36 



The Florists' Review 



Febbuabt 5, 1920 



sa^zsr 



Establlahed, 1897, by a. L. QRANT. 



Published every Thnrsday by 

 Thb Florists' Publishino Co„ 



620-66O Oaxton Bulldinfr, 



608 South Dearborn St., OhlcaffO. 



Tele., Wabash 8195. 



Refflotered cable address, 



Florrlew, Chicago. 



Entered as second class matter 

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

 caffo. 111., under the Act of March 

 a, 1879, 



Subscription price, $1.50 a year. 

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



AdTertlslnff rates quoted upon 

 request. Only strictly trade ad* 

 vertlsln? accepted. 



Results bring advertising. 

 The Beview brings results. 



Seven double-page advertisements ap- 

 pear in this issue of The Beview. 



Heavy sales of bedding plants seem 

 certain this spring. Now is the time for 

 preparation. 



Never in its history of continuous 

 growth has The Beview increased in size 

 80 rapidly as in the last six months. 

 Facilities cannot be expanded as fast as 

 the business grows. 



Keep a record of the telegraph orders 

 you receive and those you send for St. 

 Valentine 's day, the number and amounts. 

 Then send it to The Beview. The trade 

 wants to know its vital statistics. 



The flu has come back with such force 

 that public funerals have been forbidden 

 in Chicago and hours of opening offices 

 and theaters have been so arranged in 

 New York as to lessen traffic congestion. 



A SUBSCRIBER comments that an Amer- 

 ican Beauty of a different kind is an im- 

 portant novelty at Joseph H. Hill 's place, 

 at Richmond, Ind. Her arrival kept the 

 new father from attending the carnation 

 /meeting at Chicago. 



The florist who knows his costs does 

 iiot complain of high prices. He can tell 

 without guessing when he is making a 

 profit and when he isn't. When he does, 

 he is satisfied, and when he doesn't, he 

 •can ask his customers for more money 

 without apology. 



The engravers' trust at Chicago Feb- 

 ruary 1 advanced the prices of halftones 

 and zinc etchings about one-third on the 

 average. The smallest halftone now costs 

 $3.75. The Review has bought thousands 

 of them, before the employers' associa- 

 tion and the workers ' union got together, 

 at $1 to $1.25. 



That the peak of commercial and in- 

 dustrial activity in this country had been 

 reached for the time and that from now 

 on a gradual reduction would be recorded, 

 was the view expressed recently by a 

 leading banker, formed in spite of the 

 admittedly great prosperity apparent in 

 many lines of business. Perhaps he isn't 

 batting 1,000 as a prognosticator, but the 

 wise florist is, nevertheless, laying money 

 in the savings bank and dearing up col- 

 lections before doudy financial weather 

 suoceeda the sunshine. 



Having witnessed what has been ac- 

 complished on this side of the water, 

 British horticulturists are discussing 

 schemes of cooperative advertising. 



Did you ever notice that the appear- 

 ance of a greenhouse more or less cor- 

 responds with its financial condition f 

 When its looks run down, its profits run 

 down, too. 



Skilled help never was abundant in 

 the florists* trade. Just now larger de- 

 mand for good men and the attractions in 

 other lines of business make them seem 

 scarcer than before. 



Canaries have proved a profitable side 

 line for retail florists and no doubt a 

 considerable business could be developed 

 if some florists' supply house were to 

 handle the birds in a wholesale way. 



The American workman has fallen off 

 twenty or thirty per cent in productive 

 effort compared with pre-war man-power 

 output, asserts a prominent corporation 

 head, a condition which "transcends in 

 its vital importance all questions of 

 strikes, wages, prices and, in fact, 

 everything else." If continued long, he 

 added, prosperity will surely be destroyed. 

 Greater production should be the aim of 

 everyone, whether he is growing flowers 

 or rolling steel. 



NEWS. 



WKat is news? 



Some think news is just information 

 about the outside world. 



But advertising, too, is news. 



It is information that may be of per- 

 sonal moment. 



A paper without advertising is but 

 half a newspaper. 



BXJY NOW! 



There is every indication that green- 

 house glass will be extremely difficult 

 to procure during the summer. Even 

 now it requires considerable scouting 

 to find any quantity of 16x18 and it is 

 a well known fact that production, 

 closely regulated at all times, practically 

 ceases as soon as warm weather comes. 

 Without the wish to discourage any 

 would-be builder, the directions for 

 building a greenhouse this season are 

 like the well known recipe for making 

 hare stew — first catch your hare. Be- 

 fore you buy anything else, buy the 

 glass. 



CAN YOU? 



Can any of the readers of The Beview 

 inform us where and by whom any sort 

 of flower pot washing machine is manu- 

 factured! H. E. & C. W. K. 



AN UNUSUAL JANUABY. 



No one in the trade ever saw a Jan- 

 uary quite like that just closed, a month 

 of Christmas prices in many cities from 

 the flrst to the thirty-first day. It is 

 stated by some firms that their January 

 business exceeded their December sales, 

 an incredible thing in years past. In 

 the same breath, or the next, they assert 

 that flowers were as plentiful during 

 the last month as they ever were in the 

 first thirty-one days of the year. The de- 

 mand, exceeding anything before experi- 

 enced at such a time, accounts for the 

 condition of the markets and the high 

 prices. 



Combination of circumstances may be 

 charged with the responsibility. All 



autumn the public spent money for 

 flowers. During the year 1919 the de- 

 mand held stronger throughout than 

 ever before. So when, immediately after 

 Christmas, sickness created a call in ad- 

 dition to the normal demand, already 

 3trong, flowers could not be obtained 

 to fill all wants. All retail stores in the 

 larger cities, where the sickness and 

 mortality is greatest, have been heavily 

 rushed. And the end is not in sight. 



A year ago the trade believed its ex- 

 perience of a strong demand would not 

 be repeated. Instead, it has been ex- 

 ceeded in the unusual month just closed. 



HOW MUCH DOBS IT PAY? 



The day has passed when the question 

 is asked about advertising, "Does it 

 pay!" There are no longer doubting 

 Thomases on that score. The question 

 under consideration today is, "How 

 much does it payf" 



Advertising has come to be looked 

 upon, not as an expense, but as an in- 

 vestment, comparable to stocks and 

 bonds, and similarly dependable for a 

 return on one's mone|r. And, just as 

 there are various kinds of stocks and 

 bonds — good, bad and indifferent — so 

 there are various kinds of advertising. 



The florist who has money to invest 

 in securities looks for the sort which 

 will be certain to yield him the best re- 

 turns. Moreover, he takes no one's 

 unsupported word for it, but learns the 

 real facts for himself. 



Just as the investor learns how to dis- 

 tinguish in his own mind desirable from 

 undesirable securities, so the advertiser, 

 who exercises a similar care in investing 

 his money nowadays, can tell with his 

 own eyes what medium, or mediums, 

 will give him the gn'eatest return for 

 his money. And as a wise investor will 

 secure twice as great an income from 

 the same money as a less discerning one 

 will, so an advertiser who exercises care 

 in selecting the mediums in which to 

 invest his appropriation will make the 

 same money bring him far more busi- 

 ness than the advertiser will get who 

 pays little attention where his aidvertis- 

 ing investment goes. 



A NEW YOBEEB'S EZPEBIENCE. 



There still are a few members of the 

 trade, especially in the extreme east, 

 who do not realize how useful The Be- 

 view is to others and how helpful it 

 would be to them if they would use it. 

 Like this: 



Will have to ask you to take onr ad out ot 

 The ReTlew, as we are flooded with orders from 

 all comers of the United States. The ReTiew 

 finds them all. We have had orders for over 

 150,000 plants in three weeks. As we are not 

 able to change the ad as fast as the orders come 

 in, we are returning good money dally on some 

 varieties. You will hear from us again as soon 

 as we hare caught up. — Cherry Park Gardens, 

 Frank Thies, Mgr., Fredonia, N. Y., January 

 24. 1020. 



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. 



BBIEF ANSWEBS. 



S. M., Kan. — ^Fred W. Arnold, 915 

 Wheeling avenue, Cambridge, O. 



W. L. O., N. Y. — The introducer says 

 Cleveland cherry does not come true 

 from seeds. 



S. M. C, Miss.— Write to the U. S. 

 Department of Agriculture, Washington, 

 D. C., for its bulletin on the Argentine 

 ant. 



