20 



The Rorists' Review 



MAnCH 24. 1921. 



Here Is the Newly Completed Range at Hibbing, a Small Town in Numbers, but Big in Actions. 



abidingly worth while are either 

 founded on, or made possible because 

 of sentiment. 



Show me the man or the concern that 

 says and lives up to the statement that 

 "there is no sentiment in business," 

 and I'll show you a failure, insofar as 

 the real, enduring things of the world 

 are concerned. Show sentiment. Say 

 things with flowers, not with a frown. 

 Try Conrad B. Wolf's way of getting 

 your message across. 



LAPORTE, IND. 



Business Is Good. 



That the flower business should be 

 so good us it is seems a matter of sur- 

 prise to many people. This is a manu- 

 facturing city and none of the fac- 

 tories is operating at full capacity, the 

 largest here, engaged in making agricul- 

 tural machinery, being down to less 

 than half and a big piano factory 

 closed completely. With so much un- 

 employment, it is inevitable that retail 

 business in all lines should be affected. 

 Curiously, perhaps, the flower store is 

 holding up better than any of the 

 others. 



For its size, Laporte has few florists. 

 There is a population of over 1;'),000, 

 catered to by one exclusive downtown 

 flower store, that of the Kaber Co., 

 and one store combining candy and 

 flowers, that of I. M. Hoffman. The 

 Kaber Co., established about thirty 

 years ago, is owned by the two daugh- 

 ters of the founder and is managed by 

 Miss Ella Kaber. This concern also 

 has the principal range of glass in this 

 section, about 17,000 feet, devoted 

 principally to pot and bedding plants. 

 A general business is done, including 

 everything from a boutonniere to a job 

 of landscape gardening. Sales recently 

 have not averaged so large as a year 

 ago, but they steadily grow more nu- 

 merous. The location of the store, ad- 

 joining the Eumely hotel, is advan- 

 tageous. Most of the cut flowers are 

 obtainied from Chicago. 



The Hofifman store is on Lincoln way, 

 once Main street. J. C. Hennessey, 312 

 Pine Lake avenue, caters to the trade 



in the vicinity of his greenhouse. C. A. 

 L. Wuellner, 412 John street, is both 

 nurseryman and florist. Mrs. William 

 Crawford grows summer stock. 



A Supply Center. 



In the florists' trade throughout the 

 country Laporte is known as the homo 

 of the Ove Gnatt Co. Mr. Gnatt and 

 family have just returned from a trip 

 to Denmark and through central 

 Europe. The company, of which Fred 

 Hennock is the financial head and 

 George Husmann the chief of the fac- 

 tory and sales staff, has a fine layout, 

 only a hundred yards from the express 

 oflfice and not much farther from the 

 New York Central freight depot. The 

 factory building has several acres of 

 floor space, affording splendid facilities 

 for such operations as basket-making 

 and the preparing of natural foliage, 

 which call for plenty of room and low 

 overhead expense. The Gnatt business 

 extends to both coasts. At present 

 large quantities of green painted 

 Italian ruscus are being prepared for 

 the New England Memorial day de- 

 mand. MrjjJIennock says business thus 

 far in 1921 lias held nearly even with 

 the boom months in the first part of 

 1920. There has been an increase in 

 the number of orders shipped, but the 

 average size has been smaller. In the 

 first fifteen days of March fifty more 

 orders were shipped than in the same 

 period last year, but the quantity of 

 goods sent out did not increase enough 

 to offset the lower prices, so there was a 

 small decrease in the billings. Mr. 

 Ilennock sees no prospect of immediate 

 change in the trade's attitude toward 

 conservative buying, but he believes 

 prices are not likely to fall farther; 

 indeed, much stock on hand costs less 

 than it can now be replaced for. 



Tliat the flower business is more 

 active than most lines Mr. Ilennock 

 attributes largely to the trade pub- 

 licity, lie believes the coining of the 

 .slogan, "Say It with Flowers," was 

 worth all the national campaign has 

 cost and that it will continue to be a 

 powerful factor in developing the busi- 

 ness as long as individual florists fea- 



ture the slogan in the advertising mat- 

 ter they put before their local patrons. 



BROOKLYN, N. Y, 



Joseph Trcpel, owner of fifteen stores 

 in Brooklyn, applied March 11 to Justice 

 Van Siclen in the Supreme court for an 

 injunction to restrain his alleged second 

 cousin, Joseph Trepel, and Henry Lands- 

 mann, a former employee, from using 

 the name "Joseph Trepel" in a florists' 

 business. The plaintiff said the defend- 

 ants had opened a store displaying a 

 sign bearing the same name as that of 

 the plaintiff, in the same script and in 

 the same neighborhood, and that his 

 trade had suffered thereby. Joseph 

 Trepel denies knowledge of a second 

 cousin of the same name. The decision 

 in the case was reserved. 



The Brooklyn Citizen for March G 

 quoted Edward J. McCarthy, president 

 of James Weir, Inc., for the statement 

 that business conditions in the florists' 

 business were not at all bad. The same 

 week a decided drop in the price of 

 flowers was commented on favorably in 

 the New York Herald, the Paterson, 

 N. J., News and the New York Tele- 

 graph. 



CARRYING OVER CYCLAMENS. 



Will you tell me how to carry over 

 cyclamens until another winter and if 

 those which have not bloomed this year 

 are worth carrying over? 



J. J. B.— N. Y. 



Unsold cyclamens can be carried over 

 for another season, if desired. A few 

 years ago a good many were grown the 

 second Easter, especially on private 

 estates, but the number grows less each 

 year. There is little advantage in 

 carrying plants over when 16-month-old 

 plants can be grown sufficiently large 

 to fill 10-inch and 12-inch pots, carry- 

 ing scores, if not hundreds of flowers. 

 It would be inadvisable to carry over 

 unsold plants, but if you desire to do 

 so, you should commence to rest the 

 plants gradually with the passing of the 

 January season. You must not lay 

 them on their sides under the bench, 

 forget them until fall, and then expect 



