22 



The Florists' Review 



June 7, 1917. 



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Established, 1897, by G. L. GRANT. 



Published every Thursday by 

 The Flokists' Puhlishing Co., 



620-560 Oaxton Building, 



508 South Dearborn St., Chicago. 



Tele., Wabaeh 8195. 



Registered cable address, 



Florvlew. Chicago. 



Entt^red as second class matter 

 Dec. 3. 1897. at the post-oflUce at Chi- 

 cago. III., under the Act of March 

 3 1879. 



Subscription price, $1.50 a year. 

 To Canada, $2.50; to Europe, $3.00. 



Advertising rat<>s quoted upon 

 request. Only strictly trade ad- 

 vertising accepted. 



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NOTICE. 



It is impossible to {guarantee 



the insertion, discontinuance or 



alteration of any advertisement 



unless instructions are received 



BY 4 P. M. TUESDAY. 



SOCIETY OF AHEBICAN FLORISTS. 

 Incorporated by Act of Congress, March 4, 1901. 

 OfHcers for 1917: President, Robert 0. Kerr, 

 Houston, Tex.; vice-president, A. L. Miller, Ja- 

 maica, N. Y. ; secretary, John Young, 53 W. 28th 

 St., New York City; treasurer, J. J. Hess, 

 Omaha, Neb. 



Thirty-third annual convention. New York, 

 N. Y., August 21 to 24, 1917. 



Results bring advertising. 

 The Eeview brings results. 



It is easier to soil -well-grovvn stock at 

 good prices than it is to sell carelessly 

 grown stock at low prices. 



The average size of retail sales in this 

 trade may not increase continuously, but 

 the number of sales will not fail to in- 

 crease annually. 



Goldfish have become a standard side 

 line in flower stores; hundreds of florists 

 find them profitable, but there is a scarcity 

 of stock this year, especially of imported 

 fishes. 



The advice to save coal, which the 

 public is receiving from all sides, may be 

 needed by some, but surely not by any 

 florist who finds nobody to take an order 

 for next season. 



The cool weather of May has been of 

 great advantage to most crops; although 

 little growth has been apparent, the 

 plants have been making root and have 

 an exceptional foundation for rapid 

 growth now that warm rains have fallen. 



A MODERATE charge for packing in a 

 few months has become so general as to 

 be trade custom in this country, as it long 

 has been in Europe. Nobody objected ; 

 if a shipper charges for packing he must 

 pack Avell, and really good packing is 

 worth paying for. Most buyers know it. 



Perhaps there is no better indication 

 of general conditions throughout the 

 country, or stronger assurance of the 

 continued prosperity of florists, than is 

 found in the fact tliat the sales of Chi- 

 cago 's largest mail order merchant for 

 Mriv increased 36.67 per cent, from $10,- 

 .m;S,S1»7 in 1916 to $14,854,843 in 1917. 



SUPERLATIVE SERVICE. 



When we grow enthusiastic it is most 

 human to use the superlatives in our 

 language to describe our feelings. Many 

 of the letters that come to The Eeview 

 from its advertisers contain such words 

 as "wonderful" and "perfection" to 

 describe what a small ad has accom- 

 plished. Consequently, the service The 

 Eeview renders its advertisers may be 

 termed "superlative service." 



Here are letters from two advertis- 

 ers who are enthusiastic over what The 

 Eeview advertising columns have done 

 for them: 



If our ad on tuberose bulbs is still running In 

 your magazine, please discontinue, as we are 

 about sold out of the bulbs. We have done a 

 WONDERFUL business through this ad.— Satex 

 Seed Co., A. Grimm, manager, San Antonio, 

 Tex., May 22, 1917. 



Please discontinue my pansy ad. It has done 

 the business to PERFECTION.— Henry Swaby, 

 St. Charles, HI., May 28. 1917. 



When 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 Eeview. 



"THE SAME OLD PRICES." 



A florist who had a large Memorial 

 day business sends The Eeview copies 

 of newspaper advertisements that are 

 credited with producing the orders, evi- 

 dently with the idea that The Eeview 

 will approve. But one of the advertise- 

 ments is headed "Plants at the Same 

 Old Prices — 5c Up." It may be pos- 

 sible, in these days of 6-dollar coal and 

 other high costs, to produce a plant to 

 sell for a nickel, but if the customer 

 gets a satisfactory article it is a mys- 

 tery how the florist can make any 

 money. It is the opinion of The Ee- 

 view that a florist who advertises 

 ' ' Plants at the Same Old Prices ' ' either 

 doesn't make good with good plants 

 when the customer comes, or goes into 

 the hole in doing it. It may be that, 

 where a florist does most of his own 

 work, or gets his wife and children to 

 do it, in a country town where the need 

 of cash for living expenses is at a 

 minimum, he can get by on plants at 

 "5c up," but the florist who does busi- 

 ness on business principles needs more 

 than "the same old prices" this year 

 and he will need better prices still more 

 badly next year — if lie is still in busi- 

 ness. 



THE PROMISE OF JUNE. 



Memorial day business, correspond- 

 ents of The Eeview report, equaled and 

 in many cities exceeded that of last 

 year. These reports, in the face of un- 

 seasonable weather, show that business 

 is good in all sections of the country. 



Eain or cold with dark skies was the 

 weather report from practically all the 

 large cities. This, of course, cut down 

 the Memorial day sales. But from no- 

 where comes the news that Memorial 

 day business fell below normal. 



Another healthy sign for the trade is 

 contained in the news reports. That 

 is tliat there are many advance orders 

 for June wedding decorations. Some 

 cities report that an extra amount of 

 this class of business has been booked 

 by the florists, who are said to be opti- 

 mistic over the outlook for the month. 



In some quarters it was expected that 

 Memorial day would see the finish of 

 good business for the season; that be- 

 cause of conditions June weddirtg work 

 would not come up to the average of 



other years. Eeports seem to point to 

 the opposite condition — that business 

 during June will be better than a year 

 ago. 



Eetailers say that prices this spring 

 have not affected business to any appre- 

 ciable extent. People are used to pay- 

 ing high prices for everything they buy. 

 When they want flowers a few cents 

 more or less does not militate against 

 the sale. The lesson to be drawn from 

 this fact is that the retailer who cuts 

 prices in the belief that people will not 

 pay a fair price, and that he must do so 

 to make sales, is losing the profit to 

 which he is entitled. 



June, with its weddings and the bed- 

 ding plant trade which has been held 

 back because of the lateness of the sea- 

 son, promises well for the trade. It 

 appears certain to be another big month 

 to add to the largest season the trade 

 ever has experienced. 



WEATHER, NOT WAR. 



There has been a stalemate in the 

 bedding plant business in many parts 

 of the country and a large number of 

 growers are on the anxious seat, in 

 fear that they will not be able to clear 

 their stock. 



The trouble has been with the 

 weather; the slow sale has not been 

 due to the war. 



On the whole, spring, in a trade sense, 

 is decidedly backward this year; the 

 season has been two or three weeks 

 late, and the demand for bedding plants 

 had little more than started at Me- 

 morial day, at which date the decline 

 usually begins. In cases where bed- 

 ding was done at the usual date, irre- 

 spective of weather conditions, much 

 loss has been caused by late frosts. 



In those parts of the country in 

 which spring definitely arrived in May, 

 bedding plants have been selling brisk- 

 ly; war seems to have had no effect 

 unless it is a beneficial one. 



While there seems every reason to 

 suppose the usual, or even an unusual, 

 amount of bedding eventually wiU be 

 (lone as soon as the bulbous flowers 

 fade and warm weather comes to stay, 

 still a late season usually is a short 

 season and a short season seldom is a 

 record season. So any grower who is 

 getting nervous would better sell his 

 surplus while he can — there are dozens 

 of buyers this minute reading the 

 Classified ads. 



CHICAGO. 



The Market. 



A retrospect of Memorial day busi- 

 ness in the wholesale cut flower market 

 is not unpleasant. In nearly every in- 

 stance the final figures show a splendid 

 increase over last year in the business 

 done. This increase, large as it was, 

 would have been still larger had it not 

 been for the fact that Memorial day it- 

 self was a rainy, unpleasant day; which 

 killed off almost all buying. 



The bad weather May 30, of course, 

 had its greatest effect on the retailers. 

 Although reports from all quarters of 

 the city indicate that retail business 

 was at least fair, there is to be dis- 

 cerned a note of disappointment at the 

 unfavorable weather, which was the 

 cause of striking off some large profits 

 which would liave accrued had the 

 weather been more favorable. 



The special feature of the Memorial 



