FlBBUARY 3, 1921 



The Florists^ Review 



25 



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.tSi^St 





Send Your 



VALENTINE 



By Wlra 



^ WESTERN UNION 





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Salt Lake City Florist's Window Display Aimed to Gain Telegraph Orders for St. Valentine's Day. 



and one which has proved successful in 

 past years is the circular letter. This 

 is an opportunity to get in direct touch 

 with an old customer, and it should be 

 used carefully. Ingenuity bestowed in 

 the writing of this circular will insure 

 much business. 



Retailers who would like to distribute 

 circulars to their regular customers and 

 do not relish the thought of the printing 

 bill for special letters can easily avail 

 themselves of the folders issued by the 

 S. A. F. for the retail trade to use at St. 

 Valentine's day. This method has one 

 advantage in economy over newspaper 

 advertising, that since the letters go 

 only to regular customers, there will be 

 a greater proportion of returns. 



Use Free Publicity. 



Then again, by having the members 

 of the sales force instructed to boom 

 sales for this day more can be done than 

 the average florist might realize. If 

 for ten days before Februarv 14 all the 

 clerks made a point of "mentioning 

 flower valentines to each customer who 

 entered the store, how many persons 

 would be directly reached bv the most 

 effective of all advertising, personal 

 contact? This form of advertising 

 costs absolutely nothing, except a lit 

 tie extra time to talk to each customer 

 who comes in. In manv stores this is 

 being done systematically, but in manv 

 others it is absolutely neglected until 

 a day or two before the actual time for 

 buying. 



But, after all, the chief thing is to 

 keep at it. whatever method is used If 

 florists will devote the requisite effort 

 to advertising the fact that flowers are 

 m best taste for valentines, then the 



future of good St. Valentine's anniver- 

 sary will be assured as one of the best 

 days in the year for this trade. 



A CAI.L FOR CAMELLIAS. 



A few days ago I had a call for ca- 

 mellia flowers for a golden wedding. 

 The customer said the bride of fifty 

 years ago received a wedding bouquet 

 consisting- largely of camelliiia, ]>re- 

 scnted to her by the proprietor of a 

 greenhouse in Chicago. Naturallv, a 

 duplicate of that bouquet was desired 

 for her golden wedding. We supplied 

 other flowers instead. Then we at once 

 resorted to the advertisements in The 

 Review, in the hope of finding camel- 

 lias in the list, but our search was in 

 vain. We came to the conclusion that 

 the camellia is unprofitable as a com- 

 mercial flower, or it would be ndvertiseil 

 in The Review. Will you kindly give 

 us some information about the jjlaut, the, 

 temperature that suits it, its value as a 

 Jiroducer in the greenhouse and where 

 it can be obtained? C. F. C— Kan 



As C. F. C. conjectures, ilie camellia 

 in the last generation or two has not 

 been considered a profitable comnier- 

 nal flower. Among the hindrances to 

 its i)opularity are its comparative slow- 

 ness of growth and the inadequacy of 

 its stem for modern requirements. Per- 

 haps, , also, it has diflicultv in compet- 

 ing with the large tea roses, which have 

 something of the same beaut v of form, 

 with the added advantage of "fragrance. 

 Less than half a century ago. the ca- 

 mellia was one of the most fashionable 

 flowers and was regarded as almost in- 



dispensable, especially in designs of the 

 more elaborate and formal sort, which 

 were much in vogue at that time. It 

 has its own peculiar merits and proba- 

 bly will return to favor sooner or later. 

 In the last year or two, however, it 

 ha.s been omitted from most of the trade 

 catalogues. A few of the European 

 seedsmen offer seeds of Camellia japo- 

 nica. Geo. ('. Roeding, of the Faiicher 

 Creek Nurseries, Fresno. Cal., offers pot 

 plants of the same variety, listing them 

 under the head of " Hroad-leaved Ever- 

 greens. ' ' 



Though some of the more common 

 kinds can be produced directly from 

 seed, the finer varieties are usually 

 grafted on seedling stocks or on stocks 

 grown from t-nttings, which are inserted 

 in sanily soil in July or August, in a 

 cool, shady coldfr'anie. After the 

 plants are well started, they prefer a 

 good, strong, yellow loam, which should 

 be kept in jiropcr condition during the 

 season by the occasional use of liquid 

 manure or commercial fertilizer. 



The plants should be moist at the 

 root throughout the year. In their 

 period of greatest growth, spring and 

 early suinnier, they should be watered 

 freely and syringed at intervals. They 

 require a cool greenhouse and will not 

 eiiilure forcing. In the early spring, 

 however, a fair degree of heat, with 

 jilenty of moisture both on the foliage 

 and at the roots, is a great aid to their 

 growth. As .soon as the first small 

 flower bud begins to show, the heat 

 must be reduced and the temperature 

 should be kept as low as possible dur- 

 ing the remainder of the summer, with 

 suitable ]>rotection from t^e scorching 

 sun. Under such treatnieih> camellias 



