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Junk 24, 1920 



The Florists^ Review 



19 



Annual Banquet of the Commercial Flower Growers of Chicago at Hotel Randolph^ June 17, 1920. 



it. But before the grower and whole- 

 saler sacrifice the stock, to undersell 

 each competitive wholesaler, before 

 prices are reduced to the lowest level 

 and before the stock goes to waste, why 

 not utilize surplus production as a me- 

 dium for advertising? Cut flowers and 

 plants in themselves have the highest 

 advertising value in their appeal to the 

 human family. Let the surplus stock 

 ])rove its value in effective advertising 

 as an addition to the cost of the printed 

 advertising. 



Surplus cut flower campaigns can be 

 laid out and profitably utilized. Re- 

 member the high cost of selling begins 

 with the low price of cut flowers. Stock 

 would not accumulate as waste if used 

 to further the work of the advertising 

 bureaus. 



Never before have we had our eyes 

 opened to the opportunities of reaching 

 out for business. Cut flowers and plants 

 should be a part of every home. * ' Say 

 It with Flowers" should be brought to 

 consumers' attention in such forceful 

 and compelling ways that every grower 

 in city, village and crossroads will sit 

 up and listen. 



We have been old-fashioned and slow 

 to accept advances made to us, but 

 growers' organizations should always be 

 ready to listen and take heed of the 

 new era of progress before us. 



Organization. 



As an organization we hope to im- 

 prove our own condition and the other 

 branches of the trade in the marketing 

 of our products. An organization should 

 represent a majority, or criticism will 

 be hurled at one another, relationship 

 will be strained, factionalism and clan- 

 nishness will arise to obstruct and im- 

 l)ede the work wc set out to do. 



We should strive to remedy willingly 

 defects as they arise in our business, to 

 safeguard healthy and prosperous grow- 

 ing conditions, to discourage low selling, 

 which jeopardizes quality production. 



The grower who holds back from join- 

 ing his organization "drifts with the 

 tide," only to see other lines of organ- 

 ized industry forge to the front. The 

 organization that is profitable for the 

 one individual pays better for them all. 

 To withhold your membership compels 



other growers to pay for all the benefits 

 you take advantage of. 



The officers of every organization bur- 

 den themselves with their duties in be- 

 half of its members; so the least a grow- 

 er can do in his organization is to show 

 support by attendance at the regular 

 meetings. Every grower should be anx- 

 ious of the opportunity to be a member 

 of his organization. No greater testi- 

 monial was given to the Commercial 

 Flower Growers of Chicago than the 

 movement towards a national organiza- 

 tion. 



Growers of America, go to Cleveland 

 and attend the convention! 



CHICAGO GEO WEES BANQUET. 



Annual Meeting. 



After a wait which put the final edge 

 on appetites already keen, about seven- 

 ty-five growers and their friends filed 

 into the banquet room in the Randolph 

 hotel, Chicago, Thursday evening, June 

 17, for the annual meeting and stag 

 banquet of the Commercial Flower 

 Growers of Chicago. When all had found 

 places at the long tables, which were 

 decorated with pink roses and white 

 carnations, Joseph Kohout, president of 

 the organization, with a few well chosen 

 words bade everyone be seated and then 

 the fun began. 



First a photograph was made which 

 included everybody's best smile, as may 

 be seen in the illustration on this page. 

 Then the pianist who had been playing 

 when the gathering assembled resumed 

 his work and another member of the 

 entertainment troupe for which Paul 

 Weiss, as chairman of the entertain- 

 ment committee, had arranged led and 

 encouraged the banqueters in singing 

 more than a score of popular songs 

 between the courses of the excellent 

 dinner. This young woman had the en- 

 thusiastic cooperation of Timothy 

 Waters, who displaj'ed then the same 

 contagious good nature familiar to mem- 

 bers of the Chicago Florists' Club. 

 Prominent in the singing, solo and 

 otherwise, was Eddie Hunt, of the 

 Chicago Flower Growers' Association. 



Other features of the entertainment 

 were the black-face comedian with the 



Irish accent and the saxophone, the 

 sleight-of-hand man who did things that 

 made the h. c. of 1. look easy in com- 

 parison and the solo dancing in both 

 the Egyptian and the shimmy styles. 



Officers Eeelected. 



Partly from a reluctance to turn to 

 such serious matters as business and 

 chiefly from an entire satisfaction with 

 this last — and first — year's administra- 

 tion, the organization quickly reelected 

 its officers to serve for another year, as 

 follows: President, Joseph Kohout; 

 vice-president, Peter Pearson; treasurer, 

 N. J. Wietor, and secretary, Otto Am- 

 ling. 



H. V. Swenson, secretary of the Al- 

 lied Florists' Association of Illinois, 

 sketched the development of last year's 

 local publicity work and outlined the 

 chief points of what had been planned 

 for this year. The chief endeavor, he 

 said, will be to build up a steady, all- 

 the-year business through the use of 

 four or five big ideas. One of these is 

 the fact that there are in Chicago al- 

 most 3,000,000 birthdays each year; 

 birthday greetings said with flowers will 

 provide a large, yet continuous demand. 

 Another line which may be followed 

 is the desirability of having business 

 men use flowers more commonly in their 

 offices, as well as in their buttonholes. 



In addition to brief speeches by the 

 officers, there was some discussion of 

 the basis of assessing growers to be 

 adopted by the National Flower Grow- 

 ers' Association; no definite action was 

 taken on this matter, the decision being 

 postponed until the July meeting, when 

 the organization's delegates to the 

 Cleveland meeting in August will be 

 chosen. 



CINCINNATI, O. 



The Market. 



The market last week was on a steady 

 go and everything sold well. Giganteum 

 lilies seem to be the only flowers to 

 promise a slight glut, bringing the price 

 down to $6 and $8 per hundred. 



Peonies are now a thing of the past 

 for this season, but such flowers as fever- 

 few and delphiniums are arriving just 

 in time to fill in. Roses are still hold- 



