May 14, 1914. 



The Florists^ Review 



21 



WHAT TEXAS PAYS FOR FLOWERS 



TO GROWERS OUTSIDE THE STATE 



l^:^s:2d 



K are now in the florists' in- 

 dustry in this state. Eight 

 years ago there were forty- 

 two people growing flowers 

 for the market in Texas. 

 This number includes the 

 greenhousemen and the nur- 

 serymen who grew a small number 

 of flowers. At the present time there 

 are ninety-eight commercially engaged 

 in the growing of flowers. [E. C. Kerr 

 later stated there are 265 in the state.] 

 This indicates the growth and value of 

 this industry. 



Florists Classified. 



The florists of Texas are too depend- 

 ent upon outside florists for plants 

 which they ought to grow themselves. 

 Since I was assigned this subject, I 

 secured from the express companies a 

 statement of the number of shipments 

 of cut flowers into this state, and the 

 immensity of that business was astound- 

 ing to me. I confined my investigation 

 to those flowers that can be grown in 

 Texas and should be grown in Texas 

 and paid no attention whatever to those 

 plants that are not adapted to our cli- 

 matic environments. 



In investigating this matter I have 

 depended upon express shipments, be- 

 cause they form a record of everything 

 that comes into the state, and the values 

 placed on these shipments are a matter 

 of record in the office of the general 

 superintendent. I have divided the flo- 

 rists in the state into three classes — A, B 

 and C. In class A are the florists who 

 maintain a store in the city, where they 

 display their cut flowers. Class B com-' 

 prises those who maintain a display 

 house at the greenhouses and deliver 

 plants and cut flowers throughout the 

 territory which they cover. Class C 

 includes all the others who grow plants 

 for profit. 



Carnations and Roses Shipped In. 



The florists in class A last year pur- 

 chased, as shown by the records, 2,200,- 

 000 carnations, for which they paid, on 

 the average, .3 cents each. This number 

 does not embrace the purchases of class 

 B or of Class C; $66,000 is the value 

 placed on the shipments that came into 

 this state to class A alone. I followed 

 up a shipment that came to Charles 

 Ehlers, of Houston. T saw^tJbe open box 

 and then went to see the value of the 

 box given to the express company by 

 the man who shipped it in, and I found 

 that the value wag about- 60 per cent of 

 the purchase price. I went to H. H. 

 Kuhlmann's, who had received two 

 boxes of cut flowers, and the value was 

 48 per cent of the real price. 



The florists in class A each pay per 

 month $200, on the average, for roses. 

 There are twenty-five florists in class A; 

 there are really twenty-seven florists in 

 this state who maintain stores, but one 



Kxtrncts from tlie RfldresH on "Wlint tlio Stato 

 nppnrtriH'nt of AKricnlture Can Do to Assist tlio 

 State Florists' Association," (jtvcn by Sam ITlxoti 

 before the Texas State P'lorlsts' Association at 

 Waco, May 4. 



or two of them only do so a part of the 

 season, so I have cut down the number 

 to twenty-five. They pay for roses, 

 those twenty-five men, according to the 

 value placed by the shippers, $60,000 an- 

 nually. Every one of those roses, ex- 

 cept perhaps one variety, could and 

 should be grown in this state. 



Many Lilies From Outside. 



There is nothing easier to grow and 

 propagate than Easter lilies, and yet the 

 florists in class A shipped into the state 

 last year, according to the records of 

 the express company, 37,500 Easter 

 lilies, for which they paid, on the aver- 

 age, 1214 cents each. There is not a 

 florist in this state with $10,000 in- 

 vested in his business who could not 

 supply all the. Texas florists with all the 

 Easter lilies they need in their busi- 

 ness. 



I found that these twenty-five florists 

 are also buying Easter lily pot plants. 



"The ONE Paper 

 EVERYBODY Reads" 



When the Texas florists gathered 

 at Waco last week to or};ani/,e the 

 association, I announced at each 

 meeting that I was prepared to re- 

 ceive subscriptions to The Review, 

 and I asked each one individually, 

 but every florist I spoke to already 

 wa* a subscriber to The Review. 

 You can say on my authority that 

 The Review certainly covers Texas. 



T. .1. WOI.KK. 



Waco, Texas, May 7. HI 14. 



Review representatives everywhere are 

 well known members of the trade. Pay 

 no subscription moneys to unknown can- 

 vassers. 



which they can grow, last year shipping 

 into this state, as shown by the express 

 receipts, over 5,000 plants, for which 

 they paid about the same price as they 

 do for the cut flowers. 



Then we have the chrysanthemums. 

 The records show that the florists of 

 this class purchased, on an average, 

 1,500 chrysanthemums each from out- 

 side florists. That has nothing to do 

 at all with the florists in this state who 

 sujjply other florists with chrysanthe- 

 mums. We have two or three florists 

 in Texas who have supplied as many as 

 8,000 to 10,000 of these flowers rhem- 

 selvos, but my figures embrace ship- 

 ments from outside the state, amount- 

 ing to $9,425, which the florists of class 

 A alone have paid for chrysanthemums. 

 1 do not believe there is a state in the 

 TTnion better adaptetl to the growing of 

 clirysaiitheniinns than the state of 

 Texas, junl yet, in the face of all these 



facts, our florists are forced from neces- 

 sity, if they supply the demand, to send 

 out nearly $10,000 a year for the supply- 

 ing of their customers with this particu- 

 lar plant. 



Valley and Palms. 



Of lilies of the valley, which can 

 be cheaply and profitably grown in this 

 statte, there were, in round numbers, 

 40,000 shipped into Texas in 1913. I 

 have the records, the total of all of 

 which for these twenty-five florists, ac- 

 cording to the shippers' value, was 

 $1,400. 



Then there are palms; everyone who 

 has attempted to grow these knows that 

 there is no section of the United States 

 where they can be grown with more 

 profit and with greater ease than in 

 Texas, and yet there were shipped into 

 Texas by these twenty-five florists, last 

 year, 6,250 palms, for which they paid 

 from $1.50 to $15.00 each. The average 

 price, according to reports of the value 

 placed on the shipments of these palms, 

 is $4 each, making $25,000 paid by those 

 twenty-five florists for palms to supply 

 their customers, when they have every 

 facility for growing the plants them- 

 selves. 



Shipments by Classes B and C. 



Now we come to class B. Class B 

 embraces the florists who do not main- 

 tain a store in the city in which they 

 do business. They purchased last year, 

 according to the reports of the express 

 offices, 733,000 carnations, for which 

 they paid $22,000. The florists in class 

 B paid, according to the records, $22,000 

 last year for cut roses. They paid 

 $1,562 for Easter lilies, $208 for pot 

 lilies, $3,162 for chrysanthemums and 

 $466 for valley. These are the ship- 

 pers' values on them. The florists paid 

 a great deal more than that, but that is 

 the value shown by the receipts at the 

 express offices. They also paid $8,333 

 for palms. 



Now comes class C, which includes all 

 the florists and nurserymen in the state 

 not embraced in classes A and B. For 

 carnations, they paid $10,268; roses, 

 $4,000; Easter "lilies, $750; Easter lily 

 pot plants, $500; chrvsanthemums, 

 $1,000^ valley, $800, and palms, $3,000. 



\ "What the Total Is. 



The florists of this state purchased 

 last year carnations, at the value placed 

 by those who shipped them, amounting 

 to $98,000; roses, $86,000; Easter lilies, 

 $6,996; Easter lily pot plants, $1,333; 

 chrysanthemums, $13,587; valley, $2,666, 

 and palms, $36,333, making a grand 

 total of $244,915 paid out by the florists 

 of Texas, accor«nng to the shippers' 

 values. ''"^ 



I stated in the beginning that the 

 service that the department of agricul- 

 ture and the Agriculture and Mechanics 

 College can render to the florists of 

 Texas depends almost entirely on the 

 financial help given those departments. 

 1 dare s.iy that if our experimental st«- 

 fContlnned on pa«Y 88. 1 



