24 



The Florists' Review 



March 24, 1921. 





Kstabllflhed 1807, 

 by G. L Grant. 



Fublighed every Thursday by 

 The Florists' PunLisHiNG Co., 



600 660 Oaxtcn BuildlOK, 



608 South Dearborn St., ChlcaKO. 



Tel., Wab.-i8h 8196. 



Resrlstered cable address, 



Florvlew, Chicago. 



Entered as second class mattef 

 Dec. 3. 1897, at the poet-office at C h l- 

 caffo. 111., under the Act of March 

 3. 1879. 



Subscription price, $2.00 a year. 

 To Canada, $3.00; to Europe. $4.00. 



Advertistni; rates quoted OD 

 request. Only strictly trade ad- 

 vertislncr accepted. 



RESULTS. 



We give them. You get them. 



We both have them. 



The day of the knocker is not past. It 

 was never present. His is always an off 

 day. 



The weather nian favored the growing 

 of plants for Easter. Now hope is that 

 lie will favor their sale. 



New ideas are constantly making money 

 for other florists. Do not be afraid to 

 expose yourself to them. 



Florists invariably advise their cus- 

 tomers to change the water daily in their 

 vases, but how many practice what they 

 preach? 



Get a postcard printed. Acknowledge 

 with it every order which cannot be 

 shipped the day it is received. State on 

 the card when shipment will be made. 



Waste cuts down some florists' profits 

 more than does the spring glut. A dime 

 goes here and a nickel there; the total at 

 the year's end is more than the earnings. 



Without crowding your store, it is wise 

 to display all the goods you can. Certain 

 flowers or plants sell themselves to certain 

 customers, while you would lose the sale 

 by (lra\viiig tlieir attention to something 

 else. 



Judging by the reports of advertisers 

 in the Classified department, the demand 

 for spring stock, relative to the supply, 

 is even stronger than last year. It may 

 be another case of the early bird catching 

 the worm, as it sometiineg has happened 

 that a scarcity in March will be followed 

 by a surplus in .Tune. 



In response to tlie many comj)laints 

 last season, the British Chamber of 

 Horticulture is gathering data with a view 

 to seeking legislative relief from dumping 

 of foreign horticultural produce in British 

 markets. By this means low-priced lots 

 of surplus bulbs may be excluded under 

 seasonal ri'gulation of importations. 



What the florists' busnness needs more 

 than all 'else is an infusion of modern 

 ideas of management. No business can 

 develop beyoiul a narrow limit until an 

 adequate and eff"ective system has been 

 developed for handling details. And the 

 test of adecpiacy is not the owner's idea of 

 it, but the ideas of his customers. The 

 complaints are the surest guide, but at 

 present the one least heeded. 



Don 't spend a few dollars on adver- 

 tising and then say, ' ' Advertising doesn 't 

 pay." It's continuous advertising that 

 pays. 



REGAitDi.ESS of personal political pre- 

 dilections, recipients of the Harding 

 calendar for 1921 from the C. C. Poll- 

 worth Co. are glad to have so appropriate 

 and patriotic a wall decoration, the more 

 because the likeness of the new first 

 citizen is an excellent one. 



Collections in this trade still are good 

 for those who work at the job. The days 

 when any of us can just "watch the 

 money roll in" are passed, but if we 

 each refuse credit to those who do not pay 

 when they should, we can keep our in- 

 dividual business and the trade as a 

 whole on a sound financial footing. 



CUT DOWN THE OVERHEAD. 



Two nationally known growers, one 

 of roses, the other of carnations, were 

 discussing a greenhouse range they had 

 just visited. 



"If I had that place, I'd sell half of 

 it. Why? Because I could put every- 

 thing there is in the whole range in 

 just half the space. The empty benches 

 are not merely waste; they're criminal 

 negligence. The owner of those green- 

 houses is throwing away money faster 

 than if he walked down the street toss- 

 ing dollar bills into the air." 



Agreeing with hia companion, the 

 other replied: "That place illustrates 

 my belief that the most profitable 

 ranges in the country are those of from 

 100,000 to 150,000 feet of glass. The 

 owner is then looking for a pl.ace to put 

 stock, rather than hunting for some- 

 thing to fill empty benches. Intensive 

 culture paj's better in our business than 

 in most others." 



"I'd be inclined to say that 200,000 

 to 250,000 square feet was the most 

 profitable," was the response. "The 

 overhead on a place bigger than that is 

 tremendous. On the other hand, the 

 waste on some smaller places is just as 

 tremendous." 



The most profitable size of range is 

 not the point. That varies in each per- 

 son 's Opinion. But the waste in many 

 greenhouse establishments, large and 

 small, is extremely important. It will 

 j)ay you to take an afternoon off some 

 (lay to ponder just the one question, 

 "Am I using all the space I can to the 

 best advantage in my houses?" 



DON'T DO IT ALL YOURSELF. 



Many a florist has built up a thriving 

 business of good size from a beginning 

 so small that he liimself performed every 

 duty about tlio place. 'The first help he 

 hired was of the type that required his 

 constant direction. And from that day 

 to this he has been in the habit of car- 

 rying the whole business on his own 

 shoulders. He assumes charge of the ut- 

 most detail and never finds a moment 

 free. He reads of many ways to aid his 

 sales, but he hasn't time to try them. 

 He hears of means of improvement, but 

 he can't find a moment to investigate. 

 Vacations or holidays are unheard-of. 

 He hasn't even time to be sick. If he 

 is, the business meantime goes to the 

 dogs, and if he dies, his widow, instead 

 of receiving a regular income from an 

 established business, is lucky if she can 

 raise a fair amount bj' selling it. 



Don 't try to do everything yourself. 

 Divide responsibility. Put some of it 

 on a head clerk, if you have a store. 



Let your chief helper, if you haven't a 

 foreman in the greenhouses, take charge 

 of part of the work there. Find out the 

 special fitness of each person in your 

 employ and give him or her something 

 to answer for. It may not be much at 

 first, but if you don't break them in 

 gradually, you can't put the whole bur- 

 den on them sometime when you'd like 

 mightily to get away to a convention. 



The proprietor of a not large store is 

 fond of giving his employees titles. 

 Everybody on the force, though they 

 number but half a dozen, is "head" 

 of something or other — sales floor, stock • 

 room, delivery department, etc. Each 

 one is anxious to carry more responsi- 

 bility, and none could be enticed away 

 by a competitor by the offer of a couple 

 of dollars a week more as a mere clerk. 



Cultivate responsibility in your em- 

 ployees and you will win their loyalty 

 and gain for yourself time in which to 

 consider those things to which you've 

 never been able to give a minute before. 



STILL OTHERS HELP US. 



Apparently all people have to do to 

 be talked about is to talk about them- 

 selves a while. The florists' trade has 

 been talking about itself and about its 

 flowers and the public has heard almost 

 enough to do the rest of the talking it- 

 self. For instance, read this leading 

 paragraph to three-quarters of a column 

 which appeared in the New York Gar- 

 ment News, a newspaper devoted to the 

 clothing trade, March 16: 



' ' The flowers that bloom in the spring 

 are having much to do with the case of 

 properly presenting merchandise, ac- 

 cording to display men and others in 

 New York city. They declare that link- 

 ing merchandise with beautiful flowers, 

 blending the call of the spring with the 

 lure of the merchandise, has an almost 

 miraculous effect in sales promoting. 

 The general floral atmosphere being 

 utilized by the stores is accentuated by 

 the offerings of the city's florists, who 

 are stacking Easter plants before their 

 shops." 



There is a suggestion as well in this 

 ]iaragraph as to the recognized growing 

 importance of flowers as an accessory in 

 other lines of business. Florists will do 

 well to cultivate their use in this way 

 ;iniong their business neighbors. 



WORKING BOTH WAYS. 



Some people think the measure of the 

 success of a business is "its ability to 

 earn money, but in the long run the 

 money-making ability of a business is 

 measured by ability to please its pa- 

 trons. In the newspaper business there 

 arc two classes of patrons to please, but 

 ])lease the readers and the advertisers 

 are sure also to be pleased. Like this: 



,\m writing to thiink the editor of the Green- 

 house HontinK IJcpartmont for his plan for lieat- 

 ing our house. We followed it In detail and 

 it is oxtromoly satisfactory. In fact, we want 

 to thank Tho Review in Reneral, for until we 

 obtained the first copy we did not know of many 

 of the best sonroos of supply. With the aid of 

 your paper we expect to build up a good busi- 

 ness. — Wm. V. Smith. Newtleld, New Jersey, 

 -March 8. 1921. 



The other side of the story follows 

 as a matter of course: 



Win say we never had better results from 

 anything than from our recent ad in The Re- 

 view. We had calls from every part of the 

 U. S. and are shipping stock everywhere. — Tipton 

 Nursery, Inc., Little Rock, Ark., March 12, 1921. 



If you hear 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. 



