36 



The Rorists' Review 



Mauch 3, 1921 



V3^I£Hr 



KstabliHlicfllH'tT, 

 by Ct. li Cirant. 



Vahlislied every Tliui-silay by 

 Tun Fi.oitisrs' PLM!i,isaiN(i Co.. 



500 560 Caxtcn Buliaintr, 



508 South Deal bora St., ClilcBKO. 



Tel , Wabash 81'J5. 



Keirlsterert cable addresn, 



Florylew, Chicago. 



Entered as second cInBs matter 

 Dec. 3, IHOT. at the post-otllce at Clil- 

 ciiffo. 111., under the Act of March 

 3. 1879. 



Subscription price, S2.00 a year. 

 To Canada. $3.00; to Europe. $4.U0. 



Advertising ratos quoted on 

 request. Only strictly trade ad- 

 vertislDfr accepted. 



Results bring advertising. 

 The Review brings results. 



The florist who put his profits into 

 Liberty bonds last year isn't worrying 

 about how to meet his bills now. 



This week's Classified section is a 

 record for size for this time of year. 

 Never before were there so many of the 

 little liners at this time. 



Next week Illinois florists meet at 

 Urbana, March 8, and Michigan florists 

 convene on the same date for a 2-day 

 meeting at Saginaw. 



Many items of florists' supplies are 

 lacing sold at prices as low as those of 

 1914, which is the same as saying at the 

 lowest i)rices ever known. 



The florists haven't taken over Labor 

 day, either, is the comment of Fred H. 

 Lemon, who inquires at the same time 

 what flowers one would recommend for a 

 divorce. 



Every few days some florist asks The 

 Review if there is any prohibition against 

 his using "Pay It with Flowers" on his 

 letterhead. No, Brothers, there is not. 

 Go as far as you like. Indeed, the more 

 the slogan is used before the public the 

 Ixtter it is. 



Shippers of stock not ordinarily sub- 

 ject to inspection meet frequent diffi- 

 culties through tlie diversity of state in- 

 spection laws and, repeatedly, through 

 misunderstanding of those laws and va- 

 rious interpretations of them by state 

 insjiectora and tlic agents of transporta- 

 tion conijianies. 



Don't take someone's word for it 

 that you need not file an income tax re- 

 turn. That excuse would not pay tlio 

 $1,000 fine imjiosed on those who should 

 but do not. Single persons having an 

 income of $1,000 or more in 1920 and 

 married oiios liaving one of $2,000 or 

 more must file a return by March 1.5. Be 

 sure that Uncle Sam will catch you if 

 you don 't. 



The United States Civil Service Com- 

 mission announces ojien com)>etitive ex- 

 :tmiiiations for both men and women for 

 the jiosition of laboratory aid in the 

 bureau of foreign seed and plant intro- 

 • luction and for the position of assistant 

 jilant breeder, April 13 and April 5, re- 

 spectively, at the postofBce buildings in 

 pr.actically every city of consequence in 

 the United States. 



Thrift is more than saving; it is the 

 discernment of ])roper proportions so that 

 one may know what to spend wisely and 

 what to save. 



The constituency of the Pink Part of 

 The Review diaiiges less than most lists 

 of advertisers. Once there, a florist stays. 

 And • more come every week. 



Comparison, like imitation, is sincerest 

 flattery. If your competitor boasts his 

 business is nearly as large as yours, or 

 seventy-five per cent as large as yours, 

 or sometliing of that sort, you may rest 

 assured you are still setting the pace. 



The practice of trade-marking stock 

 is appealing to growers of the best. Ad- 

 vertising tape to tie the bunches of 

 l)looms is one method and a gummed 

 label stuck on the wrapper is another. 

 The latter is used by the Wild Bros. 

 Nursery Co., Sarcoxie, Mo., in sending 

 its peonies to market. 



"SAY IT WITH FLOWERS." 



The codfish lays a million eggs 



While the helpful hen lays one, 

 Hut the codfish does not caclsle 



To inform you what she's done. 

 And so we scorn the codfish coy, 



But the helpful hen we prize, 

 Which indicates to thoughtful minds 



It pays to advertise. 



The time has passed when florists may 

 rely on buyers seeking them out — it is 

 necessary now and will be hereafter to 

 hunt for buyers. Every florist should 

 support the national advertising cam- 

 paign, of course, but that isn't direct 

 enough — ^he should employ methods to 

 attract public attention to his own mer- 

 chandise and service. Use printers' ink. 

 If you don 't know how, get help. 



WAGES FOR THE FAMILY. 



The prices charged the public in dif- 

 ferent flower stores and in different 

 communities would not vary so 

 markedly as they do if there were in all 

 cases an adequate idea as to operating 

 costs. When a customer walks into 

 some modest shop on a by-street or in a 

 small town and sees flowers or plants 

 for half or three-quarters the price he 

 l)aid a few days before in an establish- 

 ment on the principal avenue of a neigh- 

 boring city, lie might well ask the ])ro- 

 l)rictor, "Why is there so marked a 

 difference? I know your rent is lower 

 and your investment is not so large, but 

 why can you charge so much less for the 

 same sort of stock?" The proprietor 

 would be trutliful and accurate if he 

 replied, "1 haven't the heavy labor 

 cost that he has. You see, my wife and 

 my son help me when I'm busy; so I 

 don't need to pay a lot of money to 

 hire people." 



But the subject shouldn't droji there. 

 Does the proprietor of this small shop 

 pay his wife and his son for what they 

 dof Is there any entry on the books to 

 indicate what their services are worth? 

 Probably not. The proprietor, no doubt, 

 jiays his bills and at the end of the 

 month finds that he has made so much 

 money. "He" has not. It took three 

 jieojile to make that ninnoy, part of the 

 time if not all the time. Maybe he 

 thought what "he" made was a fair 

 sum. It would be pretty thin if di- 

 vided into three persons' wages. 



Suppose this proprietor received an 

 offer from a business man like this: 

 "I'll pay you so much a month if you 

 will work for me and send your wife 

 over each morning and send your son 

 over every afternoon after school." 

 Would he think that a fair basis of pay? 



Probably not. Then why should he con- 

 sider that he himself earned the money 

 left at the end of the month? Let him 

 pay his wife and son what he would 

 want the business man to pay if he sent 

 one over each morning and the other 

 each afternoon. He need not pay them 

 in cash, but he should have an account 

 for each on the books. Then, when he 

 has credited to each, in accordance with 

 the time spent in the store, an amount 

 on the store 's books, he will know what 

 he himself has really earned. To pro- 

 vide for his wife's and his son's wages, 

 he will probably have to charge more 

 for flowers. And then the discrepancy 

 between prices in the store downtown 

 and in the store on the by-street will 

 not be so marked, though there will 

 still, of course, be some difference. 



NEW FLORISTS. 



"There are evidences of marked ex- 

 pansion in the florists' business," de- 

 clared the head of one of the leading 

 supply houses the other day. "We have 

 been receiving many orders of late 

 months from florists in small towns, 

 places we never heard of and cannot 

 find on the map. Only a postal guide 

 locates them. Tlie inference is that 

 many persons are embarking in this 

 trade, regarding it as one of profit as 

 compared with some others. You can 

 construct your own theory as to why 

 they are doing so — whether they were 

 attracted by 'Say It with Flowers,' 

 or by the profits last season of florists 

 for whom these newcomers perhaps were 

 agents, or by something else. The cause 

 is not so important as the effect. That 

 will be to maintain, and probably stimu- 

 late, the demand for stock from the 

 wholesale markets and for supplies from 

 houses such as ours. It will be the 

 development of more business in flowers, 

 benefiting everybody." 



That a considerable number of new- 

 comers are now in this trade has been 

 apparent to The Review from the sub- 

 scriptions received from them. The 

 florists who left the profession during 

 the difficult times of war are being re- 

 placed, if they have not themselves re- 

 turned. Indeed, the new florists are so 

 manj' that those who are gone are much 

 more than replaced. In number the 

 trade is growing and, with increased 

 workers in the field developing remote 

 districts, business for all of us will 

 grow. The man was quite right who 

 said, "The florists' trade is an infant, 

 just growing big enough to talk. It has 

 lisped, 'Say It with Flowers,' and 

 much more is expected of it." 



'WAY DOWN EAST. 



There are several reasons why the 

 Classified ads in The Review are spe- 

 cially useful to florists in the eastern 

 states, but all the reasons may be 

 summed up in the evidence of the one 

 big fact — the ads fetch the orders — they 

 sell the goods. Like this: 



Please discontinue tlie dahlia and valley .ids; 

 sold out. — Hugo Kind, Ilamnionton, N. J., Feb- 

 ruary L'.3, 1921. 



We are all suld out on the geraniums adver- 

 tised in Tlie Ueview.— J. G. Layton, Oiean, 

 N. Y., February 19, 1921. 



Out out our nd on ferns; all -old out. — C. W. 

 Espy & Son, Hrookville, Pa., February 23, 1921. 



My advertisement of draci-nas In The Review 

 has been worliing wonderfiillv. — S. Bartoiotta, 

 Fairport, N. Y., February 23, 1921. 



If you iicar a man complain of the cost 

 of advertising you can be pretty certain 

 he spends a good bit of money elsewhere 

 than in The Review. 



