36 



The Florists^ Review 



Mat 19, 1921 



fr 



E8t8bll8lied 1R97, 

 bytt. L Grant. 



Published every Thursday by 

 The Flobists* PuBusHiNa C!o., 



600-S60Oaxton Bulldlni;, 



608 South Dearborn St., Ohloago. 



Tel, Wabash 8196. 



Beirlstered cable address, 



FlorFlew, Chicasro. 



Entered as second class matter 

 Dec. 3, 1897, at the post-omoe at Ohl- 

 caKo, 111., under the Act of Uarch 

 8, 1879. 



Subscription price, $2.00 a year. 

 To Oanada, $3.00; to Burope, $4.00. 



AdTertlslngr rates quoted on 

 request. Only strictly trade ad* 

 Tertlslnc accepted. 



tl 



RESULTS. 



We give them. You get them. 



We both have them. 



Stock will not be overabundant for 

 Memorial day. The abnormal weather 

 has not favored the holidays in this 

 month. 



Now is the time to think about next 

 season 's supply of coal. The market, 

 now at its lowest, is likely to shoot up- 

 ward when orders become heavy. 



Thought regarding shipping ingtruc- 

 tions will save many florists later dis- 

 satisfaction and ground for complaint. 

 Don't expect the other fellow to read 

 your mind. 



Thanking readers for their courtesy 

 in sending clippings of Mothers' day ad- 

 vertisements, The Review would like to 

 receive copies of florists' Memorial day 

 advertising. 



The number of lines of business which 

 sought to capitalize on Mothers' day 

 paid the best of compliments to the flo- 

 rists who have been boosting the day since 

 The Review showed the way a decade 

 ago. 



There seems to be no end to the de- 

 mand for bedding sto(*. Buyers are 

 still looking for rooted cuttings of many 

 items, although old-timers would say the 

 season is approaching its end. The fact 

 seems to be that the florists' trade has 

 expanded and diversified until it is almost 

 if not quite an all-the-year-around busi- 

 ness. 



Paraphrasing the old saying, "One 

 man's poison is another man's meat,'' 

 and the Alvin, Tex., jasmine shippers will 

 profit by the losses of the northern peony 

 growers. The Alvin growers have one of 

 the best crops on record and the de- 

 mand will be unusually strong because 

 of the shortage of peonies caused by late 

 frosts in southern Indiana, Illinois and 

 Missouri. 



Those who send advertising orders to 

 The Review will lighten the perplexities 

 of tlic record-keepers and, perchance, ob- 

 tain greater satisfaction from the service 

 if they will state the fact if the new ad 

 is to displace an old one or is in addition 

 thereto; nlso, how many times it is to 

 appear. So many advertisers leave the 

 record clerks to guess what is wanted 

 that inevitably some errors of judgment 

 must occur. 



One of the features of Mothers' day 

 business remarked in almost every re- 

 port was the great number of telegraph 

 orders. Pink Part advertisers were es- 

 pecially pleased. 



Miss Eileen Low, representing Stuart 

 Low & Co., Bush Hill Park, Enfield, Eng- 

 land, is in the United States for her sec- 

 ond annual business tour. She was at the 

 Blackstone, Chicago, for several days last 

 week. 



More people will be gardening this 

 year than last, and florists who display 

 a window of seeds and garden tools stand 

 to win some of the business that the gro- 

 cer and hardware dealer will otherwise 

 divert. 



Traveling for business is becoming 

 less popular than in the good old days 

 so slow in returning. It costs $3.88 per 

 hundred miles for railroad fare and a 

 berth in a Pullman is as much as a room 

 in a first-class hotel — and in hotels the 

 rates have doubled. With buyers disin- 

 clined to place orders with every man who 

 comes along, it is a tough job to make a 

 trip pay. 



Arrivals aboard the steamship Kroon- 

 land at New York last week were Louis 

 Sander, of the famous Brussels firm; 

 Charles Dymaert, president of the Bel- 

 gian Syndicate of Horticulturists, and 

 Dr. Diemmone van Holze, ministerial in- 

 spector of horticulture and a member of 

 the faculty of the University of Ghent. 

 The three represent the Belgian horticul- 

 tural industry and were on their way to 

 Washington. 



BRIEF ANSWERS. 



C. L. S., 111. — ^Pecky cypress is the 

 cheapest bench material, lasting quality 

 considered, unless you build of concrete. 



THREE OF A KDH). 



The summer schedule of trade gather- 

 ings in the west includes the following: 



Oklahoma State Florists' Association, 

 meeting at Oklahoma City, July 7 and 8. 



Texas State Florists' Association, 

 meeting at San Antonio, July 12 to 14. 



Kansas State Florists' Association, 

 meeting at Topeka, August 4 and 5. 



All the middle western travelers will 

 lay out their routes accordingly. 



"THE OFFICIAL FLOWER." 



A large part of the public and some 

 florists still believe that the carnation 

 is the "official flower" of Mothers' 

 day. In reality, there is no official 

 flower, and there is no reason why any 

 other flower in bloom on the second 

 Sunday in May should not be as appro- 

 priate as the carnation. Over ten years 

 ago Miss Jarvis and her friends wore 

 white carnations in honor of their 

 mothers on the Sunday now known as 

 Mothers' day. But Miss Jarvis long 

 since disowned the florists, and last 

 year she urged that a tiny American 

 flag be worn instead of any flower 

 whatseever. 



Florists should .remember in their 

 advertising for next Mothers' day to 

 forget completely the carnation and 

 give prominent mention to other season- 

 able flowers. Within a few years, if 

 the florists will but do their part, the 

 public will have forgotten the carnation 

 as "the" Mothers' day flower. Then, 

 instead of turning away customers be- 

 cause carnations are too high-priced or 

 are altogether sold, we shall be able to 



sell them other kinds of flowers and, at 

 the same time, avoid the possible 

 charge of profiteering on carnations. 



GOOD TIMES, ANYHOW. 



Maybe you've seen the phrase. Who 

 first uttered it, nobody knows, but many 

 business houses have made use of it. 

 It reads: "Hard times aren't coming. 

 The soft times are going; that's all." 



The idea is one many business men 

 may take to heart, among them florists. 

 In the easy days of post-war prosperity, 

 a good many found money coming in 

 so much of itself that they ceased to 

 make effort to go out and get it. Com- 

 pared with those times, today's condi- 

 tions exact more of all of us. But we 

 shouldn't be misled by that compari- 

 son. 



"If we had a speedometer on busi- 

 ness today," wrote an observant man 

 the other day, "we would find our- 

 selves moving along at a sane speed, 

 one capable of pulling us home in good 

 time, fully within the traffic regulations 

 of common sense. The trouble is that 

 we have been rushing along at a wild, 

 dangerous speed, and there is the feel- 

 ing now that we have slowed down to a 

 point where we are almost standing 

 still. Yet it doesn't take an optimist 

 to know that we are a long way from 

 standing still in this country today." 



Whether the times are harder than 

 they were, or, better stated, not so soft 

 as they were, for all of us who are veil- 

 ing to work they are good times, any- 

 how. 



DECREASED FREIGHT RATES. 



There is considerable talk of the pos- 

 sibility of early reductions in freight 

 rates affecting coal and some other pur- 

 chases of growers. Apparently many 

 florists are convinced that the reductions 

 are not only poesible, but probable, and 

 that they will come at an early date. 



There is little in the present railroad 

 situation to substantiate this belief. It 

 is admitted that the rates are too high; 

 that they discourage buying and increase 

 to an abnormal degree the cost of coal 

 to the grower. It is equally true, how- 

 ever, that the present rates have never 

 been given a fair trial to show whether 

 or not they produce an abnormal reve- 

 nue to the roads. 



The history of wage adjustment 

 boards has shown that changes in wages, 

 either up or down, are brought aboat 

 only after long discussion pro and con. 

 It is certain that railroad labor will not 

 accept a reduction with the grace th^ 

 would accept a gift. They will fight 

 such an attempt with every means at 

 their command. 



The railroads themselves have an- 

 nounced that there is no move at present 

 toward a rate reduction, barring the reg- 

 ular adjustment of freight rates which is 

 part of the ordinary routine of busi- 

 ness. It took eight months to get the 

 present rates into effect; it will in all 

 probability take at least an equal period 

 of time to get them reduced. 



And in the meantime, should reduc- 

 tions come even this fall, the difference 

 in freight rates then and now will be 

 more than offset in the price of coal then 

 and now. To postpone buying coal at 

 this time in the hope of saving money 

 on freight later is to merely insure pay- 

 ing a higher price for coal — a price suffi- 

 ciently higher to more than wipe out the 

 freight rate saving, which at best is 

 doubtful of materialization. 



