32 



The Florists^ Review 



NOVEMBBB 25, 1»20 



Established 1H97, 

 by Ci. L Oraut. 



Publlalied every Thursday by 

 Tin: F'l.oiiisTs' Piiiu.ishinc Co., 



500 560 Cnxton BnUdlnsr, 



5()8 South Dual born St., Chicago, 



Tel., Wabash HI'JS. 



Keuistored cable address, 



Florvlew, Chicago. 



Enti'ri'd as second class matter 

 Dec. :i. IH'.)7, at tlie postodice at tlhl- 

 catro. 111., under tlio Act of March 

 3. 1K7'.). 



Subscription i>rice, $2.0() a voar. 

 To Canada, $;i.OO; to Europe, $4.00. 



Advertising rales quoted on 

 request. Oidy strictly trade ad- 

 vertising accepted. 



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Besults bring advertising. 

 The Review brings results. 



Hope you had a good Thanksgiving. 



Advance orders indicated a better 

 Thanksgiving business than usual in most 

 markets. 



Some small ranges are more profitable 

 than large ones, because their owners are 

 expert at utilizing every foot of bench 

 space. 



The requisites for success are ability 

 to do something well and doing it. The 

 second is as important as the first and 

 more often lacking. 



Giganteum bulbs which are to be flow- 

 ered for Easter, which is March 27 in 

 1921, should be planted not later than 

 the first week in December. 



A GOOD many people, florists and pub- 

 lishers among others, have not realized 

 how easy it has been to get business in 

 the last two years. It may be different 

 during the next few months. The sur- 

 vival of the fittest may be among the 

 old laws which are about to function 

 again. 



The trade may not soon again be so 

 ready to buy large quantities of Holland 

 bulbs at high prices, but there is little 

 probability that anyone who forces his 

 1920 purchases for his own retail trade 

 will fail to make money. The florist 

 who grows and retails in a small city is 

 the most independent man on earth. 



A straw shows the wind. Bradstreet's 

 reports 307 failures in the United States 

 for last week, against 211 for the previous 

 week, and 110, 132, 238, 303 for the cor- 

 responding weeks of 1919 to 1916. About 

 69.7 per cent of the total number of 

 concerns failing had $5,000 capital or less, 

 and 16.6 per cent had from $5,000 to 

 $20,000 capital. 



"We send today a few flowers for the 

 editor's desk" has become a frequent 

 message in the mails and with it Novem- 

 ber 22 came a half-dozen perfect blooms 

 of Baur & Steinkamp's new chrysanthe- 

 mum, Thanksgiving Pink, so named be- 

 cause of the season at which it is ready to 

 cut. It is an unusually large, well formed 

 flower, deep pink in color, and has been 

 commented favorably on by everyone who 

 lias visited the offices of The Review this 

 week. It will be generally tried, once it 

 is on the market. 



It is said that one eastern concern 

 has acquired all the cocoanut fiber in 

 sight and doubled the price. 



Near the large cities common labor is 

 being obtained for greenhouse work at 

 approximately half its cost six months 

 ago. 



The November issue of the S. A. F. 

 Journal, reduced to thirty-two pages this 

 month, is filled chiefly with reports of 

 state vice-presidents, which are mainly 

 concerned with local fuel problems of last 

 winter. 



Some sellers report the retail florists 

 as being heavily stocked with Christmas 

 goods, bought earlier and more freely 

 than ever before, with present demand 

 negligible, but it seems quite probable 

 it is only the lull before the storm. 



The price of chiffon is what the sales- 

 men call "shot to pieces," but none of 

 the retailers is buying except for immedi- 

 ate needs; they are doing as almost 

 always is done in a broken market, wait- 

 ing for prices to go still lower, although 

 there is greater probability they will re- 

 bound. 



The editor's desk has been decorated 

 for several days with a vase of seedling 

 chrysanthemums from W. F. Richter, Cull- 

 man, Ala. There were two varieties, of 

 his own raising, a cream-colored semi- 

 double and a snow-white variety almost 

 like a cactus dahlia. Mr. Richter wrote 

 that he has twenty-five plants of one 

 and ten of the other, in their second year. 



A DOZEN HXTNDBED. 



This week The Review pays to readers 

 its twelve-hundredth visit — that is, to 

 those of its present readers who were 

 among the subscribers to its first num- 

 ber, and there are a considerable num- 

 ber of them. Those who can remember 

 that first number will note a great 

 change. Most marked is the change in 

 size and appearance. It has occupied 

 twenty-three years — not a lightning 

 transformation, but a steady upward 

 growth wrought by hard work and serv- 

 ice to the trade. The dozen hundred 

 numbers represent a contribution to the 

 trade's progress; and there is satisfac- 

 tion in realizing that The Review's 

 growth has kept pace with that of the 

 trade. 



NO TIME FOR PESSIMISTS. 



In the processes of business readjust- 

 ment, some of which seem to have an 

 exceedingly dark gray hue at the mo- 

 ment, florists should not overlook the 

 factors operating, not for today or to- 

 morrow, but for next week and next 

 month. Clearness of mind on this score 

 will save pessimistic thoughts and pro- 

 mote that courageous optimism which 

 is so valuable to any business man just 

 now. The reasons for assuming a cheer- 

 ful view of conditions are cited in the 

 following paragraph from a prominent 

 banker's statement recently: 



"There is so much in the present sit- 

 uation to inspire confidence and hope 

 for the future that it is little short of 

 criminal for anyone to paint the picture 

 so blackly, through either ignorance or 

 intent, that these vital facts are ob- 

 scured. To cite a few pertinent facts: 

 This country will harvest this j'ear one 

 of the largest crops in its history; its 

 transportation congestion has been re- 

 lieved and its railroad system is for the 

 first time in a decade on a sound finan- 



cial and operating basis; we have passe 

 through a national election and assure 

 four years of sane administration o; 

 public affairs; our banking system ha 

 withstood the greatest credit strain ii 

 its history and is on a sound and work 

 able basis; the accumulated surplus c 

 five years of splendid prosperity if 

 stored in many ways for our continue(j 

 use; the markets of the world demani' 

 our products and a great mercantik 

 marine is prepared to transport them, 

 this country has not been overbuilt or 

 overextended in any of its underlyino 

 activities, and faces no program of re 

 adjustment along these lines such a.s 

 usually precipitates panic conditions. 

 We are in the soundest financial, indus 

 trial and political condition of any im- 

 portant nation in the world. These are 

 the simple fundamental facts of our 

 business situation, and to consider the 

 present reaction as anything but a teni 

 porary setback from the destruction, in- 

 flation, extravagance and unsound eco- 

 nomic conditions precipitated by the 

 war is simply not to reckon with the 

 truth." 



HERE'S A CHANCE FOR HELP. 



Greenhouse owners and nurserymen 

 whose experienced employees have left 

 them for more profitable trades and who 

 have found no apprentices forthcoming 

 to replace them, may find a possible so- 

 lution of the help difficulty in the work 

 of the Federal Board for "Vocational Edu. 

 cation, Division of Rehabilitation, which 

 has offices in the principal cities of the 

 country. The office of district No. 8 is 

 at 14 East Congress street, Chicago. 

 This district office covers the states of 

 Illinois, Michigan and Wisconsin and 

 in the last two weeks has had three 

 applications from returned soldiers wish- 

 ing to obtain positions in the florists' 

 or nursery business. 



Work in a greenhouse or a nursery 

 is quite beneficial to men who have 

 spent months in hospital wards, have 

 suffered from a slight dose of gas, or 

 are recuperating from shell shock or 

 nervous troubles, and the board expects 

 many applications in the near future by 

 returned soldiers for positions in this 

 kind of work. So systematic are the 

 board's classifications that the employer 

 need not fear that the man he takes 

 on will be too much disabled to do his 

 job. Only certain men with minor dis- 

 abilities will be given positions of this 

 nature, and in every case the man will 

 be able to carry on his duties as well as 

 another. Moreover, in some cases the 

 disabilities might be such that, while 

 able to do greenhouse work, the appli- 

 cant would be unfitted for some other 

 occupations, and hence would be the 

 more likely to remain permanently in his 

 place. 



Of course, since these men are, for 

 the most part, untrained in the rudi- 

 ments of the profession, the employer 

 would not feel justified in paying high 

 salaries at first, but would in many cases 

 gladly take the applicant as an appren- 

 tice, paying him what he was actually 

 worth. The Federal Board for Voca- 

 tional Education sees to it that each 

 man gets enough, over and above what 

 his employer pays him, to live on. This 

 means that by making a place for a 

 soldier apprentice the employer does not 

 take any burden on his shoulders. He 

 pays the actual value of the apprentice 's 

 labor and the federal board sees that he 

 gets a competency. 



