(■■•\ 



22 



The Florists^ Review 



.TuME 3, 1920 



ff 



Established. 1897. by Q. L. QRANT, 



Published every Tborsday by 

 The Florists' Publishing Co„ 



S20-660 Oazton Building, 



608 South Dearborn St., OblcaffO. 



Tele.. Wabasb 8196. 



Reirititered cable address, 



Florvtew. Ohlcago. 



Entered as second class matter 

 Dec. 3. 1897, at the post-offloe at Ohl- 

 owo. IIU under the Act of llaroh 

 «, 1879. 



Babscrlptlon price, %IJ!0 a rear. 

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



AdvertUinfT rates quoted npon 

 request. Only strictly trade ad- 

 vertising accepted. 



RESULTS. 



We give them. You get them. 



We both have them. 



If you haven 't started closing Sundays, 

 Ix'gin this summer. 



There will be plenty of business, from 

 weddings and graduations, to keep florists 

 busy this month. 



Send clippings of your Memorial day 

 advertisements to The Review. And tell 

 us how they pulled business. 



The florist's is an all-the-year-round 

 business nowadays. Summer is an off 

 season chiefly for those who make it so. 



Better clean up on collections before 

 customers go away for the summer. 

 Money will not be easier when they re- 

 turn. 



Many members of the trade contplain 

 of slow mail service; it hits them when 

 letters go slowly and again when parcels 

 are delayed. 



The confidence upon which a business 

 is built is not that of a confidence game, 

 but the faith established by performance 

 of good service. 



The records established by holiday sales 

 this spring should remove doubts as to the 

 t'xtent of the trade's grip on the public's 

 heart and purse. 



Memorial day plantings will have re- 

 minded many people of porch and window 

 boxes. Now is a good time to develop 

 business in that line. 



Sphiakino of a retailers' paper, the 

 Pink Part of The Review contains, in in- 

 teresting reading matter and in adver- 

 tisements, the equivalent of a successful 

 such publication. 



What did you learn from this Memorial 

 day's business? Make a note of it for 

 your guidance next year. Would it benefit 

 some other florists, do you think? Then 

 tell them about it through The Review. 

 Let us hear from you. 



S. A. F. MATTERS contained in the 

 society 's Journal for May are those whidi 

 liavo already appeared in the same form 

 in The Review ^.anjljjthcr trade papers. 

 So liberal is the space TievOtt'iTljir "the- 

 society's affairs by the latter that the 

 Journal adds little to the information 

 gained through weekly channels by S. A. 

 F. members. 



Work up the window box business. 



That field has been developed but 



meagerly in comparison with its possi- 

 bilities. 



If you don 't make expenses in the 

 warm months, you have to do that much 

 greater business during the winter before 

 you have any profit. By keeping up trade 

 in summer you can swell your year's in- 

 come. 



Despite poor weather, bedding plants 

 are almost all sold. The shortage would 

 have been much more apparent had the 

 spring been better. But the warning is 

 loud enough: Propagate all you can for 

 next year. 



Price-cutting, traffic congestion and 

 tightening credit have caused uncertainty 

 in business calculations. But replacement 

 orders will follow the first, the second is 

 gradually disappearing and the third is 

 curtailing speculation. So the result 

 should be improved conditions for this 

 trade. 



A DAY or INDICATION. 



In the triduum that formed the ob- 

 servance of Memorial day this year the 

 trade found its opportunity to make the 

 last of the spring's holidays the same 

 record-breaking sort that the previous 

 ones were. The weather during May 

 29, 30 and 31 was of the best, although 

 showers fell in some localities on Mon- 

 day afternoon, too late to be hurtful. 

 The warm sunshine brought out throngs 

 to the cemeteries to patronize florists, 

 who sold all the stock they had. 



The dark days earlier in May dimin- 

 ished the supply of greenhouse stock 

 and unfavorable weather in the peony 

 districts limited the shipments of that 

 flower, though in some places the quan- 

 tity that was available exceeded antici- 

 pations. The dependence upon wreaths 

 and artificial stock was greater because 

 of the shortage of natural flowers. 

 These substitutes saved prices on stock 

 from ascending to extraordinary heights 

 and it was well so, because Memorial 

 day is a day of lower-priced orders 

 than other holidays and the public 

 would not buy at Mothers' day prices. 



The records noted in the various 

 flower centers last week will surprise 

 any who thought Memorial day was on 

 the wane, so far as this trade was con- 

 cerned. The indications these records 

 afford should be encouraging as to the 

 strong hold the trade now has on the 

 public. The flower industry will never 

 go back to a pre-war basis; we must 

 realize how we have grown and adjust 

 our views to meet the new conditions. 

 In the holidays of this spring the trade 

 has passed record after record, despite 

 dubious business views on the part of 

 some. It is time for the trade to draw 

 up its base to form a new line of attack 

 and cease to think of retiring from the 

 advanced position it has won. 



TEMPERING THEIR SPIRITS. 



One of the most notable things in 

 the present business situation is the 

 change of attitude on the part of labor. 

 Where, only a short time ago, a strike 

 would follow the slightest displeasing 

 action of an employer, whether he was 

 right or wrong, the slackening of busi- 

 -«*•»« -iu-.sojne4ndu,sltics js^id to have 

 brought a willingness on the part of the 

 workers to "talk things over" first. 



The necessity of laying off factory 

 help on account of the transportation 



tie-up, the slowing up of the consumer 

 demand and the shortage of materials 

 seems to have had a salutary influence 

 upon workers in general. The doubt of 

 business men as to the outlook has 

 spread to their employees. As a result 

 the latter are not inclined to maintain 

 the high-handed manner so character- 

 istic a short time ago. 



NOT A GENERAL DECLINE. 



One should keep his eyes open in these 

 times and not be fooled by generaliza- 

 tions. One of these that is being com- 

 monly made is that prices are on the 

 downgrade. Are they? One reads of 

 cuts in prices by nationally known 

 firms. Does he stop to consider just the 

 nature of the reductions and the reasons 

 therefor? 



Certain it is that dry goods and wear- 

 ing apparel have undergone reductions 

 quite generally. But the reason is not 

 a decrease in production cost. The cold 

 spring and backwardness of the warm 

 weather that sends people into the 

 stores for new clothes were responsible 

 for an overstock in mercantile lines, 

 which had to be unloaded, even at a 

 sacrifice. Hence the temporary reduc- 

 tions in these lines. 



In some articles of food there has 

 also been seen a lowering in price. These 

 are chiefly, however, vegetables of 

 which a crop has come to market sud- 

 denly. Only scattering items were af- 

 fected. There has been no general de- 

 crease in the cost of food. 



Not till production catches up with 

 the demand, till transportation enables 

 proper distribution, till foreign needs 

 are satisfied and domestic markets fully 

 supplied, till labor is no longer at a 

 premium in almost all industries — not 

 till that time will florists see that gen- 

 eral lowering in prices which they hope 

 for. And there is no immediate indica- 

 tion of such conditions. 



HEARINGS ON FREIGHT RAISE. 



Hearings before the interstate com- 

 merce commission began at Washing- 

 ton last week in regard lo the increase 

 in freight rates. The raises asked for 

 by the railroads amount to a trifle less 

 than twenty-four per cent in western 

 territory and a little more than thirty 

 per cent in eastern and southern terri- 

 tory. The case presented by the rail- 

 roads is so strong a one that in all like- 

 lihood their requests will be granted by 

 the commission. It is generally con- 

 ceded that the roads have not sufficient 

 income to allow them to make needed 

 improvements, particularly in equip- 

 ment. The demands of the railroad 

 workers are adding to the size of the 

 pay rolls to such an extent that the 

 deficits made under governmental con- 

 trol are certain to grow bigger. The 

 income of the roads has fallen so low 

 that in order to secure money they are 

 obliged to float bond issues at high 

 rates of interest and market them be- 

 low -par. Under these circumstances it 

 is almost certain that the increases in 

 freight rates asked by the roads will 

 1)0 allowed. In that case florists will 

 pay from a quarter to nearly a third 

 more freight on coal, fertilizer, etc., 

 next fall than they have this season. 



BRIEF ANSWERS. 



H. 0. S., Ark. — The Review can sup- 

 ply any horticultural book at publish- 

 ers' prices. Gas escaping in a green- 

 house is fatal to the stock. 



