38 



The Florists* Review 



Januabi 5. 1922 



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Established 1R97, 

 by a. L Grant 



Published every Thursday by 

 The Flohists* Publishing Co., 



600 660 Gaston Building, 



S08 Soutb Dearborn St., ChlcaRO. 



Tel., Wabash 8195. 



Registered cable address, 



Florview, Chlcaso. 



Entered as second class matter 

 Dec. 3, 1807. at the poet-offlce at Chi- 

 caRO. 111., under the Act of March 

 3. 1879. 



Subscription price, $2.00 a year. 

 To Canada, $3.00; to Europe, S4.00. 



Advertising rates quoted on 

 request. Only strictly trade ad- 

 vertlslnK accepted. 



t! 



Results bring advertising. 

 The Review bring.s results. 



No more tax on express shipments. 

 Every little helps, but what we really need 

 is a reduction in express rates. Let 's 

 keep asking for it until we get it. 



Not enough cyclamens were to be had 

 at Christinas in the medium sizes. The 

 grower who produces good plants that 

 can be sold for a five-dollar bill at retail 

 will not be able to grow too many. 



Till coal and the freight rates there 

 on come down, the grower finds low prices 

 perilous. This item and labor form not 

 far from one-half the growers' costs. 

 The wages of skilled greenhouse hands 

 cannot be lowered much until more ap- 

 prentices can be trained. 



Has some one rooted cuttinj^s or small 

 plants of the Knglish large-flowering 

 begonias for sale? An offer in the col- 

 umns of The Review would bring orders 

 from a number of florists who wish to try 

 them and have written to learn wIumo 

 they could secure stock. 



Year-end inventory losses and shrink 

 age in holiday business are cx])eited to 

 swell the list of bankrujitcy cases in 

 other lines of industry during the coining 

 sixty days. Florists' collections will un 

 doubtedly be harder. Greater effort must 

 be put ujion them, lest florists them- 

 selves Wcome financially embarrassed. 



A GOOD many items of stock are handled 

 in this trade at so slight a margin of 

 profit that some slight difliciilty in the 

 transaction removes all profit, a calamity 

 to the small i)roduccr. Since on him 

 rests the maintenance of this low margin, 

 it would pay all of us to be careful and 

 accurate in our orders and in our in- 

 structions regarding them. 



The Editor's desk lias been Lirigiit lin' 

 last few days with a vase of calendulas 

 of George .T. Ball's notable strain, grown 

 at Glen Kllyn, 111. How jirofitable is 

 high quality may be seen in the dif- 

 ference between the quotations of Mr. 

 Ball's strain and those of the ordinary 

 Orange King on the Chicago market. Mr. 

 Ball is now testing a cross between Lemon 

 Queen and his giant strain of Orange 

 King, an attempt to infuse in the former 

 the strength and vigor of the latter. The 

 color is a little darker than Lemon Queen, 

 an attractive yellow. If it attains the 

 sturdiness of its giant parent, it should 

 be welcomed by the basket artists. 



A ^KATTLE shoe merchant carried a 

 sign in the windovv during the Christmas 

 season worded, "Say It with Slippers," 

 which caused the Seattle Star to remark: 

 ' ' Any small boy will tell you what that 

 means. " 



Appropriately, the Reeser Plant Co., 

 Springfield, O., uses on its 1922 calendar 

 a rei)roduction of the painting by A. P. 

 Cole which bears the title, "Daddy's 

 Coming, ' ' which pictures a young mother 

 and her infant in arms waiting under a 

 gateway arch of roses. 



BESEBVE BOOMS EARLY. 



Members of the American Carnation 

 Society and others who plan to attend 

 the meeting of this organization or that 

 of the National Flower Growers' Asso- 

 ciation at Hartford the last week in 

 January are urged by Secretary A. F. J. 

 Baur to engage their hotel accommoda- 

 tions at once. The exhibition of the 

 American Carnation Society and the 

 American Rose Society will be held 

 January 25 to 27. Other conventions 

 will take place in Hartford the same 

 week and the hotels will be crowded. 

 The chairman of the local hotel com- 

 mittee is Andrew Welch, Allyn House 

 Flower Store, Hartford, Conn. 



OUB PLEASING BUSINESS. 



The public looks upon the work of 

 the florist as one of the attractive oc- 

 cupations, one of those, perhaps, which 

 furnish a part of their own reward. In 

 a recent display editorial the Chicago 

 Tribune said: 



There Is nothing lunoble about comiiieice. On 

 the contrary, the farmer, the banker, the mer 

 chant, the mnniifuctiirer, all perform essential 

 services for their fellow men. The business man 

 may be unworthy, but business is not. Of course, 

 some businesses are more pleasing than others — 

 the raising of fine horses, the selling of flowers, 

 the making of toys. Others are rich in romance 

 --the harpooning of whales, the mining of dia- 

 monds, the fishing of pearls. 



There is, perhaps, only one occupation 

 more engrossing than that of the florist 

 ■ — it is that of the publisher. So when 

 the business is that of publishing for flo- 

 rists the height of fascination is at- 

 tained. Ain't it? 



WHAT CHRISTMAS TRADE TELLS. 



Definite reports from several reliable 

 sources in various industries to the ef- 

 fect that holiday retail sales were ex- 

 ceptionally good serve to corroborate 

 the regular monthly rcjjorts on retail 

 trade prcp;ired liy the Fedcr.al Reserve 

 hanks. These statistics have shown all 

 along that in spite of undoubtedly ad- 

 verse conditions in numerous instances 

 and in the face of considerable alarmist 

 t;ilk of widespread unemployment and 

 hardship, the purchasing power of the 

 m-ncral ]iiiblic was by no means ex- 

 hausted. 



To be sure, these recent announce- 

 ments relative to the holiday business 

 make mention of the fact — as have the 

 regular reports for some time past — that 

 I>urchases are confined with much 

 greater strictness than heretofore to 

 "useful" or necessary articles, and 

 that customers arc much more inter- 

 ested in prices. These, however, are 

 certainly not particularly unwholesome 

 tendencies, at this time. 



There has been a good deal of healthy, 

 if painful, readjustment, and undoubt- 

 edly more is to follow. However, the 

 situation in some respects has never 

 been so bad as many would have us be- 

 lieve, and is now definitely, if somewhat 

 >!owly, on the nir-nd. It would be un- 



wise in the extreme to expect any sud- 

 den revival in the first months of the 

 year, but there is good ground for the 

 expectation of continued improvement. 

 Every reason exists for sustained en- 

 deavor to put costs and prices on a 

 sounder footing, but there is certainly 

 no basis for undue pessimism during the 

 process of readjustment. 



WAGES AND EMPLOYMENT. 



Reports from 1,648 firms to the New 

 York state department of labor show 

 about 471,000 on the pay rolls in Novem- 

 ber. This compares with 503,000 in 

 June, 1914, and 631,000 at the peak last 

 year. The average wage earned during 

 November was $24.32, as compared with 

 $12.70 in June, 1914, and $28.93 at the 

 highest in 1920. 



In other words, ninety-four per cent 

 as many men were employed last month 

 as before the war, as compared with 125 

 per cent in 1920. The average wage is 

 191 per cent of the prewar figure, as 

 against 228 per cent in 1920. 



It is clear that wages are still ex- 

 tremely high in comparison with prewar 

 levels. Employment has improved con- 

 siderably since the low point in August, 

 but wages must be more in line with pre- 

 war figures before employment statistics 

 reach the 1914 point again. 



A WORD FROM JERSEY. 



In 1921, more than any previous year, 

 the truth has spread that "it is not 

 where a publication is printed, but 

 where it is read that counts," with the 

 result that The Review has made great 

 gains in the matter of Classified ads car- 

 ried for far-eastern florists. One tells 

 another like this: 



Please discontinue my ad, as I am sold out for 

 the time being. Your paper is a heller of an 

 agent, right on the job. — W. H. Boyd, Dover, 

 N. J., December 29. 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. 



WILL SOME GROWER OF IT TELL? 



Can some one tell us about the blue 

 lace flower, Didiscus ca;rulea? What is 

 it used for and how is it grown? 



S. C. T. & S.— Ohio. 



WHO WILL ANSWER? 



Please tell me what is the best way to 

 regulate the wholesale price of cyclamen 

 plants. For instance, our 6-inch cycla- 

 mens generally range from three to 

 twenty flowers. Should we charge prices 

 according to the number of flowers, as 

 we do for Ea.ster lilies? I should like to 

 know how the eastern growers regulate 

 their prices of cyclamen plants. 



' A. C. G. 



BRIEF ANSWERS. 



B. A. A., Ind. — The specimens sent 

 were cru.shed beyond all recognition. 

 Send other specimens carefully packed 

 in a tin or wooden box. 



C. F. C, Mich. — Cleveland cherries 

 are propagated from seeds. Early 

 planting gives the best results — Janu- 

 ary 1 to January 15. Late sowing will 

 fruit, but not so fully and the crop 

 might come late. Full directions for 

 later care will appear in an early issue 

 of The Review. 



O.' L. H., Pa. — Pilca muscosa, also 

 called P. callitrichoides, commonly known 

 as the artillery plant. 



