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October 21, 1920 



The Florists^ Review 



25 



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i;^ BALTIMORE'S BIG WEEK s^ 



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BAIiTIMORE CELEBRATES. 



"Say It with Flowers" Week. 



Often members of the florists' trade 

 1 ave been spoken of by members of 

 ther industries as "a bunch of dead 

 ones," and the hardest part of this is 

 the fact that one hitherto has been 

 (bliged to admit it. But during the 

 week of October 11 there was a resur- 

 rection, as far as the Baltimore florists 

 ;ire concerned. There was not a mo- 

 ment during the entire week that some- 

 thing big was not going on. Indeed, 

 many times during the week florists 

 were competing with one another in 

 .lifferent parts of the city at the same 

 time, all to teach the public how to 

 "Say It with Flowers." 



Monday. 



Monday the week was started with 

 a banquet on the roof of the Southern 

 hotel. This was heralded as the inaugu- 

 ration of "Say It with Flowers" week, 

 and the large banquet hall was con- 

 verted into a regular fairyland. Mr. 

 Farrell, the manager of the house, said 

 that since he had been connected with 

 the hotel he had never seen its equal. 

 Too much credit can not be given to the 

 decoration and banquet committees for 

 the smooth way everything passed off, 

 and for the splendid entertainment. 

 There were 215 who sat down to dinner. 

 Out-of-town guests included D. T. Con- 

 nor, A. A. Niessen and Mr. Fauth, of the 

 S. S. Pennock Co., Philadelphia, and 

 from Washington, Z. D. Blackstone, 

 Fred Leapley, Albert Sehnell, Mr. and 

 Mrs. Clyde Sawyer, Thomas Kirk, Otto 

 Bauer, F. C. Shaffer, G. M. Thomas 

 and lady, and Adolph Schiller. Every 

 trade organization in the city was rep- 

 resented. 



William F. Ekas made a happy toast- 

 master. Mayor William F. Broening, 

 who was the first speaker, showed by 

 his remarks that he has been watching 

 the florists, and no man who listened to 

 him had any cause to be ashamed that 

 he was a florist. "It is just such affairs 

 as your 'Say It with Flowers' week 

 that advertise our city outside of its 

 borders," said the mayor. And ho ex- 

 pressed a sincere hope that this week 

 would be made a permanent institution. 



Robt. L. Graham, Jr., was the next 

 speaker. It seemed strange to some of 

 those present that he, the youngest man 

 in the club, should be addressing them 

 as president-elect, but they have seen 

 what a youthful administration accom- 

 plished last year and look forward to 

 even larger things during the coming 

 year. 



The banquet hall was decorated with 

 dahlias, chrysanthemums and gladioli. 

 The committee had arranged an elabo- 

 rate program, which included several 

 vaudeville acts, some vocal selections 

 and a number of surprises. 



Tuesday. 



Tuesday the ladies' committee started 

 out to "Say It with Flowers" to every 

 hospital in the city. Mrs. Isaac H, 



Moss had charge of this committee. 

 Every member had her own automobile, 

 and there were twenty of these in line, 

 decorated with * ' Say It with Flowers ' ' 

 pennants, loaded dpwn with cut blooms, 

 two ladies on the front seat and four 

 boy scouts on each running board. It 

 was an impressive sight. William F. 

 Ekas turned the store of the Baltimore 

 Florist Supply Co. over to them, and 

 every grower tried to see who could 

 contribute the most flowers. It was 

 estimated that there were 20,000 dah- 

 lias alone. The free wards were the 

 goal of these ladies. They were deter- 

 mined that during "Say It with Flow- 

 ers" week those people not in the habit 

 of receiving flowers should be remem- 

 bered — and how those women did work, 

 and how they enjoyed it! As a result, a 

 new organization is about to be formed. 

 The seed has been sown, and the Flo- 



Another step in florists' pub- 

 licity that is gaining reputation 

 and business for the trade is 

 "Say It with Flowers" week. 

 Originating a year ago in Wash- 

 ington, D. C, this gala week has 

 won high favor in other cities. 

 The success achieved in Balti- 

 more last week was emphatic 

 and will spur the other localities 

 celebrating this event to greater 

 efforts in its promotion. 



rists* Club of Baltimore is going to 

 have a ladies' auxiliary. 



Wednesday. 



The florists, like the athlete in a race, 

 had got their second wind and by 

 Wednesday they were going strong. 

 The feature for the day was the theater 

 party in the Academy of Music. Part 

 of the scheme for the week was the 

 decorating of the lobby and foyer on 

 Monday morning to run the entire week, 

 where they could "Say It with Flow- 

 ers" to the patrons of this theater dur- 

 ing the week. But the younger mem- 

 bers did not think it fine enough; so a 

 call was sent out for help. The best 

 decorators in the city were marshaled, 

 and the entire house was redecorated. 



The florists had seen to it that the 

 best people of the city occupied the 

 seats and boxes of the first floor, and 

 there was not a vacant seat. Mr. Cun- 

 ningham, the publicity expert, in all of 

 his publicity had been using the phrase 

 "A fairyland of flowers," and the deco- 

 rating committee certainly made his 

 words good. One box was assigned to 

 Governor Albert C. Ritchie and party, 



one to Mayor William F. Broening and 

 party, one to ex-Governor Philip Lee 

 Goldsborough and party, and the fourth 

 to the newly elected officers of the club. 



The attraction of the evening was Zoe 

 Atkins' new comedy, "Footloose," 

 featuring Miss Emily Stevens. It was 

 quite up to the high-class scale on which 

 the florists of Baltimore conducted the 

 whole week's celebration. 



Up in the concert hall the dance 

 started at 9 o'clock. The decorations 

 here were entirely floral and were quite 

 elaborate. Refreshments, which were 

 served by a crew of well trained wait- 

 ers, were provided for 2,500. It is a 

 safe calculation that in the theater 

 party and concert hall on this particular 

 evening 5,000 people had it said to them 

 with flowers. It was a wonderful eve- 

 ning and one never saw a more appreci- 

 ative set of guests. 



Thursday. 



J. Fred Ammann, like everyone else 

 at the F. T. D. convention, heard of 

 what the florists in Baltimore were do- 

 ing through Joseph S. Merritt and Wil- 

 liam F. Johnston. The result was that 

 Mr. Ammann telegraphed he would ar- 

 rive a day ahead of schedule. The re- 

 ception committee got together and de- 

 cided that it would not do to have a 

 man of Mr. Ammann 's ability idle for 

 a whole day, so a publicity meeting was 

 arranged in the rooms of the City Club. 

 Mr. Ammann spoke for an hour on na- 

 tional publicity and then an old-time 

 conference was held, with Mr. Am- 

 mann answering questions on the prob- 

 lems florists have to solve. 



Friday. 



Friday was the growers' big day. A 

 meeting was held in the Hotel Rennert, 

 and J. Fred. Ammann, who had come to 

 the city to help them organize, was the 

 principal speaker. The theme of Mr. 

 Ammann 's address was the National 

 Flower Growers' Association and na- 

 tional publicity. There was one point 

 he brought out clearly, and that was the 

 fact that the growers' association was 

 not an organization that had for its aim 

 the injury in any way of any other 

 branch of the business. There seems to 

 be an erroneous idea in the minds of 

 some florists that the object of the as- 

 sociation is to hold a club over the heads 

 of the other two branches of the busi- 

 ness. Mr. Ammann brought out the 

 fact most plainly that the one could not 

 exist without the other. He brought 

 out the fact that the sole idea of this 

 new organization was one of coopera- 

 tion, one in which the growers could get 

 together and solve their problems. 



James Hamilton, the president of the 

 local branch, in illustration of the prob- 

 lems florists have to solve, cited the 

 fact that now, when coal costs $15 per 

 ton, he is only getting a slight increase 

 for roses over the time when coal cost 

 him $3 per ton. 



Mr. Ammann was amazed at what the 

 Baltimore florists had accomplished. 

 When he was told that it had all been 

 done in three weeks, he could not be- 



