons, depending principally 

 on the aggregate supply of the article 

 advertised and on the purchasing power 

 of the trade, but it has been a contin- 

 uous fact, as George Stiles recently 

 stated, that there is no relationship be- 

 tween the cost of Beview Classified ads 

 and the returns therefrom. It is like 

 this: 



That one little ad of Poiteyine geraniums 

 cleaned us out of 2S,000 plants and we are re- 

 turning checlcs every day to others whose orders 

 we cannot fill. — Schmidt dc Meine, Youngstown, 

 O., January 12, 1920. 



This is the report on a Classified ad of 

 three lines which appeared only once 

 at a total cost of 45 cents. The offer 

 was of 2^ -inch plants at $5 per hun- 

 dred. The sale of 25,000 therefore rep- 

 resents returns of $1,250 on an expendi- 

 ture of 45 cents, not counting the sur- 

 plus returns in orders which came after 

 the stock was gone. It is not an unu- 

 sual ease, but emphasizes the low rates 

 at which Beview classified ads are sold. 



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 Beview. 



NOTICE TO OBOHID OB0WEB& 



Conference with tbe F. H. B. 



Your chairman has for some time 

 been in communication with the Federal 

 Horticultural Board in regard to Quar- 

 antine No. 37, restricting the importa- 

 tion of orchids, with a view to obtain- 

 ing a hearing before the board and 

 having the embargo on orchids lifted. 



A communication from the Federal 

 Horticultural Board has just been re- 

 ceived and reads as follows: 



In response to requests for a conference on 

 the subject of the restrictions on the importa- 

 tion of orchids, the board has made arrange- 

 ments for such a conference February 10, 1920, 

 at 10 o'clocic, in the office of the chairman of 

 the board. United States Department of Agri- 

 culture, Washington, D. C. Your attendance 

 at this conference will be appreciated. 

 C. L. Marlatt, 



Chairman of the Board. 



The above speaks for itself and needs 

 no comment. 



While your chairman holds a great 

 many credentials from the foremost 

 orchid growers in this country authoriz- 

 ing him and the committee to act for 

 them, it is but fair that as many as 

 possible should attend the conference 

 personally. No other notice will be 

 sent out; hence it behooves you to 

 remember the date of the conference, 

 February 10, 1920, and the place, the 

 office of the chairman of the Federal 

 Horticultural Board, Department of 

 Agriculture, Washington, D. C. 



John E. Lager, 

 Chairman Orchid Committee. 



