26 



The Florists^ Review 



May 26, 1921 



jn the town is that of Howard E. Gates, 

 who operates u florists' l)iisiiiess there. 



One of the most talked of and the best 

 luiown })hrases used in tlio town is "At 

 the sign of the Gates." At the en- 

 trance to liis flower growinfj garden, 

 Mr. Gates has erected an old-fashioned 

 garden gate. The two things painted 

 on this gate are JNIr. Gates' name and 

 the slogan "Say It with Flowers." 

 Tliat is where the saying "At the sign 

 of the Gates'' originated. 



This linking of a name and an apjtro- 

 priate symbol was so original that it 

 has made "At the sign of the Gates" 

 and "Say It with Flowers" the two 

 ino.st j)oj)ular sayings in Anaheim. The 

 sign is unobtrusive; it is small enough 

 not to l)e an eyesore and largv^ enough 

 to be seen. Jt has meant a great deal 

 to the l)uilding up of an excellent busi- 

 ness for Mr. Gates. 



Incidentally, Mr. Gates backs up the 

 fame that this sign brings him with ar- 

 tistic skill and fine flowers. One of the 

 flower floats which he arranged took 

 first place in the Anaheim Armistice 

 day parade and another was one of the 

 prettiest in the tournament of roses at 

 Pasadena. 



MORE BLOOMS FOE MOTHER. 



The agitation every jVfotliers ' day 

 regarding the high prices asked for car- 

 nations and the complaints rcgaitJing 

 tlie shortage of blooms have led some 

 of the keener-minded growers to ex- 

 periment in the hope of increasing the 

 l)roduction of the wanted flower for the 

 second Sunday in May. The paper of 

 Charles P. Mueller, Wichita, Kan., read 

 before the American Carnation Society 

 at Washington last January, was the 

 first pronouncement regarding such 

 trials. Since then several have tobf 

 of their attempts. Bauni 's Home of 

 Flowers, at Knoxville, Tenn., has had 

 .success with a method similar to that 

 Mr. Mueller described. Karl P. Baum 

 describes the procedure there in the 

 following way: 



"For the last four or five years we 

 have .'ilways been able to snjiply our 

 trade with carnations for Mothers' day 

 boutonnieres at 1(* cents ])er bloom. A 

 few weeks before ^Fothers' daN', we 



select a house of white and a house of 

 red or dark pink and let them come 

 naturally, not disbudding at all. When 

 the crown, or center, bud opens, it is 

 picked short and used in design work. 

 This leaves four or live shoots that will 

 produce good carnations about one and 

 a half inches in diameter. In this way 

 we realize about 40 cents per stem, pro- 

 ducing four or five carnations, and ac- 

 commodate four to five customers. If 

 we had run these to a single stem with 

 only one bloom, we could only have 

 realized 25 or 30 cents and furnished one 

 flower only to one customer. 



"We have always felt that Mothers' 

 day was a day for the masses and by 

 having boutonnieres at 10 cents each 

 we allow the newsboy as well as the 

 millionaire to wear a flower on Mothers' 

 day. We feel that more propaganda 

 should be used in regard to keeping the 

 price of flowers down on Mothers ' day. 

 We had a wonderful increase in busi- 

 ness and did not raise our price on any- 

 thing. In fact, some of our prices were 

 lower than those of last vear. ' ' 



COOPER ANSWERS DENVER POST. 



Thanks for Scarehead Publicity. 



Last week The Review told of the 

 chief piece of publicitj' florists received 

 this Mothers' day, the scarehead attack 

 in the Denver Post May 8. The views 

 of three Denver florists who commented 

 on the action of their local paper were 

 givcH at the same time. 



Now, George H. Cooper is the florist 

 who handles the money of the local pub- 

 licity organization in Denver. Though 

 he believed the Post's attack did no 

 harm to florists, he resented tlie ill-will 

 displayed by the newspaper assuming 

 this attitude toward the trade. So, 

 when he remitted $1.')6 to the Post for 

 the publicity organization's advertising 

 in that journal during April, he enclosed 

 the following rejoinder to the Post's 

 Mothers' day scareheads: 



I wisli til lliiink villi for yiiiir fri'O ndvcrlisinn 

 ill llio I'list on Snliinlny iiiid Smidiiy. May 7 iinil 

 S. Vdiir siiKiicstidii tliat pcoijle wear a dando 

 linn UN .MiitluTs' day was must ridiniliiiis. and 

 iiiiir rritiiisin iif llii' flnrists was iiiiJiiKliflcd and 

 mirallcd fur and r'-nifs tliroiiiili a lack of under 

 standing.' inir |iarliriilar line. 



TliiTf arc si.\ du.vs diirniB the year wlion 



tlierp are not enougli flowers to sui)ply tlie de- 

 iimnd. The rest of the year the demand is only 

 iKirnial and MiimetlmeH less than normal. At 

 such times, owing to the fact that onr article 

 is so iierishalile, the (jrowers or producers of 

 flowers liave to put tliem on the market at a 

 loss. I'nder these circumstances a slight ad- 

 vance when the demand increases on these six 

 days is justiliable. 



This advertising which we liave been doing is 

 to try to create a demand for flowers during 

 this lull time and carry the sentiment into the 

 liiimea similar to the sentiment on Mothers' day. 

 as a mail often fails to remember to send flowers 

 on his wedding anniversary. This fund for ad- 

 vertising piirjioses is created by each grower's 

 and retail florist's contributing to this fund and 

 such advertising as you put in the Post is like 

 sticking a knife in the back of each one who 

 <-ontril)utes. So, before you do any criticising in 

 the future if you will kindly give our product it 

 little more consideration we shall appreciate it. 

 In our advertisement of tlie latter part of last 

 week we tried to tell the flower-buying public 

 we were unable to supply the increased demand 

 for cut flowers on this day. 



I will also say that my carnations were onl.v 

 $li per dozen and I could not come anywhere 

 near meeting the demand. 



The Post had used the name of a prom- 

 inent clergyman in its articles, stating 

 that each member of his class wore a 

 dandelion Mothers' day. Mr. Cooper 

 states that the Denver Florists' Pub- 

 licity Association received a letter of 

 apology from this minister, saying that 

 the Post used his name without his 

 knowledge. He also said that he never 

 suggested such a thing as a dandelion, 

 a weed, to be used on Mothers' day. 



"Should we ever have to meet this 

 criticism again," says Mr. Cooper, "we 

 will have a letter published to the 

 flower-buying public explaining such 

 matters. I do not believe that this at- 

 tack did us any damage, as most sensible 

 people laughed at such criticism and 

 felt that the I'ost had an 'ax to grind,' 

 or it would not have sacrificed the 

 space. We pay little attention to it and 

 kee]) on advertising just the same in our 

 own wav." 



Grandview, Mich. — A greenhouse is 

 being erected here by William Davey, 

 who ex])ects to open it soon. He has al- 

 ready ])urchased some of his seeds and 

 plants. 



Gretna, La. — B. M. Wichers & Co., 

 who have been selling water lilies and 

 other aquatic ])lants to the trade, are 

 obliged to susjiend shipments on ac- 

 count of the f|uarantine which went 

 into effect May 15, laid because of cam- 

 phor scale found in New Orleans. 



^T'Wittlt'- ' 



'^i^, 



fWlW^fNH ipptWWPPf T'^ 





-** -J,-. isS^ ^'^ ***<.-* r^*' *■ . u;.'t3* • , ♦^. ■2*^'>» «■ I 





<- -^ 





Special Crop of Carnations for Mothers' Day in Houses of Baum's Home of Flowers, Knoxville, Tenn. 



