34 



The Florists^ Review 



May 11. 1922 



yet^the results are sure to be far-reach- 

 "in^and will make for future business 

 ill] over the country. 



Probably a number of you have no- 

 ticed recently in the trade papers 

 the story of the co-operative adver- 

 tising of' the St. Louis florists. They 

 lanie out just before Easter with a 

 il()uble-i)a}i;e sjiread in the Kt. Louis pa- 

 jiers and all the St. Louis florists are 

 riithusia.'itic aliout the results that this 

 lirought them in increased business. 

 They feel it was money well spent, and 

 was more than a itaying investment for 

 them. Collective local advertising can- 

 not help but repay every city or town 

 that takes up advertising of the kind. 



A Story with a Kick. 



A recent :ulvertisement came out from 

 one (if the large national advertisers of 

 this country, and illustrates clearly this 

 situation of contributing money toward 

 till' ii;itional publicity fund. 



A I.KSSON KKOM TIIK STAUS. 



In the Karilon of a <'<iiiiitr.v iKimc two men 

 wcro talkiiit;. Near Diciu s.it a BiiiiiU Iki.v. look- 

 inj; at the stars. 



Said oiii' of the iin-ii "F iiiii iiuikiiiK a prod- 

 uct tliat I kiHiw is tli(> licsi in its class -and 

 still 1 cannot sell it." 



'I'licrc was a nmniciit of silence. . Then 



thp se<dn(l man called to tlie lioy who sat near 

 thetn. ".Sun," he said, "if .vol! had your choii'e 

 of any of those stars up there, which one would 

 Toti choose?" 



The bi>y promptly p<dnted to the hiiK'htest star 

 in sinlit. ' "That bin one over there!" he said. 



The man \vho had addressed the Ixiy tiirned 

 to his <'ompanion. "As a niiitlcr of fact." he 

 snid. "there are other stars in the heavens, 

 which the lioy cannot sei'. tliat are far hrijjhter 

 .Tnd l)iK(;er th.in the one he chose. But lie 

 didn't know the other stars were there, so he 

 couldn't choose tlieni. That's why your product 

 isn't selliuc. I'eople siiriply do not know it 

 exists." 



"I know wliat you mean," said the first man. 

 ".•idverlisiiiK. Hut I have tried adverfisinj,' in 

 the past two or three times —and it didn't 

 wiirk." 



Ills companiim seemed prooccui)ied with the 

 stars. ... "If we stand here and watch the 

 sity for a few minutes." he linally said, "we 

 shall see a sliootinc star. It will sjiurt .across 

 the heave.'is for n second, and then it will die 

 out. There are thousands of shootintr stars every 

 ni«ht. I'eople pay little attention to them and 

 tlier are instantly for^-otten. That's the kind 

 of nn advertiser you were." 



"The IHde star." contimierl the speaker, "has 

 stayed on the job so long and so faithfully 

 that its very name has come to mean 'a Ruide, 

 a controllint; principle.' Ami that's the way 

 to advertise. There are certain jirodiicts today 

 whose names are rec.'irdcd as a puide to satis 

 faction and a ouitrollinu' principle of Muality. 

 They are the |ioie stars. In this present (M'onoini<' 

 situation, it is thi' pole stars th.at are doing th(> 

 business." 



Another Illustration, 



Anotlier illustration of wliat j)ub- 

 licity can do and is doing is the F. T. D. 

 That has become one f)f the stroncrest 

 atliliatcd societies of the S. A. F. and, 

 totlay, is really a tremendous power and 

 is bringing the florist more business, 

 ]irobably, than jiny other one of the 

 ."illiliatt'd societies. 1 think we all want 

 io take lUir liats off to this organiz.'it ion 

 for the way it has ibcen handling 

 and sliowino the possilHlities of trans- 

 tnitting orders from one town to an- 

 other. Tliere certainly is many a d<dlar 

 saved for the florists tlirough a pos- 

 sibility fif their customers being able to 

 supply friends in a ilistant city, and the 

 1\ T. 1). business, which is backed by 

 clean, clear cut methods — methods that 

 make for ever increasitig ]iossibilities — 

 is becoming not only national, but inter- 

 national, and will be mor(> so as the years 

 go by. 



Special Feature Days. 



All holidays or special days are days 

 that the florists want to encourage, as 

 this brings in extra business, creating a 

 market that otherwise would not be 

 possible. Such days as Christmas and 

 Easter do not need to be pushed nearly 



as much as some of the other holidays, 

 but we have otlier days that can be made 

 better florists ' days than they are at pres- 

 ent. Christmas and Easter, the florist, 

 as a rule, has jiretty nearly as much as 

 he can handle and handle satisfactorily. 



Mothers' day is, in certain localities, 

 fast approaching in volume Easter and 

 ('hristmas. To a great many florists it 

 is a more satisfactory day. In Cliicago, 

 for instance, and other cities of the west, 

 they fetd that Motiiers' day is a better 

 day than Easter, which is really surpris- 

 ing, cousidei'ing the short time that 

 .Mothers' day has been in existence — 

 they claiming that Mothers' day ap- 

 jteals more to the masses than to .just 

 flower buyers, and that is what we want 

 to strive for — more days to sell flowers 

 to the general public. 



You will ])robably remember that 1 

 spent about six months in Germany last 

 year in child welfare work and there 

 a birthday is the big day of the year of 

 everyone's life, and means more to them 

 than any otlier day. Flowers on such 

 occasions are given more than any other 

 one article. At one of the places where 

 I boarded, the lady was the recipient of 

 flowers from a great many of her friends 

 on her birthday, and I tiiink that she ap- 

 preciated tlie flowers more than any 

 other one thing she received. There is 

 no reason why the florists in this coun- 

 try should not encourage the observance 

 of birtlidays more, reminding their cus- 

 tomers to celebrate the birthdays of 

 those they love by sending a few flowers. 

 Then tiiey would hav(> more business ev- 

 1 ly day in the year and not a sjmsmodic 

 liusiness, as holidiiy business is at 

 jircsent. 



.\riiiistice ilay is another day that can 

 lie made a florists' day and, with the 



united efforts of the S. A. F. and of the 

 florists' state organizations, eventually 

 will be as popular and as good a day 

 for the florists as Memorial day is now, 

 which, in many localities, is a splendid 

 florists ' day. 



FLORIDA FLORISTS MEET. 



The first annual convention of the 

 Florida State llorists' Association w:is 

 held May 5, at Lakeland, Fla. 



After the address of welcome by E. K. 

 Uiddings, of the Westmoreland Floral 

 Gardens, Lakeland, to which F. W. 

 Fletcher, of Rosalind Gardens, Orlando, 

 responded, the president's address was 

 given by C. Leslie Whipp, of Mills the 

 Florist, Jacksonville, aiKl report of the 

 secretary-treasurer by N. A. Reasoner, 

 of the Royal Palm Nurseries, Oneco. 

 After the appointment of committees 

 and other preliminary business the fol- 

 owing addresses antl discussions were 

 heard: 



"Hasic I'rinciples Oovernins the Successful 

 Florist." by .S. .S. Pennock, president of the 

 S. A. F.. I'hiladelphia. 



"Commercial Rose (5rowinjr in Florida for Cut 

 Flower I'urposes." by Whealley & Losey, of the 

 Evergreen (Jardens, of Miami; discussion led by' 

 James Donn, Exotic (iardens, Miami; U. H. 

 Hume. (Jlen St. JIary Nurseries; \V'. U. (iriirin);, 

 Interstati' Nurseries. .Jacksonville, Fl;i. 



"Florists' I'lantinc Calendar for Cut Flowers." 

 by F. A. Knull. Knull Floral Co., Tampa; discus- 

 sion led by E. R. Giddintjs, Westmoreland Floral 

 iJardens, l,akeland; J. M. Caruthers, Violet Dell 

 Florist, Orlando; W. H. Curry, Deland. 



".Novelties 19i;2 Model," l)y J. M. Caruthers. 

 Violet Dell Florist, Orlando, Fla.; discussion led 

 by N. A. Reasoner. Royal ralm Nurseries. Oneco; 

 VV. R. Knull, Kinill Floral Co., Tampa: I.. F. 

 Darnell, Daytona Cut Flower Shop, Daytcuta. 



"Tlie Asparagus Growers' I'robleiii." by W. II. 

 Scliulz, Jr., .\iiburndale; discussion led bv F. W . 

 Fletcher, Orlan<lo; W. 1". Newell, Apopka; It J. 

 James, Yiilalia. 



"Itulb Opportunities," by C. S Tait, T;iit 

 Mros. Co., lirunswick, (Ja.; •liscussiou led by 

 C (ierbiiiK. Fernandina ; T. I.. Me.id. Oviedo; 

 T. K. GodlK^y, Waldo; t;eori;i' J liackiis. Stuart. 



TOTj 



a 



GROWING GREENS 



GROWING PLUMOSUS IN FLORIDA, 



On the Increase. 



The ovowin^ of Asparagus pluinosus 

 in i'lorida lias orown to lie an iinjior- 

 tant industry within the last few years. 

 The ."icre.-io,. is now considerably over 

 ."^00, and fiiiieli of this is not yet ]iroduc- 

 ing to c,i]i;ic-ity. The heavy shipments 

 from [•"lorid.-i Ii,'i\e r.'Hiidly decreased the 

 (|uantity ot iiitmiosus grown tinder 

 glass in the northern states, as the lat- 

 ter li;is f;iiliol 1(1 hold its own in com- 

 pel it ion. 



I lia\e visited iij.-niy of the ferneries 

 within the state and have found few on 

 the same type of soil. This necessitates 

 almost every grower's h.Tving to work 

 out his own production jiroblems, as no 

 gener;il rule would meet with success 

 on all thesii tyjies of soil. The effects 

 of various ajtplications of fertilizer can 

 be te.-ited out by using test and check 

 plots instejid of using the whole fernery 

 for experiment in e.ach case. 



All of us, however, have the common 

 red spider and several other annoying 

 pests to contend with. The spider can 

 be held in check by the sufficient use of 

 irrigation and spraying with a lime-sul- 



The paper of \V. H. Schulz, Jr . Anburndale. 

 Fla.. on "The rrohlems of the .Vsiiaragus I'lumo 

 sus Grfiwer in Florid.i." presentetl at the meet- 

 ing of the Florida Florists' Association at I**ike- 

 land. May 4. 



phiir stdution. The ;iriny worm, which 

 is ajit to catch us unaw.ares during the 

 fall months, can prove exceeilingly de- 

 structive. It can b(> handled better 

 in theory than in actii;il practice. It 

 will thrive on poisoned bait ordinarily 

 used for cutworms. A heavy spraying 

 of arsenate of lead seems to be the most 

 efTecti\e remedy. Grasshoppt>rs may he 

 controlbvl in the same wav. 



Problem of Marketing. 



The m.arketing of the constantly in- 

 cicjising sujiply of pbimosus is the big 

 jiroldeni that all growi>rs must prepare 

 to meet. That the market for plumosus 

 h,*is (|uite definite limitations iloes not 

 seem to be fully realized by some of 

 the newer growers, who have not fully 

 invi>stigated the marketing end of the 

 business. 



The price of plumosus, like that of 

 any other commodity, is governed by 

 the law of supply and demand, and the 

 grower is going to be the loser unless 

 he sees that the balance is properly 

 m.aintained. The most important prin- 

 cijile to follow is to put out a supply 

 for which there will be a demand and 

 this means "quality." Don't dump 

 culls o!i the market and expect to main- 

 tain that market. It is better all around 

 to ship half as much and get a fair re- 

 turn than load the market with inferior 

 goods. 



I make a practice of soliciting all of 



