38 



The Florists^ Review 



May 25, 1922 



(I 



Established 1897, 

 by O. L Orant. 



Pablished every Thursday by 

 Thk Florists' Publishino Co.. 



60O-fi6O Oazton Balldln? , 

 008 Soutb Dearborn St., Ohlcaffo. 

 Tel., Wabash 819(5^^ ^^^ 

 Beirlstered cable addfeas, A 

 Florvlew, Oblcago. ' 



Entered as second class matter 

 Dec. 8, 1897, at the post-omce at Ohl- 

 caffo. 111., under the Act of March 

 8. 1879. 



Subscription price, f2.00 a year. 

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



Advertlslnir rates quoted on 

 request. Only strictly trade ad- 

 Tertlslnc accepted. 



(t 



KESULTS. 



We give them. You get tlieiii. 



We both have tliein. 



Collect the bills for lioliday sales bo- 

 fore they get cold. 



Memorial day will bring heary business, 

 it is anticipated. Then a long wait till 

 the next big trade day. But don 't wait; 

 push sales every day. 



Who wished carnations on mother? 

 Ninety-nine women out of lOd will choose 

 roses if you give them the run of a tlower 

 shop. It is usually a man who ])icks 

 carnations. 



Mo.ST business men have legitimate need 

 to borrow money occasionally, but it is a 

 mistake to conduct business expansion too 

 largely with borrowed capital. It is wiser 

 to earn the money before it is spent. 



Beddino stock of best (juality is none 

 too plentiful at this time, when planting 

 is just getting under way in many jdaces. 

 Unfavorable weather has delayed it to a 

 considerably later date than usual. 



Hk.he'.s a hint for the local co(">|>erati\c 

 jjublicity organizations or tlorists' clubs: 

 Get some of your best talkers to give radio 

 phone addresses on seasonable llowcr 

 topics from the broadcasting station in 

 your city. 



'Phkuk arc evidences of a gradual slow- 

 ing up in the payment of bills, notably 

 in the ca.ses of florists who do not make 

 special effort to collect accounts \\heri 

 they are <lue. In order to keep one's own 

 record good, it is necessary to inak(> otiieis 

 jiay jiromptly. 



Having benefited the S. \. V. and the 

 growers' organization by his extensive 

 tour of the west, J. V. Ammaiui is start- 

 ing this week on a missionary trip among 

 the I'ctaiiers, covering the southern states 

 as field manager of the V. T. ]). Mr. 

 Ammann still holds his ollice as exei-utivc 

 secretaiy of the National Flower (Iiowcis' 

 Association. 



More wcndd be done to dispel tlie idci 

 that the carnation is the "official"' llowei 

 for Mothers' day if the sketches of caina- 

 tion blooms were omittcMl from florists' 

 advertisements at this holiday. It is a 

 (|ueer freak that nine-tenths of the ad- 

 vertisements in which florists declare that 

 the carnation is not tlie only flow(>r with 

 which the day may be ol)serv(>d, include 

 a sketch of three or four carnations in 

 a prominent jilace. 



Reports of this Mothers' day business, 

 on page 68 and following, contain some 

 suggestions for bettering the holiday's 

 trade next year. 



Don 't let summer creep ujion you with 

 your ledger full of uncollected accounts. 

 Sjjring flowers are long dead when the 

 vacationists return in autumn. 



Correspondents and advertisers are 

 asked to send copy for next week's issue 

 one day early, so that The Eeview may 

 be put in the mail at the usual time. 

 The holiday. May 30, makes it necessary 

 to advance the printers' schedule one day. 



Wonder if they got the example from 

 our F. H. B.? "As a quarantine measure 

 against agricultural pests," reads a dis- 

 patch, "the Peruvian government has 

 prohibited the importation of cotton seed 

 into that country. This {>rohibition will 

 be strictly enforced." 



PERHAPS SOME READER CAN. 



' ' (!an you tell me where I can get a 

 |)air of i)runing shears which has two 

 cutting blades instead of the usual one 

 cutting bla de?" 



ATTER MOTHERS' DAY. 



From reports regarding Mothers' day 

 this year, two lessons appear conspicu- 

 ous. One is that merchants in other 

 lines of business are somewhat envious 

 of the way in which florists have cor- 

 nered practically all the business occa- 

 sioned by the holiday, and the candy 

 men, in particular, will not be slow to 

 take advantage of an opportunity to 

 divert some of our business to them- 

 selves by pressing the charges of prof- 

 iteering which crop up annually. Miss 

 .\nna Jarvis is no longer much listened 

 to by the newspaper editors, but the 

 candy merchants who use extensive ad- 

 vertising space are able to make their 

 influence felt when there appears just 

 ]>rovocation. 



The other lesson is that the carnation 

 must be put still farther into the back- 

 ground at this day, since it is on this 

 flower that the charges of profiteering 

 are, in almost every instance, based. 

 We must seek to remove the idea that 

 the carnation is mother's favorite 

 flower — wliicli was never the case, since 

 nearly every woman will choose a rose, 

 while a m.an picks a carnation — and 

 make the observance of the day cover 

 any and all flowers alike. 



The attitude of the ])ublic ]iress is 

 indicated by the following paragraph, 

 which ajipeared in a column of comment 

 on the back ])age of the Chicago Even- 

 ing American, May 18: 



rUOFITEEKINi; ON MOTIIEUS' CAKN.VTIONS. 



If cprtaiii florists iirofitorr .ncniii on flowers ns 

 thiy (lid lust Suiiiliiy, wo iiioUlcrs of i)ulilic 

 sciitimciit may sliirt n movo to have Mothers' 

 (lay observed witli laiuly rather tlian llower«. 

 We are slow to protest on prices, hnt when 

 iiiotliers' ciirnalioiis are Miiirke<l up to .*2.C0 Jier 

 dozen we throw away the horn and ri'aeh for 

 a briik. 



If W(> take to heart the two lessons 

 al)ove noted, we shall not he called upon 

 to dodge bricks. 



HOW ABOUT YOUR HANDS? 



Perhajis yon remember about the lit- 

 tle boy who came to school with hands 

 and face that looked as though he had 

 collected all the dirt on the street? The 

 teacher said to him, "Ben, hold up 

 your liandl" And Ben obediently 

 raise<l one hand high in the air, stuffing 

 the other under the desk meanwhile. 



.\fter lecturing liim on the glories of 



cleanliness until his uplifted arm was 

 like to drop off, she said to him: 



"Now if you can find a dirtier hand 

 than that in the room, I won't send 

 you home to wash yours." 



Whereupon Ben pulled his other hand 

 from under the desk, raised it and won 

 the argument. 



Undoubtedly there is a greenhouse 

 dirtier than yours, unless it is ex- 

 cessively ill kept, but customers' asso- 

 ciation of cleanliness with flowers, not 

 to speak of the freedom of your plants 

 from insects and disease, requires that 

 even the slight untidiness apparent in 

 your establishment be remedied. We 

 can 't be too scrupulous about it, in 

 store or greenhouse. 



SELLING MORE PLOWERS. 



The florists' trade has advanced rap- 

 idly in the last half-dozen years, so 

 rapidly that, for various causes, it is 

 coming more and more into the public's 

 notice. In the last year and a half 

 merchants in other lines of business 

 have regarded us with unusual atten- 

 tion, because sales of flowers kept up 

 at profitable prices when other mer- 

 chandise was gathering dust on the 

 shelves. 



Undoubtedly one of the most potent 

 factors in this advance of the trade 

 to the limelight has been its collective 

 advertising. Much has been said about 

 the influence of our slogan, but its 

 greatest power lay in making adver- 

 tisers out of florists who had never 

 used printers' ink before. The local 

 cooperative campaigns have had a no- 

 table influence also, both in the effects 

 they themselves have produced on the 

 public and in their stimulation of indi- 

 vidual retailers to more extensive use 

 of newspaper space. 



Some recognition of this progress on 

 the part of florists was made in a Chi- 

 cago newspaper last week in the fol- 

 lowing paragraph: 



ADVERTISING BRINGS PROSPERITY. 



Florists tell me the people are bnylng more 

 flowers now than ever. It is the resnlt of ad- 

 vertisinfi. Trade advertisinR, mass advertising, 

 is ns important as individnal advertising. Each 

 line of linsiness shonld have its own publicity 

 tinrenu, its own central agency, which should be 

 working to se<iire favor and prosju-ritv for that 

 whole line of trade. 



'THANK YOU.' 



One of the pleasant features of pub- 

 lishing The Eeview is that so many ad- 

 vertisers in paying bills add some word 

 of appreciation for the service ren- 

 dered. Usually it is the seller who says 

 "Thank you" when the money passes; 

 readers will agree that in their business 

 experience it is quite unusual for the 

 buyer to say "Thank you" when he 

 pays. But it is a daily occurrence with 

 Review patrons. Like this: 



Enclosed find check to cover .\pril invoice. 1 

 am sold out, thank you. so please cancel ad and 

 send bill to date. — H. E. -Meailer, Dover, N. U., 

 .May 15, 1SI22. 



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. 



S. W., O. — Pack well and send to this 

 oflfice. 



H. H. K., Tex. — ^laginella Emmeli- 

 ana. 



P. M. G., 111. — You have a heavy in- 

 festation of chrysanthemum midge. 

 Measures for its extermination have 

 been given lately in The Review. 



