Febeuary 19, 1920 



The Florists^ Review 



17 



any stems that were not cut low enough 

 at the time the bloom was cut, our aim 

 being to keep the plants compact. If 

 there is much dry foliage, we remove 

 what can be taken off without barking 

 the stems. After that, we top the young 

 shoots the same as on newly benched 

 plants, until we are ready for the crop 

 to come. We aim to have the crop come 

 in late August or early September, as 

 by that time the asters are usually on 

 the wane. 



Profits on Carried-Over Plants. 



Should we decide to carry over a va- 

 riety of which we have plenty of stock 

 without using the cuttings as stated. 



we allow the plants to come along nat- 

 urally until about March 1. At that 

 time we cut back all the shoots that 

 have not reached the bud stage. In 

 this way the cutting back is done grad- 

 ually and the results are the same as 

 in the other method. Our records show, 

 in estimating the profits on a bed car- 

 ried over a period of two years, count- 

 ing the cuttings taken and the blooms 

 cut, that the yield will run away ahead 

 of a bench planted each year with 

 young stock. I feel that this method 

 could be employed to good advantage 

 and made to yield a handsome profit 

 by the carnation growers. 



Whether this process of carrying over 



stock would be as successful in the 

 south as in the northern latitudes, I am 

 not prepared to say, and this calls up 

 the question of varieties adapted to 

 your climatic conditions^ Sooner or 

 later, there will be developed a strain 

 of carnations that will thrive in your 

 warmer climate. I cannot suggest any 

 definite course of procedure, except 

 that by a series of crosses you will grad- 

 ually evolve a strain especially suited 

 to your needs. Some of your growers 

 have raised seedlings and I would urge 

 them to continue making crosses from 

 year to year, selecting each year those 

 varieties that show the greatest heat- 

 resisting power. 



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PRESS WHACKS PRICES 



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POT SHOT AT WBONG TARGET. 



The daily newspaper's favorite sport 

 is posing as the defender of the "long- 

 suffering public. ' ' It indulges in dia- 

 tribes to this end whenever it sees a 

 target, with little or no preliminary in- 

 vestigation as to whether it is a fair 

 target or not. If the business or trade 

 that is shot at is sufficiently strong or 

 well organized to reply, the public 

 often learns that it is not suffering so 

 much from that particular source as its 

 defender assumes. 



Just now the eagle eyes of the jour- 

 nalistic marksmen see profiteers every- 

 where, so many indeed that they feel 

 they can take a pot shot wherever 

 prices seem high. Naturally, the florist 

 seems an easy target, so the St. Louis 

 Star took the shot at him printed be- 

 low, which doubtless came to the atten- 

 tion of many others of the trade besides 

 George E. Beal, of Creal Springs, 111. 



How little responsibility the newspa- 

 per wished to assume in its attack is 

 indicated by the phraseology. The 

 writer states that the average retail 

 price of flowers "is said" to have 

 jumped at an extraordinary rate. He is 

 not even sure enough of his subject to 

 state the charge positively; evidently 

 he has not been a florists' patron him- 

 self. 



Could the florists' trade follow the 

 example of others, the actual facts — 

 that for the first time in its history is 

 the trade as a whole on a profitable 

 basis — might be presented to the public 

 to counteract such statements. Few peo- 

 ple realize the expense in flower pro- 

 duction. 



As a matter of fact, the Star 's writer 

 himself gave the reason why a florist 

 cannot be a profiteer — that his com- 

 modity is not a necessity, as is bread 

 and clothing, and therefore the public 

 will cease to buy it as soon as the price 

 asked seems unreasonable. The St. 

 Louis Star's editorial follows: 



CURBING THE FLORIST PROFITEER. 



According to reports, .the germ of profiteer- 

 ing bas affected tlie florists' trade to a degree 

 said, in many Instances, to surpass anytliing 

 which hitherto has formed the basis of complaint 

 on the part of the long-suffering public. While 

 prices of other commodities frequently have 

 doubled or tripled, the arerage retail price of 

 flowers, whether for funerals, parties or mere 

 tokens of affection, is said to have jumped at a 

 rate in which it would be difficult to imagine 

 the multiple. 



With respect to flowers, howeyer, the situa- 

 tion is somewhat different than is the case with 

 bread, clothes and street car fares. People, as 



deeply as they may cherish blooms, can get 

 along without them. They could not be clas- 

 sified as essential. Hence, It is not a difficult 

 matter for the public to flght the florist profiteer 

 effectively. The process is a simple one — 

 merely to stop buying flowers. One florist has 

 suggested the use of artificial flowers and plants, 

 to escape the high prices of the genuine article. 

 Such suggestion, liowever, might not prove pop- 

 ular. For real lovers of nature, artificial flow- 

 ers would not succeed as a substitute. Further- 

 iiore, should the substitution prove popular, the 

 contagion of profiteering probably would creep 

 very quickly among the dealers in artificial 

 plants. Public demand is all that it takes to 

 nourish the profiteering process. However, the 

 public need not be a victim of the florist prof- 

 iteer. If the public stops buying flowers, the 

 florist promptly will discover that he has got 

 beyond what the traffic will bear. 



COMMENT ON HIGH PRICES. 



If newspapers are to comment on the 

 liigher prices of flowers — and most of 

 tliem do, sooner or later — the attitude 

 of the reporter can be affected by the 

 florist from whom he gets his story. 

 The florist can, if he chooses, make the 

 high prices seem a matter of course, or, 

 on the otlier hand, make them seem a 

 deplorable and objectionable result of 

 e'ircumstances. A little diplomacy will 

 affect the public's view through the 

 uewspaper reporter. 



Compare the following, headed, "Car- 

 nation Prices Set New Altitude Rec- 

 ord," in the Kansas City Journal, with 

 other newspaper comment: 



In those days of aviating prices comes the al- 

 most common carnation to join the ranks of the 

 uncommon. 



Hack in the pre-war days, the cnruatiou hung 

 its head with shame when a dozen of its sweet- 

 scented family were exchanged for a $1 bill. 

 During the war the carnation was lifted to the 

 SL'-a-dozen plane. 



And in these days, well, the carnation has 

 learned not to hang its pretty head. It lias 

 joined the regiment of costly fancies and today 

 sells for $4 a dozen! 



The price is the same at every florist's shop 

 in Kansas City. Florists scoff at the idea of 

 "fixed prices." They say Chiongo is the crite- 

 rion and Chicagoans are paying .?4. 



Of course, tlie demand for enrnations hiuI all 

 otlier flowers and floral designs Ims been unprec- 

 edented this winter. Witli sickness in many 

 homes and a curtailed ontp\it, prices of all flow- 

 ers have been boosted considerably. 



Florists say the high prices have caused pros- 

 pective buyers to turn from cut flowers to the 

 |K)tted offerings; especially in cases where the 

 flowers are to form sickroom decorations. And 

 physicians are recommending that potted flow- 

 ers be placed in sickrooms. 



"They grow and encourage patients, while 

 cut flowers soon wither away and tend to lower 

 the hopes of a sick person," a doctor explained. 



PRICES VS. PRODUCTION. 



The high prices of flowers have oc- 

 casioned much comment of late, in St. 

 Louis going so far that an editorial in 

 one of the local papers called the flo- 

 rists profiteers and suggested that, in 

 order to curb them, the public should 



stop buying fiowers. Now, when our 

 national and local publicity commit- 

 tees are endeavoring to get the public 

 to follow our slogan and "Say It with 

 Flowers," such suggestions should 

 cause the ^ grower, wholesaler and re- 

 tailer to get together. We as florists 

 must certainly tell the public that 

 flowers are essential, but the public 

 does not see it that way. They argue 

 that they must have clothes and shoes 

 and, to emphasize that, they tell you 

 that they are patching their shoes and 

 mending their clothes. They also tell 

 you that they can eat candy, which, by 

 the way, has greatly increased in price, 

 but that they cannot eat flowers. 



Now, I think that, after the growers 

 organize, some system must be estab- 

 lished that will prevent flowers from 

 being sold too high or too low. The 

 trouble, however, appears to me to 

 strike root from the fact that flowers 

 have been sold so cheap that the public 

 imagines that the retailers and grow- 

 ers are making enormous profits. Of 

 course it will always be said that supply 

 and demand rule the market. That ia 

 true to a certain extent. Since Christ- 

 mas there has been a big demand and 

 only a limited supply, but now spring 

 is coming on. Arc we to jump from 

 the sublime to the ridiculous by quot- 

 ing roses and carnations at 25 cents 

 ])er dozen? I think the great problem 

 of the hour is, what to do with increased 

 production if the demand is lowered, 

 but I believe that the answer should 

 be, better quality in flowers and fewer 

 of them; if not, put a limit on the low 

 price of flowers. If the public were 

 given at normal times carnations at 

 $1 and $2 per dozen and roses at $1 to 

 $3 per dozen, they would then not argue 

 over paying higher prices when stock 

 (lir. get scarce. 



Soon sweet peas, which are now sell- 

 ing at wholesale for .$1 to $1.50 per 

 bunch, will become plentiful. Are we 

 to see them on bargain counters, re- 

 tailed to the public at prices that do 

 not pay for the picking and bunching 

 of the flowers! The argument that 

 vegetables and fruits go up and down 

 does not hold in our case; they are 

 something to eat, whereas flowers are 

 for enjoyment and pleasure. Let us 

 supply flowers to the public at reason- 

 able prices, but not at ruinous prices 

 which do not pay for the growing or 

 the handling. C. W. Wors. 



