40 



The Florists^ Review 



Dbcbmbbr 1, 1921 



Established 1897, 

 by a. L. Orant 



Pabllshed every Tharsday by 

 Thl; Florists' Pbblishinq Co., 



600-660 Oaxton BulldlDir, 



608 South Dearborn St., Chicago. 



Tel., Wabash 8196. 



Reelstered cable address, 



Florvlew, Chicago. 



Entered as second class matter 

 Dec. 3, 1897, at the poet-omce at Chi- 

 cago, 111., under the Act of March 

 3. 1879. 



Subscription price, (2.00 a year. 

 To Canada, $3.00; to Europe, $4.00. 



Adrertlsing rates quoted on 

 request. Only strictly trade ad- 

 vertlstng accepted. 



EESULTS. 



We give them. You get them. 



We both have them. 



Liberty bonds are going up, and 

 patriotic, not to say wise, florists begin 

 to profit. 



More florists' bills would be paid 

 promptly if more of them were sent out 

 promptly. 



Make early preparations for getting 

 Christmas business. Extra effort will be 

 repaid this year. 



Have you written your congressman 

 telling him how necessary to florists is 

 the special delivery service on parcel post 

 shipments ? 



Send your publicity pledge, to begin 

 January 1, 1922, to John Young, secre- 

 tary of the S. A. F., 43 West Eighteenth 

 street, New York. We shall need to push 

 the slogan the next four years harder 

 than we did the last. 



The tax law has been passed by Con- 

 gress without lightening the burdens on 

 business as was promised at campaign 

 time by the Ecpublican party. Not until 

 1923 will the removal of the excess profits 

 tax benefit florists, since in 1922 they must 

 raise the money to meet the taxes on this 

 year's business. 



If your city is not represented in the 

 news columns of The Review, give the 

 Editor the name of some one you believe 

 would be able to represent The Review 

 in your community. There are oj)enings 

 in several cities for florists who get around 

 among the trade and who can write the 

 news of their locality regularly. 



The dahlias in the garden of Former 

 Supreme Court Justice Josepli T. Marean 

 are awakening interest in the daily papers 

 through a dispatch stating that a bloom 

 one foot across, produced there, was the 

 largest ever grown. Some of the Marean 

 dahlias were seen by visitors at the show 

 of the American Dahlia Society, at New 

 York, in September. 



Too frequently a suggestion from a 

 fellow florist's methods are brushed aside 

 with "His business is on a different 

 scale," or "It's all right for him, but it 

 wouldn 't work with us. ' ' The method of 

 application may be somewhat different, 

 but a good many practices of progressive 

 florists might be followed by a far greater 

 number than benefit by such examples. 



You can do business much more easily 

 and expeditiously if your communications 

 are on printed stationery. When money is 

 not so easy to get and ' ' time is money, ' ' 

 it pays to be businesslike. 



Increase your collection efforts if you 

 are not getting the money as you should. 

 You will need the ready funds to finance 

 your holiday business. Besides, it will be 

 harder to collect what is due as the holi- 

 days approach. 



This week the Editor's desk is graced 

 by a vase of white anemone chrysanthe- 

 mums from W. F. Richter, Cullman, Ala. 

 The variety is a 1919 seedling of his. 

 After their long journey the flowers stood 

 up well and their excellent appearance 

 won comments from visitors in the office. 



YOXIB IDEAL STORE. 



Many florists have rebuilt their stores 

 or erected new ones this summer. They 

 have embodied the latest features of 

 construction and equijjment, varied as 

 the needs of each separate locality re- 

 quired. In recent issues of The Review 

 have appeared brief descriptions of some 

 of these new establishments, with illus- 

 trations for interested brother florists to 

 study. Outstanding improvements in 

 store arrangement or equipment have 

 been noted in these descriptions. More 

 detail seems, however, to be wanted. 

 Here is a letter just received from a 

 reader: 



Next year, during the dull months, we are 

 going to rebuild our store. Our space is limited 

 to a 16-foot front with a depth of 100 feet. We 

 want to utilize every bit of space to its utmost. 

 We do not know just what flooring to put In 

 the store. We know that we do not want wood; 

 also that cement is unsatisfactory. Probably 

 some florist has recently rebuilt and made a nice 

 job out of it. If at all possible, we should like 

 to have ideas from other florists as to the floor, 

 workroom, etc. 



You who have built new stores, tell us 

 what changes from the old were made. 

 What advice would you give this fellow 

 florist, planning to rebuild? And you 

 who are in an older store and visualize 

 a newer and better one at a future date, 

 what are your ideas for improvement? 

 In short, what is your ideal store? The 

 Editor of The Review would like to 

 receive expressions on this subject from 

 readers, who show themselves always 

 willing to help an inquirer. 



THANKSGIVING. 



At no preceding Thanksgiving time 

 have florists throughout the country 

 made such effort to get business as they 

 did this year. In this they followed the 

 admonition of The Review, in its Au- 

 tumn Number, that sales would be in 

 projiortion to the exertion made to ob- 

 tain them. The varying reports as to 

 the holiday's business indicate that this 

 was the case. Retailers who advertised 

 heavily and used all available means to 

 l)ring in customers speak best of the 

 sales for the occasion. Others, who did 

 less, give accounts of the business in less 

 favorable terms. 



(Comparison with last year's figures is 

 not well made in view of existing con- 

 ditions. The florist who sold as much, 

 in dollars, as he did at the holiday in 

 1920, did well. Probably his profit was 

 as large. Such a result would occasion 

 much congratulation by business men in 

 other lines, who find themselves away 

 behind their previous years' figures. It 

 should satisfy, at least, the florist. 



Those florists whose total sales for 

 Thanksgiving ran ahead of last year are 

 fortunate. The number of them, too, is 



not small. The fact is evidence that the 

 flower business is growing. There are 

 plenty of customers to be had if we can 

 get them into our stores. 



FAIR PRICES. 



When the present business readjust- 

 ment began The Review urged florists 

 to study their costs and to familiarize 

 themselves with their business expendi- 

 tures so that, when it became necessary, 

 they could reduce prices and still oper- 

 ate at a profit. It should be apparent 

 to everyone that it is preferable, in this 

 trade, to lower our prices voluntarily 

 and maintain sales rather than to have 

 prices forced down because the public 

 will not buy. Such a course is more 

 necessary in this trade than in most 

 others. If the public will not buy we 

 cannot leave our goods on the shelves 

 till such time as necessity forces cus- 

 tomers into the store. Our merchandise 

 goes to the ash can quickly, if it is not 

 sold, and is a total loss to some one. 



Florists do not wish to court a "buy- 

 ers' strike." Clothing merchants have 

 learned to their sorrow what that phrase 

 means. Unwilling to take inventory 

 losses on what was on their shelves, they 

 consequently were forced not only ulti- 

 mately to take such a loss, but also to 

 forego much business ere the public 

 could be enticed back into their stores. 



The prices of flowers at wholesale are 

 considerably lower than they were a 

 year ago. It is complained in some cases 

 that retail prices have not been reduced 

 to correspond. To allow such complaint 

 to become widespread would be to court 

 danger. The public is not so indulgent 

 in the matter of prices as it formerly 

 was. Flower buyers are disposed to ex- 

 amine price tags more closely than be- 

 fore and will resent it if they feel they 

 are overcharged. Florists have the op- 

 portunity to benefit by what has taken 

 place in other lines of business. We 

 should by this time have learned that it 

 is better to reduce our prices volun- 

 tarily, allowing a reasonable margin of 

 profit, rather than to have them forced 

 to an unprofitable level by lack of de- 

 mand. The florist who has a proper 

 knowledge of what it costs him to do 

 business is now in position to sell 

 flowers at prices fair both to himself 

 and to the public. 



WHAT HAVE YOU? 



The results from advertising do not 

 depend entirely on the circulation of the 

 advertising medium, although this is one 

 of the most important factors. A por- 

 tion of the results depends on the de- 

 mand existing for the article advertised. 

 Of course, with a universallv read trade 

 paper, like The Review, there are among 

 the readers some who seek almost every 

 variety of stock, and when it happens 

 that the stock offered is in general de- 

 mand, this is what happens: 



Kindly omit our geranium advertisement as 

 soon as possible. An avalanche of orders has 

 struck us lelegrams called for several thou- 

 Hjinds before we had received our Review, and 

 then came the si)ecial delivery- and reeistered 

 letters. They did the rest.-Angel Greenhouses 

 Oklahoma City, Okla., November 21. 1921. 



If 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 Review 



BRIEF ANSWERS. 



C. M. W., Neb.— Coleus Trailing 

 Queen. * 



