June 18, 1914. 



The Florists^ Review 



NIFTY NOVELTIES 

 MADE TO ORDER 



How a brainy Retailer meets the continual short-notice demands 

 of his customers for new and artistic ideas in flower arrangement 



I HE scorching sun was soft- 

 ening the asphalt, and New 

 York 's reputation as a sum- 

 mer resort was going 

 "where the woodbine twiu- 

 eth, " on the June day the 

 interviewer made his way up the shady 

 side of Fifth avenue to West Fifty- 

 ninth street, across to where the tow- 

 ering pile of the Plaza shone like 

 the snow-clad cliffs of an Alpine moun- 

 tain, and turned in at the handsome 

 store of Max Schling, society florist. 

 Inside stood the head of the house, 

 mopping the moisture from his brow. 

 To the greeting of the reporter, "Fine 

 weather. Max," he replied, with a ve- 

 hemence that made the perspiration flow 

 even faster than before: 



"Fine weather! For icemen fine 

 weather, not for florists!" 



"But business is keeping up well with 

 you, isn't it?" was the query. 



"Yes, business is good, but do you 

 think because business is good already 

 we don't have to work?" 



"Well, if business is coming along in 

 good shape, you don 't have to plug like 

 you would if you had to hustle 'round 

 after it." 



"Some people which find business 

 that way there might be, but not me. I 

 have troubles which make me sweat all 

 the time." 



"Why is that, if business is good?" 



Why Betailers Worry- 



"People must have too much. Every- 

 body in New York and all the strangers 

 which come they all want what some- 

 one else didn't have. The last three or 

 four years they got so used to me bring- 

 ing out once in a while a little novelty 

 that now they simply come in and tell 

 me plain out, 'I want something new, 

 what others have not got. Can you get 

 me up something?' I am a Austrian, 

 a Viennese, but just the same I have to 

 say at times, 'That beats the Dutch,' 

 and I would have to say it even if I 

 would be Irish. At times I feel just so 

 hot as I did when a little boy I had hay 

 fever and they gave me some hot tea 

 and covered me up. Because really I 

 don 't know anything new any more, but 

 if I tell them that, they don't want to 

 believe it. 



' ' The day before yesterday I was just 

 in such a pinch. A customer she comes 

 in and tells me, 'I got to have twelve 



different pieces for one steamer and I 

 want something new. ' She says, ' I want 

 something that you did not make for 

 anybody and I went something that the 

 people can use on board the steamer; I 

 want flowers in and out, I want it to 

 look handsome and I want it to keep. ' 



Special Prices for Florists. 



"After I listened to all she wanted 

 I felt so warm I just took my hat and 

 skidooed, and I walked and walked, 

 until I came to Bloomingdale's, where 

 Trepel hangs out. I stopped and 

 watched Trepel sell geraniums at 10 

 cents apiece, and nice plants at that, 

 and jokingly I went up and asked one 

 of the salesmen: 



" 'Can you sell me one?' 

 " 'Yes,' he says, 'for 10 cents.' 

 ' ' ' Can 't you make me a special price ? 

 I want it for another florist. ' 



" 'Well, you better go upstairs to the 

 greenhouse; they sell them up there in 

 the wholesale department by the dozen 

 and hundred.' 



' ' When I came upstairs, I asked them, 

 'How much do you sell geraniums to 

 florists?' 



Max Scbliag^Picked up the Idea of this Novel Steamer Basket in a New York MilliDery Department. 



