20 



The Florists' Review 



APBIL 7, 1921 



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TATE'S TIPS 



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RESULTS OF ADVERTISING. 



I All Industries Wat€h Florists. 



; Tliori" is ;iii old sayiii>j, "Blow your 

 .own horn, or no one will blow it for 

 you." Recent issues of The Kevicw 

 have called attention to the fact that 

 the florists liave started other industries 

 to talking about them, first, the Confec- 

 tioners' .Journal, then the New York 

 Garment News. Tliese arc only two in- 

 stances; there are many similar ones. 

 This is absolutely free advertising of 

 the best kind. The question the writer 

 , wants to ask is, what is the reason for 

 . these two publications talking about our 

 ■ industry? We all know that the Confec- 

 itioners' Journal would hardly go out of 

 its way to give its trade's closest com- 

 ; petitors the advantage of free adver- 

 , tising. The florist has been blowing his 

 own horn in the use of the slogan, ''Ray 

 It with Flowers. ' ' lie has been blowing 

 it so hard that it is beginning to attract 

 the attention of others, and is not this 

 just the primary motive in advertising.' 

 ' It was only recently that a moving 

 picture film came to a certain city for a 

 week's engagement. It opened Monday 

 evening; Wednesday evening a promi- 

 • nent clergyman went to see it, mu\ diir 

 ■ing tlie second act he left the house in 

 disgust. The clergyman then went to the 

 trouble of calling up the leading news- 

 paper of the city and registering a pro 

 test. This ])aper, ])efore printing his 

 protest, called up the manager of the 

 theater, informed him of the report 

 given regarding the film and the source 

 from which it had been received, and 

 asked if he had any comments he would 

 like to add. Tlie manager rculied that 

 he had none, but asked the paper to giv(> 

 the minister's protest as much space 

 and as prominent a ))osition as possible. 

 This the newspajier did. What was th<- 

 result of this protest? Instead of run- 

 ning one week, the house turned jieoplc 

 away for six weeks, with two shows a 

 day. This was just a case of getting 

 other ]>eo))le talking about you. Had 

 that show de]iended ii])on its own advor- 

 tLsing it would not have gone over its 

 one week's engagement. 



Free Advertising Appreciated. 



The ]ioint I wish to enii)Iiasizc is tli:it 

 wliile the florist has been blowing his 

 own horn, it looks to the writer as 

 though he was getting short of wind. 

 The writer has seen " Say It with Flow- 

 ers " used as much outside the trade as 

 he has seen it in florists' paid advei- 

 tisements. It has l)een frequently em 

 ployed by cartoonists, and in the humnr- 

 ous parts of the daily papers. 



This is all the best sort of publicity. 

 It would be impossible to pay these men 

 for using the slogan in their cartoons. 

 Then, did you ever stop to think that a 

 thing must have a prominent place in 

 the mind of the public before such per- 

 sons will use it? With the compara- 

 tivclv small nmount of publicity this 

 slogan has had, it is known throughout 

 the world. 



Onlv recently I was talking with a 

 live publicity man, who said that if some 



l)rivate corporation had such a slogan 

 and had it copyrighted, it woul«l be on 

 every telegra]>h pole from New York to 

 San Francisco. Yet this valuable asset 

 of ours is lying almost idle. 



Is the Business Orowing Too Fast? 



In a con\ersation with a florist not 

 long ago, we were talking about adver- 

 tising. This florist said he could see no 

 use in paying out moaey for advertising 

 when the florists all over the country 

 (•ould at that time hardly supply the 

 demand. Now, if this industry has 

 reached its limit, then this is certainly 

 a good argument. But this is not the 

 case; the florists' business is still in its 

 infancy. We need only look " gt its 

 growth during the last twenty-five 

 years; during the last five of t3iem its 

 growth has been almosfaB much as dur-" 

 ing the other twenty. . If this is not due 

 to publicity, then what' has caused it? 

 But our industry is going to grow much 

 larger than it is today; it has been 

 demonstrated time and again that flow- 

 ers have now reached" a place in the 

 lives of the American people where they 

 are a necessity. We need only go back 

 a few years to the time of the war, when 

 people were economizing in every con- 

 ceivable thing. They were wearing 

 clothing until it was threadbare.' Why, 

 wo were even short on rations because 



of high prices! Yet during that period 

 the florists were doing more business 

 than they had ever done before. 



Now, let us be honest with ourselves. 

 There is a scriptural quotation which 

 says, "Know the truth and the truth 

 shall make you free." Let us look for 

 a moment at the cause of the shortage 

 of stock and consequent high prices that 

 liavo been occurring from time to time 

 of late. Is the business outgrowing 

 those who are now engaged in it? Are 

 we afraid to go out and tell the public 

 we have the greatest commodity on 

 earth, for fear if we do the public will 

 demand it and we shall not be able to 

 suppl}' it ? Let us remember that the eyes 

 of the commercial world are upon our 

 . industry. The small amount of advertis- 

 ing we have already done is responsible 

 for this. If Ave cannot meet this demand 

 that has been created, then other in- 

 terests are going to walk in and give the 

 l)ublic what they want. The business 

 world is awake to the fact that florists 

 have a good proposition. 



We have just been through an Easter 

 season; more flowers were sold this year 

 than ever before. I found stores closed 

 to the public as early as 2 o'clock the 

 Saturday afternoon preceding Easter. I 

 am not condemhrng these stores for clos- 

 ing, for what else were they to dof 

 Plants were all sold and cut flowers all 

 ordered. I heard people begging for 

 stock for corsage work, when there was 

 none to be had. A further point I wish 

 to make is, the growers knew Easter was 

 • coming and that there would be a hig 

 demand, but from appearances the de- 

 mand went beyond their expectations, or 

 else "someone was asleep at the 

 switch." Tate. 



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s»& COOMBS' RISE i3«? 



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WHAT FIFTY YEARS WILL DO. 



The Growth of the Coombs. 



.\o doubt, florists who plan to attend 

 the convention of the American Carna- 

 tion Society at Hartford, Conn., next 

 .laTiuaiv, will lie interested to know 

 more of the famous firm with which the 

 vice-i)resid('nt of the society, N. C. 

 Osborn, is connected. The firm of 

 Coombs the Florist is one of the largest 

 .■ind best known in New England. Tliere 

 ;n'(> two stores at Hartford conducted 

 under the name of Coombs, Ijcading 

 Florist, and one, opened in November, 

 li)2(t, at New Haven, called Coombs' 

 Flower Shop. The New Haven Register 

 III March 2~) contained an interesting 

 history of the Coombs growth and also 

 showed portiaits of John and .lose]ili 

 J' Coombs. 



The Coombs business was established 

 in. Hartford more than fifty years ago 

 by John Coombs with one small green- 

 ho)ise on Benton street, from which Mr. 

 Coombs did all his retailing until about 

 twenty years later, when he opened his 

 first store, at Main and Grove streets. 

 His love for his flowers and his work 

 soon became noted and in ten years the 

 business had so outgrown the quarters 

 that a larger store had to be secured. 

 This was opened in the Universalist 

 IniiMing, which gave way for, the erec- 



tion of the Travelers' block in 1912, ne- 

 cessitating the removal of the Coombs 

 establishment to the Hartford Trust 

 Co. building. Even larger quarters were 

 finally located at 741 Main street, the 

 present situation. That didn't meet re- 

 quirements; so, in 1915, a second store 

 was opened in the Hotel Garde building 

 at ,1()4 Asylum street under the manage- 

 ment of V. H. Olmstead, who has bee« 

 with the Coombs organization for thirty 

 years. The second store was remodeled 

 in 1919 and now presents one of the 

 handsomest establishment.s in the state. 



Of course the little greenhouse didn't 

 keep up with the demands of the stores 

 and an entirely new range was erected 

 on South street and is one of the best 

 equipped and most up-to-date in the 

 country. It was especially designed for 

 the growing of roses, carnations and 

 sweet peas, and placed under the direc- 

 tion of N. C. Osborn. At present about 

 10,000 roses and 20,000 carnations are 

 grown annually in these greenhouses. 

 The original Benton street range is still 

 under the direction of the founder, John 

 Coombs, who is yet active in his work 

 .ind takes as much pleasure in his 

 blooms as he did the day he started. 



Coombs has won national recognition 

 for the quality of the carnations grown. 

 The first exhibit at the Massachusetts 

 Horticultural Society exhibition in Bos- 

 ton won first prize. In January of this 



