May 24, 1917. 



The Florists^ Review 



15 



MOTHERS' DAY ECHOES I 



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TWENTY-THREE OUT, NINE IN. 



Here is a florist who knows a good 

 thing when he sees it. He is Cram- 

 matte, florist and confectioner at Aber- 

 deen, Wash., and he had thirty-two F. 

 T. D. orders for Mothers' day, twenty- 

 three out and nine in. Here is what he 

 says about it: 



"Our city is only a place of 15,000 

 population and of course the amount of 

 F. T. D. business coming to us would 

 not be great, but I am interested in the 

 matter, as I believe it is a wonderful 

 thing for the florists. For Mothers' 

 day we sent out seventeen telegrams 

 and six letters and received four tele- 

 grams and five letters from other florists, 

 so we can see the possibilities of the 

 work. ' ' 



A MOTHERS' DAY WINDOW. 



The Penn store in Boston has been 

 a strong advertiser for many years and 

 has made great progress by it. Even 

 while located in a narrow side street 

 good windows were maintained as a 

 means of backing up the newspaper ad- 

 vertising on which reliance was placed. 

 Since removal to one of the best Tre- 

 mont street corners it has been found 

 advisable to devote greater attention to 

 the window displays and some notable 

 decorations have resulted. 



Mothers' day has been one of the 

 occasions that seemed both easy and 

 difficult to decorate for — the average 

 florist put a borrowed picture of Mother, 

 probably Whistler's, in the window 

 amid the flowers and let it go at that. 

 The Penn decorator developed the idea, 

 using figures of a mother and child. The 

 following description is in the gushy 

 phraseology most publicity men seem to 

 think they must use when they write it 

 for the public, but the trade will get the 

 idea: 



"The grand display in Penn's flower 

 shop window will be long remembered 

 by those who happened to be on Tre- 

 mont street and Hamilton place during 

 the week preceding Mothers' day. 

 Many would have forgotten that mother 

 was entitled to her bunch of flowers had 

 they not passed and seen the little girl 

 handing the bouquet to her mother, in 

 forms so true to life as to sap a tear 

 from thousands of spectators who 

 stopped, meditated, and in most cases 

 decided to enter and remember mother. 



"As usual, the display artist at 

 Penn's did himself credit. The enor- 

 mous window was enriched with photo- 

 graphs of mothers loaned by Louis Fa- 

 bian Bacharach, the photographer. The 

 decorations consisted of snapdragon, 

 carnations, iris and everything season- 

 able in the flower world on the rich 

 thoroughfare accommodating the best 

 passers-by in Boston." 



THE LAST ECHO. 



Carnations and Mothers' Day. 



Although the trade's spotlight now 

 is focused on Memorial day activities, 

 and June with its brides is just around 

 the corner, there still is time, before 



turning a leaf in the annals, for a brief 

 retrospection of one of the features at- 

 tending this year's Mothers' day busi- 

 ness. During the dark, unseasonably cold 

 days preceding May 13, there were those 

 who decried all the publicity then being 

 planned for Mothers' day. What good 

 is there in such extensive advertising, 

 said they, when the stronger demand 

 thus created in all likelihood will fizzle 

 out before a shortage of stock? The 

 supply of white carnations, not to men- 

 tion other items, will be far from ade- 

 quate. 



The records for the day show that in 

 many cases the supply of stock did miss 

 the demand by a wide margin, and this 

 is to be deplored; but there was an- 

 other outcome, which probably will be 

 of greater importance to the trade in the 

 future, and that was the partial "fade- 

 out" of the popular idea that the white 

 carnation, and the white carnation 

 alone, is the flower appropriate for 

 and emblematic of Mothers' day. It 

 was gratifying to note that nearly every 

 florist who spent money in advertising 

 the day did his share toward weaning 

 the public from the white carnation no- 

 tion. "Give her flowers" and "Send 

 your mother her favorite flower" were 



the keynotes of the advertising that 

 helped to shift some of the burden from 

 the carnations. 



Gloeckner's Gumption. 



The florists' exploitation of Mothers' 

 day this year was unprecedented as to 

 volume, and for that reason undoubtedly 

 many a son or daughter was disap- 

 pointed at the eleventh hour because 

 neither white carnations, nor red carna- 

 tions, nor roses, nor sweet peas could 

 be had at the florist's. But, taking an- 

 other tack, this heavy advertising ini- 

 tiated many into their first observance 

 of Mothers' day, with the result that 

 the pickings are likely to be easier next 

 year. 



Among those who strove hardest to 

 put carnations in the background for 

 Mothers' day was William C. Gloeckner, 

 of Albany, N. Y. As reported in last 

 week's issue, Mr. Gloeckner sent to his 

 customers a circular in the shape of a 

 card, on one side of which he featured 

 two special $1 boxes, one containing two 

 bunches of sweet peas and the other a 

 dozen roses. How did it work? Here 

 is Mr. Gloeckner's report: 



"I sold more than 200 of these boxes 

 for delivery Sunday morning. May 13, 

 and it was the best thing I ever did, as 

 the people asked for the special boxes 

 and forgot all about carnations. I think 

 that if all florists would try out spe- 

 cials like mine, featuring stock that is 

 likely to be plentiful for the day, we 

 soon would educate the people away 

 from the carnation idea." 



ODCN LETTER^y^ PEADEEi^ 



PRIZE MONEY TO RED CROSS. 



The schedule committee of the Morris 

 County Gardeners' and Florists' Society 

 at its meeting May 18 adopted a resolu- 

 tion which may be a suggestion for other 

 flower show committees. 



For twenty-one years this society has 

 annually held a flower show in Madison, 

 N. J., appropriating $1,000 as prize 

 money. 



This year the society will simply give 

 red, white and blue ribbons as the prizes, 

 and the money usually devoted to prizes 

 will be turned over to the American 

 Chapter of the Eed Cross. 



The Morris county society draws its 

 financial strength from the aristocratic 

 Morristown, Madison and Bernardsville 

 colonies, and doubtless the result will be 

 a substantial contribution to the Eed 

 Cross. 



The exhibitors are willing to forego 

 the usual prize money for one year if 

 by so doing they can alleviate conditions 

 for our boys at * * the front. ' ' 



Charles H. Totty. 



No success. At last someone told us 

 to use frogs, just common hoptoads. 

 We advertised in a local paper, offering 

 10 cents each for nice, large, hungry 

 hoptoads. The small barefooted boys 

 soon began arriving, each with a toad 

 in his hat. We put twenty-five of them 

 in each house, 24x100 feet. Oh, those 

 hungry toads! 



We took lanterns and went to see 

 what they were doing at night, which 

 is their feeding time. They were 

 hunting like ferrets for those "sows." 

 In a few weeks the toads were as big 

 as coffee cups, restaurant size, and we 

 have had no "sows" since. We keep 

 toads, though, winter and summer, in 

 all the greenhouses. Of course, the 

 Illinois firm can buy all the toads 

 wanted right at home, but if not, I 

 suppose the Laurel small boy will fur- 

 nish a supply. L. M. Smith. 



THE "DRIVE" ON SOWBUGS. 



Eef erring to the trouble that "large 

 growing establishments in Illinois" 

 had with sowbugs, I would say that 

 we had the same trouble two years 

 ago. Those confounded things (sow- 

 bugs) nearly made us distracted. We 

 tried everything anyone told us about. 



SOWBUGS VERSUS SLUG SHOT. 



After reading the article headed 

 "An Army of Sowbugs," in The Re- 

 view for May 10, it occurred to me 

 that the growers whose stocks have been 

 attacked by sowbugs might be inter- 

 ested in the remedy I used successfully 

 in exterminating these pests some time 

 ago. I had a good crop of sowbugs in 

 my carnation house and asked Benjamin 

 Hammond, of Beacon, N. Y., for a good 

 exterminator. Mr. Hammond recom- 



