•"V^? 



'"i; Tv'*.r^''if* ( ' 



*Si "T* "" t-r^-'n ■' 



f;/^-/"^'- 



36 



The Rorists^ Review 



MABCH 18, 1»2« 



The Crimson Rambler Still Holds its Place at Easter. 



from these in most cases, though occa- 

 sionally a customer wants a certain 

 plant and will take no other. The only 

 course then is to let him or her have 

 it and wrap it specially. In many in- 

 stances the grower from whom the re- 

 tailer purchases liis stock is so well 

 Iknown for straight dealing that he can 

 be relied on to pack and number the 

 plants as has just been indicated, and 

 this will also be a time-saver. 



Never label plants or wrapped bas- 

 kets on their side, but always on the 

 top, with a ticd-on label. When the 

 adhesion label is used on the side and 

 several plants are placed together on 

 the floor of the store or in the wagon, 

 it is impossible to get at the label with- 

 out pushing the hand and arm down be- 

 tween the plants, and often to their 

 detriment, to say nothing of the loss of 

 time involved. The label on top can be 

 seen at once and handled without pull- 

 ing the plant or basket about. 



About Early Orders. 



It is useless to request customers to 

 give their orders early unless you are 

 prepared to fill them early and fill them 

 right. The customer who is kept wait- 

 ing after being asked to order early is 

 not likely to give an early order next 

 time. 



The help problem is another that has 

 to be considered early. It is folly to 

 wait until everything is behindhand 

 before getting proper help. Where 

 everything is rushed by tired and half- 

 hearted employees, mistakes and over- 



sights are sure to occur, but with the 

 right kind of help, started early, the 

 proprietor or manager of the store can 

 always be in front of his work, not 

 behind. In short, the "faculty of being 

 ready" is a mighty useful thing around 

 Easter time. 



EASTER DEUVEBY. 



The extra delivery facilities de- 

 manded at a holiday deserve as careful 

 consideration as any of the problems 

 connected with doing a month's busi- 

 ness in three days. The average florist 

 has as many deliveries to make Satur- 

 day afternoon and Easter morning as 

 are made in all the rest of the month, 

 and unless the delivery system is care- 

 fully planned the work is likely to be- 

 come what is technically described as 

 "all balled up. '^ The man who has 

 Home greenhouses back of the store has 

 3 tremendous advantage at Easter. No 

 better system has ever been devised 

 than the one modeled on that used in 

 the big express office or department 

 store. It will pay any retailer who has 

 trouble with the shipping department 

 to visit and study the systems used 

 where large numbers of packages go 

 out daily. 



The department store has the city 

 divided into sections, with a delivery 

 car for each. The florist who has a 

 large number of deliveries for Easter 

 morning will do the same thing. He 

 may not have a different car for each 

 route, but will send the same machine 



on more than one trip. When the de- 

 partment store's packages come to the 

 shipping room the shipping clerk has the 

 floor marked off, in some cases with per- 

 manent partitions and sometimes merely 

 with paint, with a space for each trip 

 each automobile is to make. Each pack- 

 age as received in the shipping room 

 goes direct to the proper space on the 

 floor. Consequently, when the automo- 

 bile is ready to start everything that 

 has reached the shipping room is ready 

 to go in the car; nothing is left behind. 

 If the florist adopts this system, it will 

 obviate the exasperating special trips 

 to deliver the one plant that did not get 

 on the right delivery trip; the problem 

 then will be to get the orders put up in 

 time. 



With greenhouses at his back, the 

 florist's preparations for delivery are 

 greatly simplified. A bench can be set 

 apart for the plants that can be deliv- 

 ered Saturday, and others for Sunday 

 morning's deliveries, and space in the 

 greenhouse probably can be provided, as 

 the plants move out, so that the sales 

 for each section of the city for each day 

 can be set away by themselves. The 

 man who has neither greenhouses nor 

 unused floor space back of the store, as 

 is the case with many of the stores in 

 city business blocks, can do little more 

 than tag his plants "Sold" as his cus- 

 tomers pick them out and then work up 

 his deliveries as he gets the chance. 



THE DATE OF EASTEB. 



Easter Sunday falls on dates as 

 widely separated as thirty-two days 

 during the present century, the earliest 

 being March 24, 1940, and the latest 

 April 25, 1943. Next year it will be 

 even earlier than it is this year, falling 

 on March 27. The following year it 

 vnll be late, not coming till the middle 

 of April. Here are the dates of Easter 

 for the next five years: 



1921 March 27 



1922 April 16 



1923 April 1 



1924 April 20 



1925 April 12 



BACK IN THE 0U> DATS. 



This Easter the florist thinks high 

 prices every time he looks at lilies. 

 The years are short since the time they 

 could be had at one-third the price 

 charged this year and only five years 

 ago they were even lower. Abnormal 

 conditions are responsible for the high 

 figures, however, and it is expected and 

 hoped that another year will bring 

 lower ones. The wholesale quotations 

 at Easter in recent years may prove in- 

 teresting comparisons; they are as fol- 

 lows: 



Per 100 



1912 $ 8.00 @ lir-oo 



1913 8.00 @ 1:') W 



1914 10.00 O 1') 00 



1915 6.00 @ l-iOO 



1916 8.00 @ 1-00 



1917 8.00 ® 1-00 



1918 8.00 @ 1' 00 



1919 25.00 @ 30.00 



1920 25.00 @ 3.-' 00 



AMEBicAN Gladiolus sooiETy 



Objection to New Varieties. 



Objection having been nade against 

 registering the varieties. Conspicuous 

 and White America, they are hereby 

 withdrawn pending further investiga- 

 tion by the committee. 



A. C. Beal, Chairman. 



