46 



The Florists'" Review 



Dbcbmbbb 8, 1921 



ft 



Published every Thursday by 

 Thk Florists' Puhushi.no Co.. 



600 S60 Oaxton Bulldlnif . 



608 South Dearborn St., ChlcaKC 



Tel. Wabash 8195. 



Reprlatered cablo address, 



Florvlew, Chicago. 



Entered as second class matter 

 Dt--c.3,1897,attliepoet-ofliceatCbl- 

 caK". III., under the Act of March 

 3. 1879. 



Subscription price. $2.00 a year. 

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



Advertlslnir rates quoted on 

 request. Only strictly trade ad- 

 vertlslnsr accepted. 



Results bring advertising. 

 The Eeview brings results. 



Wk want express rates to come down 

 along with freights. How can it be 

 brought about! 



Laboh and transportation are the two 

 items the continued high cost of whicli 

 keejis florists' expenses at a dangerous 

 level. 



The boxboard market has collapsed, 

 after a shortlived revival in early autumn, 

 and prices of florists' boxes again have 

 ea.sed. 



Some of our keenest minded retailers 

 helieve that therti will be no diminution 

 in the number of flowers sold if retail 

 prices on them are reduced. 



Op all the parai)hrases of our trade 

 slogan we seem to like best that of 

 Wlicat's Ice Cre.'vin Co., of Sonyea, N. Y.. 

 wliich advertises, "Say It with Bricks." 



"Ok tlie wliole, ■' states the Federal 

 Reserve board, "the Ix^st oi)inion now 

 looks to a stciidy, even if locally inter- 

 rupted, ])r(igress hack to normal condi 

 tions, altlioiigli no immediate or sudden 

 expansion or lootii is in sight." 



TiiK time is here when buyers can and 

 do"Hlio() 'roiind." No longer is stock, or 

 t^ooils of any kind, wanted so l)!i(lly that 

 any jirice will l)e ]i:iid or any cpiality ac 

 cepted, in preference to going without. 

 TJio.se who have ])ractice(l the golden rule 

 in their dealings are getting the business, 

 while those who have not are learning to 

 mend their ways. 



So many readers of The R<'view exi)ress 

 their anxiety not to miss a single copy 

 of the paper that notice of ap]>roacliing 

 expiration of their subscriptions is sent 

 out .several weeks l>efore the actual date 

 of exiiiration, in or<ler that there may be 

 ample time for renewal ere a subscriber's 

 name is taken off the mailing list. No 

 on(! in arrears is carried on The Keview's 

 siibscrijition list. 



Fi.oiiis'i's' sui)]ily houses handling ar- 

 tificial holly berries have experienceil an 

 imusual demand this season. It api)ears 

 that there will l)e little naturally berried 

 holly on the market this t'hristmas. All 

 the way from the woods, artificial berries 

 are being added. Most of the artificial 

 l)crries come from Germany, but a few are 

 manufactured in New York tenement 

 artificial flower factories. 



The average price of all commodities, 

 according to the bankers' j)rice index, was 

 $413.85 on November 1, as compared with 

 $564.01 a year ago, showing a reduction 

 of twenty-seven per cent. Just about 

 this decrease is seen in a comparison of 

 wholesale flower prices of the two dates. 



A UULINO that the California law reg- 

 ulating sliij)ments of plants and nursery 

 stock into that state is inoperative has 

 been obtained by the California Associa- 

 tion of Nurserymen. Full account and 

 wording of the ruling a])i)ears in the Nur- 

 sery Department this week under the head- 

 ing, ' ' Can Ship into California. ' ' 



The fact that The Review is read by 

 six times as many florists as receive any 

 publication devoted to the retailers' in- 

 terests alone is considered by several hun- 

 dred of them to be excellent reason for 

 using space in the Pink Part, no matter 

 what other efforts are made to secure tele- 

 graph orders from brother florists. 



Some bulbs of a strain of hybrids of 

 Hippeastrum equestre, Johnsonii and vit- 

 tatum — more commonly called amaryllis 

 — reached the Editor's desk last week 

 and though they do not decorate it now, 

 they will his home several months hence. 

 They came from Dewson 's plant Nursery, 

 Houston, Tex., being of the stock of the 

 late H. ,T. Condron, Dickinson, Tex., who 

 spent sixteen years in perfecting the 

 strain. They are large, firm bulbs, whose 

 product will be interestedly watched. 



Feeling the pulse of the trade before 

 Christmas, several of the Chicago whole- 

 sale houses have had men visiting the 

 buyers in neighboring cities during the 

 last few days. The general report is 

 that the retailers are doing a good busi- 

 ness and that the reason they have been 

 buying lightly in Chicago of late is that 

 I hey have had large supplies of home- 

 growu chrysanthemums, which they have 

 felt impelled to use. Christinas is looked 

 u])on as fairly certain to liring a large 

 volume of business, but the disjiosition is 

 not to handle the highest grade of stock 

 ill more than limited (|iiantity. Buyers 

 are ready to place orders for large cjuan- 

 tities of roses up to L'O cents, hut from 

 lT) r'ciits to til> cents the demand diminishes 

 rapidly. 



GLASS TAKES A DROP. 



-New discounts (juoted in the window 

 ylass trade siiic(> December 1 are e(|uiva- 

 leiit to a drop in the jirice of greenhouse 

 sizes of about eighteen to twenty per 

 cent. The sharp reduction in ])rice fol- 

 lowed •■iliiiost immediately the indict- 

 Mieiit of labor leaders, inaiiufacturers 

 ;iiid sales agents, as reported in The 

 Review, for an alleged conspiracy to 

 restrict ]iroduction and control ]irices. 

 Those who make no claim to knowledge 

 of the inside workings of the window 

 glass industry, however, say the cut in 

 jirices w;ts inevit.'ible, following the ac- 

 cuiiiiilation of stocks during the new 

 fire. The cut in the jirice of jilati- glass 

 w.is even {"reater than in window jjlass. 



LYCOPODIUM MARKET. 



Old-timers in the nimiial bouquet 

 yreeii deal note with interest many 

 changes with the years. Lycopodium is 

 not now the im])ortant Christmas 

 specialty it was in the late years of the 

 last century, but while the call for 

 wreathing for Christmas use has 

 diminished greatly, the ])rice of green 

 has advanced. In the old days a surplus 



of green was a disaster. After Christ- 

 mas there was no market. Surpluses 

 could only be disposed of for export to 

 Germany, where the commodity was 

 dyed and perpetuated. Later a few 

 American houses began to experiment 

 with dyeing and carrying along as a 

 means of using up a surplus. Today 

 more lycopodium is handled by the sup- 

 ply houses in a prepared state than is 

 sold fresh to florists for Christmas 

 use. It is the supply house demand 

 which is today responsible for the rising 

 market. 



PROFIT OR BUSINESS? 



Many leaders in the business world 

 are emphasizing the necessity of estab- 

 lishing correct prices in order to acceler- 

 ate trade. The changed conditions in 

 the industrial world demand a readjust- 

 ment. Since some lines have lowered 

 their prices, it follows of necessity that 

 other lines must also. We cannot expect 

 the manufacturer, whose jiroducts are 

 bringing less than a year ago, or the 

 merchant, whose margin is less than be- 

 fore, or the salary-earner, who has un- 

 dergone a cut in i)ay, to give the same 

 number of dollars for the same quantity 

 of flowers that he did before the change. 

 We must do one of two things; either 

 give him more flowers for his money, or 

 better flowers for the same money. 

 Otherwise we are, in effect, charging 

 each of them more for our products than 

 we did a year ago. 



It is not easy to accept lower prices, 

 but it is better than facing a stagnation 

 of demand and consequent losses. A 

 liusiness man, be he florist or something 

 else, is entitled to reason.-ible profit. 

 Otherwise Ik; will not continue in busi- 

 ness. But while ])rofit-making is always 

 an objective, business-making is a ))rime 

 necessity, even taking ])recedence of the 

 former. If we would continue to enjoy 

 good business, which seems likely under 

 reasonable circumstances, we must not 

 hesitate to anticipate the public's de- 

 mand, sure to come sooner or later, for 

 lower retail ])rices and to accept, for 

 the time being, a lesser margin of ju'ofit 

 if neeil be. 



UPSETTING THE DOPE. 



A good many diagnosticians of busi- 

 ness conditions rt'ly on charts and curves 

 that show cycles of action and reaction, 

 following the theory that history re- 

 ]ieats itself. Hut it is ipiite likely that the 

 ]>resent readjustment will not advance 

 in accordance with the old theories. In 

 other words, the spokes of the cycle are 

 not all there, and the re;iction may take 

 l)lace much sooner than the old charts 

 I'orec.'ist. 



I'ntil the war, the basic conditions of 

 the country li;id not mat(>rially changed. 

 We were a <lebtor nation, with an inade- 

 (piate bjiiiking jiiid currency system, and 

 though our wealth had tremendously in- 

 creased in the decade since 1903, yet 

 given the same combination of circum- 

 stances, there would i>ossibly have been 

 about the same results. Today, however, 

 we are a creditor nation; "we have a 

 scientific b;iiiking and currency system; 

 .•It least forty-two per cent of the world's 

 monetary stock of gold is ours and there 

 are suflRcient credit fai-ilities for the pro- 

 motion of desirable and properly 

 financed enterprises. The order of 

 things has, therefore, been changed. 



With all these things in our favor and 

 the other nations of the world relying 

 on this country for supplies, the return 



