26 



The Rorists^ Review 



August 25, 1921 



Eitablished 1897, 

 by a. li. Grant. 



Pnbllshed every Thursday by 

 Thk Florists' Publishinq Co.. 



600S60 Oazton BulIdlnK, 



808 Soath Dearborn St., Ohlcago. 



Tel., Wabasb 8196. 



Registered cable address, 



Florvlew, Oblcago. 



Entered as second class matter 

 Dec. 3, 1897, at the post-ofBce at Ohi' 

 cago. 111., under the Act of March 

 8. 1879. 



Subscription price, $2.00 a year. 

 To Oanada, $3.00: to Europe, $4.00. 



Advertising rates quoted on 

 request. Only strictly trade ad- 

 Tertlalnr accepted. 



n 



RESULTS. 



We give them. You get them. 



We both have them. 



Don't mail currency in a letter unless 

 you register it. The losses are small, but 

 they are annoying. 



It often is said the retailers have the 

 best end of the florists' business, but how 

 often do you hear of a grower who has 

 failed? 



Don 't pay money to strangers for any- 

 thing they can't deliver at the time pay- 

 ment is asked. A lot of florists are get- 

 ting taken in on petty swindling schemes. 



When a florists' business attains a 

 certain size it seems to stick and stop. 

 Then it is time to look around, see what 

 other lines are doing and adopt new 

 methods to start growth again. 



The average florist is too busy with 

 other matters to give much attention to 

 office work. He will have more money 

 if he hires someone to look after the de- 

 tails the proprietor only half attends to, 



GrOOD packing always was a factor in 

 getting repeat orders, slovenly packing 

 turning them away. The time now has 

 come when reasonableness in packing 

 charges will count in the same way, even 

 when packing is good. 



Following the trend of the times, the 

 trade must, sooner or later, sell at lower 

 prices to the public. As it seems im- 

 possible at present to reduce growing or 

 selling eosts in any important way, the 

 only thing to do is to increase volume. It 

 calls for study and work, but it can be 

 done, if each goes at it and sticks to it. 



There is every indication that the 

 margin of profit in the florists' business 

 has gone or is about to go down, just 

 as it has in other lines. For threa years 

 or 80 almost anybody could make good 

 money growing or selling flowers, but the 

 immediate future probably will restore 

 the old-time premium on competent, care- 

 ful, conservative management. 



Many new florists are persons attracted 

 to this promising field from alien pur- 

 suits. They know nothing of flowers, but 

 hope for profits. Some of them will stay 

 and prosper and help us all. It would 

 be better, however, if growers would cre- 

 ate, by an apprentice system, a sufficient 

 body of recruits versed in floriculture to 

 meet the needs of the trade's expansion 

 in times like these. 



The first plantsmen to come into the 

 market with a good batch of stock will 

 reap a harvest. 



We begin to understand why so many 

 businesses are offered for sale as "going 

 concerns." It seems at present there 

 are more going than coming. 



When a grower complains of low re- 

 turns on the stock he has sent to mar- 

 ket, it usually transpires that the flowers 

 were low in quality as well. Good blooms 

 almost invariably bring good prices. 



Practice the golden rule. If you can 

 not fill an order, let the buyer know at 

 once. If cash accompanied the order, 

 return it immediately. If the stock was 

 advertised, stop the ad as soon as sold 

 out. 



Large numbers of florists still have 

 more business than they have capital. 

 The really desirable customer is he who 

 seeks to enlarge his operations only so fast 

 as he can increase his ability to meet his 

 bills when due. 



Some florists sell flowers without serv- 

 ice, while others sell service, no, not with- 

 out flowers, but with fewer of them than 

 the former class would believe possible in 

 view of the size of the business done. 

 The public likes to pay for service. 



Inability of growers to reduce their 

 costs makes the more necessary the cur- 

 tailment of waste, whether in expendi- 

 tures, in methods of culture or business 

 or in management. Make your space 

 and dollars count to the foot and the 

 cent. 



Most florists are self-made men, but the 

 second generation is being given a 

 thorough schooling before being brought 

 into father's business. The floricultural, 

 horticultural and agricultural courses at 

 the colleges now show a good sprinkling 

 of florists' sons in their enrollment. 



Is there a greenhouse in America which 

 produces to its full capacity? Is there a 

 retail store which could not handle more 

 stock without increasing overhead ex- 

 pense? Think it over. Figure what a 

 ten per cent increase in production or in 

 sales would do for your profit. Then 

 go get it. 



EEEPING IVY LEAVES. 



How long can English ivy leaves be 

 kept in winter in a cold storage cellar? 

 B. M. G.— Mont. 



Will some reader answer the above 

 inquiry through The Review, stating the 

 temperature employed? — Ed. 



CONTINUINQ THE CAMPAIGN. 



Four months remain of the fourth 

 year in the initial subscription period 

 of the national publicity campaign. In 

 January, 1922, will be begun the second 

 subscription period, for which pledges 

 were circulated at the S. A. F. conven- 

 tion at Washington last week. It is 

 proposed to raise $100,000 a year for ad- 

 vertising flowers in the national maga- 

 zines. In the 4-year period being com- 

 pleted scarcely more than half that 

 much was raised in any one year and in 

 two years of the campaign the collec- 

 tions fell considerably short of half the 

 sum. Yet $100,000 a year is not too 

 great an expenditure for this industry 

 to spend in furthering the sale of its 

 products. With a small expenditure in 

 its first four years, the campaign has 

 been a notable success because of the 



unrivaled slogan the florists secured 

 through it. So popular became the 

 slogan that the public, the newspapers 

 and other industries contributed more 

 in advertising us than we did ourselves. 

 The novelty of the slogan is wearing off, 

 though its value to the trade endures 

 and will continue. But to keep the 

 slogan in the eyes of the public in fu- 

 ture as much as it has been since its 

 introduction, we shall need all of $100,- 

 000 a year. 



That it will be secured should not be 

 doubted. The growers, as the producers 

 of this industry, are more alive to their 

 need of advertising and to its uses for 

 their ends than they were when the 

 campaign was started. The retailers, 

 always of necessity advertisers, have 

 developed notably in that direction 

 since their accession of the slogan. 

 Everyone in the trade, indeed, better 

 appreciates the power of publicity today 

 than he did four years ago. And the 

 good business all have enjoyed in the 

 last three years makes each unwilling 

 to turn back. For his own benefit, 

 each one will pledge an annual invest- 

 ment in our national campaign in order 

 to continue the trade's prosperity. 



WRITE Y0X7B SENATORS. 



Florists doing business as corpora- 

 tions have, as d class, paid taxes out of 

 proportion to other lines of production 

 or merchandising. The reason lies in 

 the fact that a florist's profits come 

 more from personal effort, good will and 

 good management than they do from 

 the employment of capital. Conse- 

 quently, corporations in the florists' 

 business have paid high excess profits 

 taxes where concerns clearing equal 

 sums in many other lines have escaped. 

 The tax revision bill passed last week 

 by the House provides for the repeal of 

 the excess profits tax in 1922, but leaves 

 the tax on the profits of 1921. The bill 

 now is in the Senate. Write to your 

 senators, telling them the profits tax 

 bears too heavily on small corporations 

 like, most of those in this trade. Ask 

 them to redeem party platform pledges 

 by taking the tax off now instead of 

 waiting till next year. 



HERE'S A HUNCH. 



There are indications that florists in 

 the eastern states are better supplied 

 with stock than those in the middle 

 west. In the middle west the season has 

 been extremely unfavorable and large 

 quantities of stock have been lost. At 

 the same time, demand is good. Prac- 

 tically every florist in the middle west is 

 a reader of The Review and those in the 

 east who have stock they do not need 

 for their local trade can find quick move- 

 ment for it and get cash with order by 

 letting their offers be known through 

 the Classified columns of The Review. 

 Like this: 



My little ad in The Review brought such good 

 results I am afraid 1 shall have to secure a secre- 

 tary to handle my mail. — H. C. Bhoard, Dade 

 City, Fla., August 13, 1921. 



The little ad for bouvardia we ran in The Re- 

 view several weeks ago worked wonders. We 

 were sold out in less than a week. Only wish we 

 had more to sell. — E. G. Reimers & Son Co., 

 Louisville, Ky., August 14. 1921. 



The plants were sold before the end of the first 

 week. Some results, I'll say. — Lee Smith, Gas- 

 port, N. Y., August 15, 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. 



