August 21, 1913. 



The Florists' Review 



^a 



ac 



3C 



ac 



CD 



i 



9 



I THE MINNEAPOLIS i 

 \ X CONVENTION ^ 



r 



ac 



ac 



ac 



ac 



I 



\ 



TWENTY-NINTH ANNUAL MEETING OF THE 



SOCIETY OF AMERICAN FLORISTS 



BREAKS ALL RECORDS. 



THE NEXT MEETING WILL BE HELD AT BOSTON. 



OFFICERS FOR 1914: 



President, THEODORE WIRTH, of Minneapolis. 



Vice-president, PATRICK WELCH, of Boston. 



Secretary, JOHN YOUNG, of New York, N. Y. 



Treasurer, WM. F. KASTING, of BoHalo, N. Y. 



WELCOME! Society of American 

 Florists! It took 20,000 alter- 

 nantheras to spell out the words 

 in letters four feet high across the armory 

 lawn at Minneapolis, but there were 20,- 

 000 other Welcomes for the S. A. F. 

 this week. The national organization has 

 had many a cordial greeting in the years 

 it has been making its peripatetic way 

 back and forth across the country, but 

 it never was more warmly received than 

 has been the case this week. And it is 

 one absolute, dead, moral certainty that 

 no uninvited guest ever was more hospit- 

 ably received. 



The work the Minneapolis florists have 

 done is something wonderful. Not one 

 detail of the arrangements has been over- 

 looked. Nothing that any larger city 

 ever did has been omitted. And the gar- 

 den that first greets the view of the 

 visitor has created a veritable sensation. 

 It was the work of Theodore Wirth, 

 backed by the park facilities, and Mr. 

 Wirth, it will be remembered, recently 

 wrote a public letter from which it ap- 

 peared that he was not at all satisfied 

 with the results. The Review at the time 

 said that the showing would look much 

 better to the trade than it did to the 

 man responsible for it, and, in fact, it is 

 the hit of the convention. All the ad- 

 jectives in a big, fat dictionary have 

 been used in praising the brilliant show 

 and the almost perfect grounds. It will 

 be a rash man who will undertake to go 

 this garden one better. 



The attendance at this convention of 

 course is not up to last year; it couldn't 

 possibly be at a city 400 miles north of 

 the main traveled east and west lines; 

 but it is an attendance that will do the 

 S. A. F. a lot of good. While some of 

 the old faces are missing and the at- 

 tendance from the extreme east is light, 

 the florists of the great stretch of rich 

 country between Lake Michigan and the 

 mountains have turned out almost to a 

 man. For the great majority of them 

 it is their first convention. But it won't 

 be their last. Most of them will be 

 ready for a longer trip next year. 



The trade's display naturally suffered 

 in size from the same cause tliat cut down 

 tlie eastern attendance, but it is a gen- 

 eral remark that at no previous con- 

 vention has there been such a generally 



high average grade of stock shown. There 

 is not a great deal that is really new, 

 but there is a great deal that is really 

 fine. 



The Opening Ceremonies. 



In spite of the fact that the number 

 of visitors is less than in recent years, 

 the attendance at the opening session was 

 several times as large as last year at 

 Chicago. It shows one of the advantages 

 of meeting in a city where there are not 

 too many distractions. 



When Wm. Desmond, president of the 

 Minneapolis Florists' Club, called the 

 convention to order there were on the 

 stage all the officers of the society and 

 all the directors but one, together with 

 nine past presidents. No better showing 

 than that ever was made. Mr. Desmond 

 spoke briefly for his club and introduced 

 Vice-president Wirth to preside. Mr. 

 Wirth was received with great applause. 

 He said he had dreamed of having the S. 

 A. F. at Minneapolis some day, but had 

 not dared to hope that the dream would 

 come true for years. The formal address 

 of welcome was by Mayor Wallace G. 

 Nye, who not only paid the society the 

 compliment of being present in person 

 but made one of the finest talks the or- 

 ganization ever has listened to. He won 

 the attention of his audience at the 

 start by saying that this was the first 

 convention he could remember that not 

 only had asked nothing of the city, that 

 not only had brought its own interests, 

 but had brought entertainment and in- 

 struction for the public of Minneapolis. 



Theodore Wirth. 



(President-fleet of the Society of Aiiieiican Florists.) 



