16 



The Florists^ Review 



May 31, 1917. 



feet long and one foot wide, printed in 

 ijrcon and red, wero supplied to the re- 

 tailers for window and wall display. 

 At the left was a wreath in green with 

 red iiowers and ribbon. The text was: 

 "Memorial day, May MO. A tribute 

 to the loved ones. Flowers in the 

 lionie. " Stickers, one of which is re- 

 l)roiluced in the illustrations on i)age 15, 

 carried the same words. 



There is food for thought in the 

 words "flowers in the home." Here 

 the Detroit florists are expanding the 

 Mothers' day idea to the Memorial day 

 sales. Not only are they urging plants, 

 wreaths and flowers for the cemetery, 

 but are bidding for sales of cut flowers 

 and plants for home decoration. 



That Mothers' Day Campaign. 



Albert Pochelon, chairman of the 



publicity committee of the Detroit Flo- 

 rists' Club, has issued a statement of 

 the receipts for the Mothers' day cam- 

 paign and of what his committee did in 

 the way of newspaper advertising and 

 other publicity. Subscriptions for the 

 Mothers' day push amounted to $1,118, 

 of which $717.16 was spent. Of this 

 amount, all but $216.60 was spent in 

 the Detroit newspapers, the first ad ap- 

 pearing Tuesday, May 8, and the last 

 May 12, the day before Mothers' day. 

 ' ' While your committee is perfectly 

 satisfied with the results derived com- 

 pared with the amount of money 

 spent," Mr. Pochelon says in his re- 

 port, "yet we wish to hear from all 

 of you and are looking for your criti- 

 cism. * * * Eemember we need your 

 cooperation, not alone in a financial 

 way, but also in new ideas. We already 



have under way a still stronger cam- 

 paign for Memorial day, which, you 

 will all agree, is not nearly enough ex- 

 ploited in Detroit, compared with what 

 is done in eastern cities. ' ' 



The report gives a list of the contrib- 

 utors, who numbered 205, and the 

 amount each gave. Also, there is an 

 appeal for funds to carry on the work 

 of the club's publicity committee, as, 

 the reijort says, ' ' there is a chance for 

 you to help to make our fund larger 

 so we may keep up this advertising 

 campaign for several days during the 

 year." 



From this report it will be seen that 

 the Detroit florists are satisfied that co- 

 operative campaigns for special flower 

 selling days pay and that the trade 

 there is going to overlook none of its 

 opportunities. 





HOW HOLLAND BULB IMPORTS DOUBLED 



ir)«>rtr«virrstir?»ihrsvir?svir«viri«\irravir?s*^^iirsvir^ 



AN OFFICIAL EECORD. 



Covering Four Years' Business. 



Last autumn The Eeview showed its 

 readers how the imports of bulbs were 

 going ahead of all previous records and 

 last week this paper published the offi- 

 cial figures of the United States govern- 

 ment for the six months from July 1, 

 1916, to December 31, 1916, indicating 

 the following totals for the half year: 



Hyncintli bulbs, nstilbc, dielytra and 



lily of the valley clumps 33,148,000 



Lily of the valley pips, tulips, nar- 

 cissus, begonia and gloxinia bulbs. .187,400,000 



All other bulbs, roots, root stocks, 

 corms and tubers VFhlch are culti- 

 vated for their flowers or foliage... 44,293.000 



This week the official figures of the 

 exports from Holland are available, sup- 

 plied to Frank W. Mahin, United States 

 consul at Amsterdam, April 23, by the 

 General Society of Bulb Growers. 



The Consul's Comment. 



"According to the official figures," 

 says Mr. Mahin, "the foreign bulb 

 trade of Holland was unusually small in 

 quantity in 1916. The exports or bulbs 

 were not materially less than the aver- 

 age of preceding years, but the imports 

 were barely twenty per cent tho quan- 

 tity during the last peace yt,ar. How- 



tions or materially alter the quantities. 



"The decline in the total quantity of 

 exports," notes the consul, "was due 

 to the smaller shipments to the British 

 Isles, which country prohibited the im- 

 portation of bulbs. The export to the 

 United States and Canada is totaled 

 into one, but the records of the consul- 

 ate show that only a small part went to 

 Canada. 



"Although prices obtained in 1916 

 were apparently high in comparison 

 with peace prices, they were in reality 

 unsatisfactory when unfavorable rates 

 of exchange and other war factors were 

 taken into account. Cost of produc- 

 tion was also unusually high in 1916. 

 It is said that at least 2,000,000 kilos 

 of bulbs were sold at prices below cost 

 at the end of the season. 



This Year's Outlook. 



"The prospects for 1917 are uncer- 

 tain. Although the United States and 

 Scandinavia took an unusually large 

 quantity of bulbs in 1916, it is feared 

 that the quantity will be unusually 

 small in 1917. Facilities for transpor- 

 tation to the United States are uncer- 

 tain, and the export to Scandinavian 

 countries depends upon their doubtful 

 ability to obtain the fuel necessary to 



Tabic of Holland's Bulb Exports for Last Four Years. 



ever, imports are of far less conse- 

 quence to Holland than exports of 

 bulbs." 



The table shows the exports during 

 the last four years, in kilos of 2.2 pounds 

 each. Packages of bulbs transmitted 

 by mail are not included in the table, 

 but they would not cliange the propor- 



warm the hothouses where bulbs ffre 

 flowered. Further, Germany and Aus- 

 tria now prohibit the import of bulbs, 

 which alone can reduce the total ex- 

 ports of Dutcli bulbs by twenty to thir- 

 ty per cent. 



"The situation is considered so un- 

 satisfactory for the industry that gov- 



ernment aid has been asked and will be 

 extended so far as may be practicable. 

 "The past winter was so severe that 

 many bulbs were frozen, and the spring 

 is so backward that the development of 

 bulbs in the ground is seriously re- 

 tarded." 



Holland's Imports. 



In normal years Holland imports a 

 considerable quantity of bulbs, but the 

 importations almost ceased last year. 

 The record of imports for the last four 

 years is as follows, from the United 

 States and the total of all imports, the 

 quantities being in kilos, which equal 

 2.2 pounds: 



Year From tJ. S. Total 



1913 167,400 2,177,700 



1914 131,900 1,377,60(1 



1915 02,!>00 863,300 



1916 53,700 468,800 



The decline of imports was, of course, 

 due to the war, which diverted bulb in- 

 dustries to other purposes in belligerent 

 countries and limited cargo space from 

 the United States to Holland. • 



Doubled Up On America. 



It will be noticed that the weight of 

 bulbs sent to America doubled in four 

 years; that is, in the last peace season 

 the exports to this side of the Atlantic 

 Avere slightly less than half what they 

 were in the third bulb season of the 

 war, the increase having been consid- 

 erable in the first and second seasons, 

 but extremely heavy, nearly 3,000,000 

 kilos, last season, after the British gov- 

 ernment shut off the traffic. 



Everyone knows that the imports of 

 bulbs in 19T6 were greater than could 

 readily be used in this country, that the 

 ordinary metliods did not suffice to 

 move them and tliat many expedients 

 were adopted to work off the surplus. 



The Result. 



The result was a large overproduction 

 of bulbous flowers this spring, a pro- 

 duction that made bulb forcing unprof- 

 itable for the average grower who de- 

 pends on a wholesale market and 

 which depressed the values of all other 

 cut flowers while the bulbous flowers 

 were in season. 



Consequently, the salesmen for the 

 Holland houses met with less than their 

 usual success in booking orders in this 



