30 



The Florists^ Review 



Fbbbdabt 10, 1921 



^ 





l^stabllslied 1897, 

 by a. L arant. 



Publlslied every Thureday by 

 Thk Fi.ouiSTs' PiT.i.ism.so Co., 



500 560 Gaxtcii Bulldins, 



608 South Dearborn St., OlilcaRO. 



Tel., Wabash 8195. 



ReplHtored cabin address, 



Florvlew. Chicago. 



Entered as Jiecond claRs matter 

 Dee. 3. 1897. at tlie post-olliee at Chi- 

 cago, 111., under the Act of March 

 3.1879. 



Subscription price, $2.00 a year. 

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



Advertising rates quoted on 

 request. Only strictly trade ad' 

 vertlelngr accepted. 



EESULTS. 



We give them. You get them. 



We both have them. 



Kansas City is the next center to un- 

 dertake a local cooperative advertising 

 campaign on a percentage assessment 

 basis. Plans are being laid now. 



Manetti stocks cost the growers around 

 6 cents each this season, with the result 

 that a big, modern, iron-frame house full 

 of grafted roses represents a quite tidy 

 investment these days. 



Harry O. May has resigned the ofiBce 

 of treasurer of the American Rose So- 

 ciety. His successor, appointed to fill 

 the unexpired portion of his term, is 

 Charles H. Totty, Madison, N. J.. 



Perhaps there is evidence of readjust- 

 ment effected in a decrease in the num- 

 ber of weekly failures reported by Brad- 

 street's. The tendency has been con- 

 stantly upward for some months past. 



It takes a little time for things to sink 

 in, but one by one florists are awakening 

 to the importance of the recent changes 

 in express classification. The story of 

 them was published exclusively in The Re- 

 view for January 20. 



"If," remarked a large grower of 

 roses the other day, "we could only get 

 a rose like Premier that would produce 

 the number of blooms that White Killar- 

 ney does, prices might come down. While 

 production costs have been going up, the 

 rate of production, as we have adopted 

 newer varieties, has been going down." 



There is confusion in plant names in 

 many classes, but nowhere, perhaps, is 

 confusion more confounded than among 

 the dahlias. If the American Dahlia So- 

 ciety wishes to do something really worth 

 while, let it publish a descriptive list, be- 

 ing exact as to spellings, and have its 

 secretary call the attention of everyone 

 found using or spelling names wrongly. 

 He will be kept busy. 



It is amazing to find how many florists 

 draw checks exceeding the amount they 

 have on deposit in the bank. By so do- 

 ing they not only ruin their credit with 

 the person to whom they give the worth- 

 less check, but they ruin their standing 

 with their own bank. If there is one 

 thing the florists' trade, as a body, needs 

 more than anything else, it is education 

 along the lines of modern business meth- 

 ods. 



The time is not far distant when the 

 man who has held money month after 

 month, neither filling the order nor re- 

 turning the remittance, will begin to 

 pay the penalty. He will wonder why 

 business is so poor. 



It is to its friends The Review is in- 

 debted for its continuous growth in cir- 

 culation. For several years most of the 

 new names have gone on the list because 

 some reader has recommended The Re- 

 view to his neighbor. 



The city of Happiness is said to be in 

 the state of Mind. Some florists, during 

 the last two or three yfears, have acquired 

 the habit of expecting too much, while 

 others have become habitually apprehen- 

 sive that they will receive too little. 



For the last three or four years rose 

 growers have done as little replanting as 

 possible, with the result that the average 

 age of greenhouse benches and of the rose 

 plants on them now is the greatest in 

 the history of the trade. There is a busy 

 season ahead, bench building and replant- 

 ing. 



Florists who receive telegraph orders 

 for delivery at hotels or hospitals should 

 use the telephone to verify addresses 

 before sending the flowers. Sometimes 

 the guest or patient has left or is at 

 another address. Useless deliveries and 

 troublesome errors thus caused can often 

 be avoided by a 'phone call. 



There is only here and there a florist 

 who argues that prices are not coming 

 down in this trade as in others. But there 

 is disagreement as to the course best to 

 pursue: Most growers want to hold 

 the prices up as long as possible; only 

 now and then is one heard who questions 

 if it would not be better to be one jump 

 ahead of the inevitable. 



CAN A READER HELP? 



I have an outbuilding, 20x26 feet, be- 

 neath which I wish to construct a cellar 

 for storing bulbs planted in flats, such 

 as daffodils, before bringing them in for 

 forcing. 



Would some reader having such a cel- 

 lar kindly give me some points in con- 

 structing and operating it? Presuming 

 that the flats are stored on shelves, how 

 much space should I leave between the 

 shelves? Any other information on the 

 project would be greatly appreciated. 

 Patrick Flanagan. 



ARE WE COMPETITORS? 



The story has been often told of the 

 two florists at opposite ends of town 

 who described each other to a visitor 

 in terms not printable, but who, when 

 brought face to face, found each other's 

 society not so unpleasant after all. 

 Eventually they discovered, though this 

 is not usually included in the story, 

 that their two territories overlapped so 

 little that they virtually were not com- 

 petitors. One was the west end florist 

 and the other the east end florist; both 

 had had lucrative businesses for years; 

 so they might in years gone by have 

 saved themselves the vast amount of 

 energy consumed in calling each other 

 names. 



Noah Webster, that compiler of in- 

 formation on many things, defines com- 

 petition as "the act of seeking, or en- 

 deavoring to gain, what another is en- 

 deavoring to gain at the same time." 

 Though all florists are seeking to sell 

 flowers, they are not seeking to sell 



them to the same people at the same 

 time. Each florist sells to the people 

 in his own town, or in his own neigh- 

 borhood if he be in a city. And the 

 untilled field is so large, because the 

 percentage of flower buyers to total 

 population is so small, that one new 

 florist does not mean less business for 

 the old ones. The established butcher 

 may regard with misgivings the open- 

 ing of a new meat market in Jiis vicinity, 

 because a second butcher shop means 

 the same amount of meat wiU be pur- 

 chased in two places instead of, as for- 

 merly, in one, for the consumption of 

 meat is not increased by the new 

 butcher 's advent. But not so the florist. 

 The consumption of flowers is not fixed; 

 it can be greatly increased, and the 

 activities of the new florist will increase 

 it. This is the reason florists are not 

 competitors as butchers may be. 



Nevertheless, the time-honored senti- 

 ments of one butcher regarding another 

 are still harbored by many florists, even 

 though most have come to see the real 

 vista ahead in the flower business. Note 

 the following case presented to The 

 Review: 



A woman In a certain town decided to go Into 

 the florists' business. She had absolutely no 

 experience, and so she went to a florist in a 

 nelRhboring town. Said florist kindly gave her 

 a list of all the firms with whom he had had 

 business connections and helped her get In touch 

 with various supply houses, magazines, etc. 

 In fact, this florist did everything he could to 

 help her. 



Assertion has been made by the assistant of 

 this florist that he made a great mistake, that 

 one should not help another person go Into the 

 business, that one should not tell where he gets 

 his supplies lest a fellow florist get the benefit 

 of the knowledge one has accumulated. 



Now, I contend that the florist In this case did 

 the only decent thing he could do. I have been 

 In business for years, and this attitude of not 

 helping the other person has always been one that 

 I could not understand. 



The old-timer was right who laughed 



when some one told him a young fellow 



in the next block was going to put him 



out of business by his energy and push. 



"Let him push," said he. "For every 



customer he takes away, he 's digging 



up two new ones for me." 



BEWARE SPANISH LETTERS. 



C. W. Eifler ha? received a letter 

 supposedly from a prisoner in Bar- 

 celona, Spain, containing a plea for 

 financial help with a promise of reward 

 from concealed securities. He says: 

 "To warn those in the trade against 

 loss through these letters, I would say 

 that this is an old Spanish game and 

 the Spaniards use the cablegrams to 

 avoid violation of the postal laws. I 

 have no doubt many fellow florists will 

 receive letters of this sort this year." 

 The "Spanish prisoner" letter scheme 

 for luring money from the credulous 

 is so old that it is surprising it should 

 sometimes be successful. 



EASTERN FLORISTS MAY NOTE. 



Florists in the extreme east do not all 

 appreciate that there is easy opportunity 

 for them to do a more than local busi- 

 ness. The demand for stock is nation- 

 wide, and from the beginning the flow of 

 shipping has been from east to west — it 

 may be difficult for a man in the west to 

 sell his surplus in the east, but it is easy 

 for the easterner to ship toward the west 

 and south, like this: 



I have had great results from my January ads 

 in the Classified section of The Review, I am 

 glad to say.— W. F. Brown, Norwich, Ck)nn. 



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. 



