18 



The Florists^ Review 



June 11, 1914. 



OPEN USTTEI^^'" KEADEEiB 



LOCATION COUNTS. 



The Memorial day business of the E. 

 & S. Flower Store, here in Missoula, 

 Mont., increased more than 200 per cent 

 over last year. We were located on the 

 main thoroughfare of the city last year, 

 but moved to the street on which the 

 electric light works, water works and 

 postoffice are located, and took posses- 

 sion of a store on the same side of the 

 street. The street is traveled by all 

 residents of the city at some time or 

 other. The United States land oflSce is 

 also located on the same si(J« of the 

 street, iand this brings in all t^e east- 

 erners who have settled on homesteads 

 Within a radius of 150 miles. Our ship- 

 ping business has increased to three 

 times its volume in previous years. We 

 pay one-half again as much rent as we 

 did in our former location, but our busi- 

 ness now justifies the difference. There 

 is a flower store on the opposite side of 

 the street that has been located there 

 for five years. The stock carried in it 

 is first-class, but the people come on 

 the busy side of the street. Though 

 the season was advanced one month by 

 the mild weather and outdoor flowers 

 were plentiful, our force of five sales- 

 . men were kept busy waiting on cus- 

 tomers all day on the Friday and Sat- 

 urday preceding Memorial day. Peonies, 

 lilacs, roses, carnations, stocks and snap- 

 dragons were cleaned up completely. 



I would advise all florists to get a 

 location where the people pass. 



F. X. Scully. 



THE lEIS COMING TO ITS OWN. 



I am glad that the iris is coming to 

 its own and that Dykes has got out his 

 splendid work, "The Genus Iris." It 

 is expensive, but then it will be a de- 

 lightful garden of flowers in itself. In 

 blooming time there is nothing like the 

 irises. They combine the beauty of 

 earth and sky; they weave into their 

 robes the hues of the sunset and all the 

 tints, colors and shadings of the rain- 

 bow. Monsignor is an image of splen- 

 dor; it heads the list; it is large and 

 brilliant, the strong stem staggering un- 

 der the weight of the massive flower. 

 There is Mithras, in garments of gold 

 and purple. Cypriana superba is a 

 queen. Perfection is resplendent in 

 shimmering purple. Fairy scents all 

 the air with the odor of peach blos- 

 soms. Many of the irises are exceed- 

 ingly fragrant and this adds greatly to 

 their value. ^ 



But you have got to drag Miss Preju- 

 dice out of that swamp. Her opinions, 

 based on sheer ignorance, are dense and 

 immovable. Suppose you sell her some 

 iris blooms; no matter how beautiful 

 they are, she comes at you with glaring 

 eyes, exclaiming, "You a florist! Yen, 

 who sell me nothing but flags, such as 

 grow in the swamps back home! " You 

 show her the beauty of them and she 

 says again, "Nothing but flags!" Yet 

 there are but few of the great iris 

 family that could live in water a week; 

 it would kill them. Most of them need 



dry land. I found one — a beauty, too — 

 growing on rocky and high places in the 

 Black Hills and it is doing beautifully 

 here. 



X^et us have a campaign of publicity. 

 I have Dykes' smaller work on the iris, 

 and the large one, I am sure, must give 

 both information and satisfaction. 



C. S. Harrison. 



AWABDINa A OONTBACT. 



Has any reader of The Eeview had 

 an experience similar to minef Until 

 three years ago there were two of us 

 in the florists' business in this town of 

 about 3,000 inhabitants, and our ceme- 

 tery board awarded to each of us the 

 planting of two beds in the cemetery, 

 having the same beds year after year. 

 Special stock was grown for this pur- 

 pose and was charged for by us at re- 

 tail prices for stock up to 3-ineh. On 

 stock above that size we allowed a re- 

 duction of 5 cents to 20 cents per plant, 

 as one bed was a good advertisement. 



These plants, where flowering plants 

 were used, had from one to three flow- 

 ers. The beds were to be, and were, 

 planted not earlier than May 28 of any 

 year, nor later than May 29. No charge 

 was made for preparing the beds and 

 planting. 



About May 1, 1912, we spoke to one 

 of the members of the board in regard 

 to the work and he replied, "Suppose 

 the same as usual, although we haven't 

 had a meeting." About May 20, how- 

 ever, the caretaker notified us that the 

 board had ordered him to award the job 

 to the lowest bidder, and the "other 

 fellow" got it, though he was not the 

 lowest bidder either, as the lowest bid- 

 der's offer was thrown out because he 

 had not specified the kind of plants he 

 would use. A year ago the caretaker 

 came and asked us for a bid, as he 

 called it, to be handed in to the board. 

 He made the rounds and then — please 

 take notice — on his way back he 

 stopped at the first place to give the 

 people there a chance to put in another 

 bid. 



That occurred under municipal own- 

 ership. Now, do not misunderstand me; 

 I am not "sore" or jealous because we 

 did not get the job. The questions that 

 I have in mind are whether or not we, 

 one and all, should have been required 

 to put up bonds for a specified amount 

 and whether all the bids should have 

 been sealed. . H. G. 



^ 





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^ 



THE RETAIL 



FLORIST I 



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COMMENCEMENT BOUQUETS. 



Getting the Business Back. 



One of the serious losses sustained by 

 the trade was that caused by the wide- 

 spread adoption of the rule prohibiting 

 sending of flowers to those completing 

 public school courses. Flowers still are 

 permitted to be sent to those who par- 

 ticipate in the commencement exercises 

 of private schools, but almost every- 

 where the sending of gifts to graduates 

 on the stage at public school affairs has 

 been tabooed. Those florists fortunate 

 enough to be located in the vicinity of 

 private schools still get a good bit of 

 business from that source, but by far 

 the larger part of this work has been 

 lost; where formerly thousands upon 

 thousands of gifts of flowers were sent 

 to those completing the public school 

 courses now scarcely any are sold, be- 

 cause of the rule that they must be 

 sent to the graduates' homes instead of 

 being presented on the stage. 



But T. J. Wolfe, of Waco, Tex., has 

 found the business coming back. This 

 is how: 



"Some ten or twelve years ago," 

 said Mr. Wolfe, "we did an immense 

 commencement exercise business. Then 

 came a public notice through the press 

 from the school board prohibiting bas- 

 kets and bunches of flowers at com- 

 mencement exercises and our trade fell 

 off to where we hardly sold a thing. 

 However, the schools closed June 4 this 



year and we did a great business in 

 corsage and hand bouquets. I presume 

 we sold more than we had ever done 

 in any five years combined. It seems 

 that the greatly increased popularity 

 of corsage and hand bouquets that near- 

 ly all florists have noted in the season 

 now closing has hit the public schools 

 as well, and there appears to be no ob- 

 jection to this use of flowers at these 

 affairs. ' ' 



Big Business in Sight. 



If every young woman completing 

 her grammar school or high school 

 course could be made to think that she 

 must wear a corsage bouquet or carry 

 a hand bouquet, it would mean the re- 

 turn to the florists of a large part of 

 the business that was lost. Graduating 

 classes grow larger and larger, and 

 schools more numerous. The use of 

 even the lowest priced bouquets would 

 mean the consumption of an immense 

 quantity of stock at a time when flow- 

 ers ordinarily are cheap. 



The greater number of schools are 

 yet to have their commencements — the 

 next two weeks will see many thousands 

 of them. If there does not seem to be 

 any sign of a call for bouquets to be 

 worn by the graduates, it will pay the 

 florist to start the fashion — he can do 

 it by advertising, or he can do it by 

 sending, on the great morning, bou-' 

 quets with his compliments to some of 

 the girls whose families are numbered 

 among his good customers. 



