20 



The Florists^ Review 



Fbbbdabt 19, 1920 



they do not take this up and make it an 

 annual affair. It is absolutely essential 

 at the end of the dull summer for us 

 to have something to stimulate and 

 awaken us to new ambitions and hopes. 

 If the "Say It with Flowers" week 

 does nothing more than awaken and en- 

 thuse ourselves and the employees, the 

 battle is already won. In addition to 

 this, it awakens the public, which has 

 drifted away from the habit of buying 

 flowers during the summer, to the fact 

 that the greenhouse flowers and plants 

 are putting on their most welcome as- 

 pect to make the home happy and bright 

 for the winter. 



In our campaign in Washington the 

 keynote was giving and not receiving. 

 We started by sending flowers to the 

 churches; next we -sent flowers to hos- 

 pitals; then we sent large baskets of 

 flowers with suitable "Say It with 

 Flowers" pennants on them to be put 

 in large store windows, flowers to the 

 inmates of the aged homes, flowers to 

 newspaper men who had extended cour- 



tesies, flowers to soldiers, and flowers 

 to any sick people we knew of. The 

 point to be emphasized is the sanding of 

 a nicely worded letter with each and 

 every flower sent out. In some cases 

 these letters were read before a whole 

 congregation of the church. This, you 

 can readily understand, would not hap- 

 pen unless great pains were taken to 

 word the letter in the choicest language. 

 "'These are some of the ideas that I 

 suggest for local publicity. Observe 

 that the keynote of them is spelled in 

 four letters, G-I-V-E. Remember that 

 it is more blessed to give than to re- 

 ceive. If your community wishes to 

 be up-to-date in the flower business, it 

 should embody the spirit of generosity. 

 If your firm wishes to be one of the 

 leaders in its community, it must em- 

 body the spirit of generosity. If your 

 firm wants to be one of the leaders 

 among the floripts of the country, it 

 must embody the spirit of generosity. 



"There was a man, though some did think him 

 mad, 

 The more he gave away, the more he had." 



INCREASE THE DEMAND. 



And Grow to Meet It. 



There is much talk these days to the 

 effect that advertising should be dis- 

 continued, since there are not enough 

 flowers to fill the present demand. 

 While such an assertion would seem 

 ridiculous coming from business men, 

 yet, as conditions now stand in the 

 florists' business, there is, to say the 

 least, an element of plausibility in such 

 talk. 



The $50,000 subscribed last year to 

 the advertising campaign was contrib- 

 uted by just 2,300 individuals. Now, 

 there are in this country something like 

 15,000 florists. This would mean that 

 there are over 12,000 who are contented 

 to go along in the old rut and do noth- 

 ing to improve the business. When we 

 find that such a condition as this exists, 

 is it any wonder that we hear of a short- 

 age of flowers all over the country? Is 

 it not reasonable to suppose that this 

 large majority of florists who had ab- 

 solutely no interest in the advertising 

 campaign would make no preparation 

 for the increased demand that this cam- 

 paign has caused all over the country? 

 Those 2,300 florists, who made the cam- 

 paign possible last year, and from its 

 start, have demonstrated to the large 

 majority of their fellow-craftsmen that 

 advertising pays; surely this majority 

 is not going to stand idly by and see a 

 small number of their brother florists 

 carry the burden any longer. 



Handling Big Business. 



Cooperative advertising has demon- 

 .strated that it pays; it has brought a 

 greater volume of business to your 

 doors than you are capable of handling. 

 The florists' business is passing through 

 a crisis; this is the time to look the sit- 

 uation honestly in the face, probe the 

 wound deep and find out just what the 

 cause is, and then, like the true sur- 

 geon, remove it. 



When the S. A. F. selected the na- 

 tional publicity committee, they chose 



a set of men who took their position 

 seriously. They are all broad-gauge 

 business men; they were appointed on 

 this committee for the specific object 

 of popularizing flowers in the United 

 States, and they went into this fray 

 with printers' ink for their weapon and 

 ' * Say It with Flowers ' ' for their slogan. 

 They have put up a battle that is at- 

 tracting the attention of the whole 

 country and now those who should be 

 supporting them are crying for peace; 

 they can no longer get sufficient ammu- 

 nition up to the firing line. 



Fighting the Fight. 



Here is an illustration of the problem: 

 There are in this country about 100,- 

 (•00,000 men, women and children. Dur- 

 ing the war about 2,000,000 of this 

 number, the flower of the country's 

 manhood, were overseas; they were 

 there for a specific purpose, "to whip 

 the Hun." It was their business to do 

 the fighting. Did we ever stop to think 

 what it cost to sustain this army in a 

 foreign country? They were, in a way, 

 as dependent as new-born babes; they 

 had to be fed; they had to be clothed; 

 they had to be armed and have the am- 

 munition supplied. There was not a 

 man in this great army who could not 

 have provided for himself, but he did 

 not have the time. They were fighting 

 our battles and we were just as much 

 interested in the result as they were. 

 What would the consequences have 

 been if, when they had the Germans 

 on the run, the 98,000,000 on whom they 

 were depending had failed to get am- 

 munition to them? But they did not 

 fail; everyone did his bit; our grand- 

 mothers knitted socks; our sisters took 

 men's positions; everyone bought Lib- 

 erty bonds, and we accomplished the 

 job we started out to do in about one- 

 half the time expected. 



The Advertising Emergency Force. 



Now put the publicity committee in 

 the place of the officers; the 2,300 sub- 

 scribers are the A. E. F., and the bal- 



ance of the florists of the country are 

 the American people. Can you go back 

 on them now? To the credit of the 

 American people be it said that they 

 stuck and there is no one who can 

 make me believe that thfi florists of 

 this country are not going to stick just 

 as loyally to their little advertising 

 army as did the American people to 

 the A. E. F. 



At the beginning of the war we heard 

 the usual criticism of the authorities 

 failing to get supplies up to the front. 

 It took time to get the machinery in 

 smooth running order, but this fault 

 was soon corrected. The whole thing 

 was new, but American brains soon 

 found a solution for this problem and 

 the same sort of brains is going to solve 

 the lack of production of flowers. 



As I said before, first find the cause 

 and then remove it. When the cause 

 is found, count me a poor prophet if it 

 is not that more flowers are being used 

 in this country than ever before, that 

 the source of supply is altogether in- 

 sufficient and the only way to correct 

 this shortage is to build more houses 

 and grow more stock. Tate. 



DUMSEB'S DATA. 



The G. B. Smith Floral Co., Prudden 

 building, Lansing, Mich., suffered sev- 

 eral hundred dollars' damage through 

 water from the fire department's hose, 

 Thursday, February 5. Mrs. Ballas, of 

 the Lansing Floral Co., discovered flames 

 coming from the fourth and flfth floor 

 windows and turned in the alarm. The 

 fire was soon under control, but the 

 water caused considerable damage to 

 all the lower floors. Mr. Smith, who 

 was at home at the time, was notified 

 and he quickly arrived at his store and 

 did the best he could to protect his 

 property, but it was a difficult job, as 

 the upper floors of the building were 

 drenched by the firemen. New stock 

 was brought to the store from the 

 greenhouses and everything was back 

 to normal by noon next day. 



Warren G. Matthews, Dayton, C, is 

 enthusiastic about the F. T. D., espe- 

 cially since the meeting last summer, 

 as his business in wire orders has ex- 

 ceeded his most optimistic expectations. 

 Says Mr. Matthews, "Dayton, O., is 

 my headquarters, but the whole U. S. 

 A. is my field of activity." 



Gustav Schneider, Springfield, 0., re- 

 marked, "Since remodeling my store, 

 business has increased in leaps and 

 bounds and I am convinced that a good 

 store front pays, especially if it is 

 backed up by service." He has added 

 another clerk to his force to help handle 

 the increase in business. 



At the Lewis House of Flowers, Pon- 

 tiac, Mich., where a new house, 100 feet 

 long, was completed just before cold 

 weather set in, there is a fine crop for 

 Easter and spring sales. The sweet 

 peas have been yielding heavily right 

 through January and February and a 

 new crop is coming in for Easter. 



The Pontiac Floral Co., Pontiac,Mieh., 

 grows a full line of up-to-date cut flow- 

 ers and pot plants, but every visitor 

 of the trade marvels at the fine quality 

 and enormous size of a house of the 

 old Bride rose. Harry Pierce, the man- 

 ager, said, "Why should we discard a 

 money-maker? Our soil and conditions 

 are just what the Bride requires and 

 for our work we need it." The daily 

 cut includes many extra fine blooms on 

 3-foot stems. D. W. D. 



