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FamiMaT 12, 192« 



The Florists^ Review 



31 



BOSTON RETAILERS REPLY 



HELPINa THE OTHER FEIj:iOW. 



Success Through Coliperation. 



The year 1920 should be a banner 

 year for florists. The people have never 

 had so much money to spend and it is 

 up to us to have them "Say It with 

 Flowers." Almost all lines of trade 

 cannot get enough merchandise to sell, 

 while we florists of Boston have been 

 fortunate in being able to get nearly 

 all the flowers we want. Of course, we 

 have had to pay a good price, but what 

 of it I Everything else has gone up, 

 and why not flowers? People do not 

 question the price of anything else, but 

 why flowers! We must educate the 

 public to the fact that the cost of pro- 

 ducing and handling flowers has gone 

 up just as everything else has. 



We retailers certainly must en- 

 courage the grower to produce the best 

 flowers he possibly can, and we must 

 make up our minds to pay him a fair 

 price for his flowers. We must try to 

 look out for him and encourage him as 

 much as possible. We must all try to 

 accomplish something. When we grow 

 flowers and plants we should grow the 

 best, and when we sell flowers and 

 plants we should sell the best, and when 

 we handle flowers and plants we should 

 try to pack them the best we know how. 

 Everybody likes to handle flowers that 

 come packed right and not thrown into 

 the box the way some are. 



What we need is a better understand- 

 ing between grower, salesman, retailer 

 and wholesaler. What we need is or- 

 ganization. The future development 

 and the present protection of the cut 

 flower industry require organization. 

 What individuals fail to accomplish can 

 only be done by organization. 



Grading of Soses. 



We retainers do not kick so much 

 about high prices for roses or anything 

 else if they are handled and graded 

 properly. Take, for instance, Hadley 

 roses. It is fair to say that twenty-five 

 per cent of them are unfit to send out 

 as cut flowers. My suggestion would be 

 to take these weak-necked roses and 

 grade them separately. Then when we 

 pay 30, 40, 50 and 75 cents for Hadley, 

 or any other rose, we shall know how to 

 figure what they cost us. This same 

 rule should hold good on all roses. 



Consider the handling of violets. 

 Take, for instance, the violets grown 

 by Kidder Bros. There is not a man 

 here who would not rather pay them 50 

 cents per hundred more for their violets 

 than he pays anybody else, and whyf 

 Because they handle them properly and 

 bunch them properly and select every 

 flower. For that reason we are all 

 anxious for them, never complaining 

 about the price. How many other violet 

 growers do that? 



Gluts In the Market. 



Every retailer should try to help the 

 grower out when a glut comes. With 

 a little publicity, low prices of flowers 



Paper read by WlUiam Penn at the meetinK 

 of the Btmtem T\ori0ta' Association Februair 3. 



would attract many new buyers and 

 bring back many of our old customers 

 who have left the flower stores and gone 

 to the candy shop and book shop. The 

 cost of the advertising would be small 

 compared with the benefit we all would 

 receive. We must all let the public 

 know when flowers are cheapest, and not 

 let George do it. 



Let us try to make buying in the 

 markets a little more pleasant. Of 

 course, we are not all college graduates, 

 but, with a little more friendly spirit, I 

 think in time we can have a florists' as- 

 sociation in Boston that will be a credit 

 to the city. 



The trouble with most of us is that 

 we are knockers instead of boosters. 

 What we need is more boosting and 

 less knocking. What most of us ought 

 to do is to clean house ourselves first 

 and sweep off our own doorsteps before 



THE OTHEB SIDE. 



Threshing out the differences 

 between the various branches of 

 the trade is the first step of the 

 Boston Florists' Association in 

 promoting greater cooperation be- 

 tween them. At tl}e January 

 meeting the growers presented 

 their case. The vigorous remarks 

 of WiUlam H. Elliott on that oc- 

 casion were printed in The Ke- 

 vlew for January 15. At the Feb- 

 ruary meeting last week the re- 

 tailers gave their views. Chief 

 among the speakers were William 

 Penn and E. F. Gomey, whose 

 papers appear here. 



we criticise the other fellows. None 

 of us are perfect and we are all willing 

 to learn. Let us all work together from 

 now on and play the game fair. 



Growing New Varieties. 



I think it would be a good suggestion 

 for the grower and retailer to get to- 

 gether in reference to the growing of 

 new varieties once in a while. Surely 

 no harm could come out of it and there 

 might be some good. The retailer might 

 be able to tell the grower something 

 which would save him many a dollar. 



Remember, Mr. Grower, Mr. Retailer, 

 Mr. Commission Man, and Mr. Whole- 

 saler, in union there is strength. 



FROM A EETAILEE'S VIEW. 



Seply to Growers. 



I was much impressed by the talks 

 of the growers at the last meeting. I 

 know they find it necessary to expend 

 much energy on their investment, and 

 there is no reason in the world why 

 they should not get better results, not 

 in particular this year, but every year. 

 I think all growers made money this 

 year. 



I agree with Mr. Elliott that waxed 

 and artificial flowers should not be sold 



Paper read by E. F. Gomey at the meeting 

 of the Boston Florists' Association February 3. 



by florists and that natural flowers 

 should be used in their stead. The grow- 

 ers could help by not putting the screws 

 on too tight. We should encourage the 

 use of flowers in every possible way, 

 and I don't believe that there is a re- 

 tailer in this room who objects to pay- 

 ing the market prices for them. Natur- 

 ally, we try to buv as low as possible 

 and, on the other hand, you try to get 

 as much as possible. That makes the 

 market price, and we do not begrudge 

 the grower what he gets under these 

 conditions. 



Boycott a Myth. 



What I would like to know -s where 

 the impression was created that the re- 

 tailers were to boycott flowers for 

 Christmas. I was sickened to hear so 

 much talk about it at the last meet- 

 ing. I will wager any man here $100 

 that he cannot prove there was any 

 such move among the retailers. This 

 was a false impression spread by some- 

 one who wanted to cause trouble. If 

 the retailers proposed to boycott they 

 would injure their own means of live- 

 lihood, as their business is to sell flow- 

 ers and that is why there are retail 

 stores. Don't you growers and sales- 

 men give us credit for knowing better T 



The fact is that we met at the re- 

 quest of tho chairman of the retail com- 

 mittee, appointed by our chairman, and 

 discussed retailing in general. How- 

 ever, it is true that during our infornAl 

 talk the suggestion was made that we 

 push plants instead of flowers, and there 

 are logical reasons for that. In the 

 first place, as plants are all bought at 

 reasonable prices, we see our way clear 

 to make a reasonable profit on them. On 

 the other hand, there was no way of 

 telling what cut flowers would cost, and 

 we could not give our customers any 

 definite prices ahead of time. If we 

 did base our prices on what we thought 

 the market prices would be, the cus- 

 tomers would be apt to give up the idea 

 of buying flowers for Christmas on ac- 

 count of the cost. It is the same story 

 every year; cut flowers fluctuate more 

 than plants. In November I was sell- 

 ing carnations at $1.50 per dozen and 

 roses at $1.50 per dozen up. During 

 the Christmas season I h^ to sell car- 

 nations for $4 per dozen, and roses from 

 $5 per dozen up, whereas plants were 

 about the same. A cyclamen always 

 costs about the same in November as 

 it costs in December. This is a great 

 drawback to the cut flower business, 

 but It cannot be helped, as the law of 

 supply and demand causes that fluc- 

 tuation, and it seems beyond our power 

 to do anything but obey that law. 



Push Plants First. 



As a matter of fact, the retailer 

 pushes plants at flrst, but when the rush 

 13 ended we always find that more flow- 

 ers are sold than were expected. I 

 have followed the principle of pushing 

 plants ever since I have been in the 

 business and, so far as I can see, it is 

 nothing new. Is this what you mean 

 by boycotting flowerst If so, I will 

 admit boycotting. But I think that 



