10 



The Florists' Review 



«• ••. 



^ IJpLy 2S, 1014. 



^Ji : 



in this line will be productive of re- 

 sults at this time of year. It will even 

 pay the retailer who is not in the habit 

 of covering his clientele in this manner 

 to experiment with it along this line. 

 There are many people in this world 

 whose only reason for not doing things 

 is that they have never done them 

 before and therefore do not "know 

 the ropes." Ignorance is the biggest 

 block in the path of progress, and it 

 is up to the progressive retailer to 

 push this block out of the path of 

 his customers in so far as it affects 

 liis business. 



Many Other Ways. 



Florists in the larger cities have 

 found that newspaper advertisements 

 on this subject bring returns at this 

 time of year, and perhaps they would 

 prove advantageous to oth&rs. It is 

 probably more effective in proportion 

 to the expense for the retailer to work 

 with his own patrons. In some stores 

 display cards call attention to this fa- 

 cility at customers' command. Lists 

 of steamer sailings, such as are fur- 

 nished in the retailers' department in 

 The Review, are often posted in stores 

 or displayed, especially at this time, 

 in the windows. 



There is, of course, the display win- 

 dow to be called into service, and the 

 decorator with some spare time on his 

 hands cannot be better employed than 

 in arranging a display to feature the 

 steamer business. Various suggestions 

 along this line have been given from 

 time to time in these columns. It is 

 easy to arrange a cool window, pre- 

 senting a miniature model of an ocean 

 "greyhound" at its dock and a flo- 

 rist's automobile alongside with a loa<l 

 of flowers. The water, with a few 

 waves upon its surface perhaps, will bo 

 a welcome sight to the hot pedestrians 

 who pass the window these days. They 

 will stop to enjoy its cool appearance, 



, as well as the artistic touches that the 

 ingenious mind of the individual deco- 



. rator will suggest to him to add. They 

 will study the intricate construction of 



. the steamship, and by • the time they 

 have forgotten the heat of the day and 

 are ready to pass on they will be think- 

 ing of a few friends of theirs who are 

 going abroad. If the florist has a few 

 display cards in the window, showing 

 how simple it is for them to remem- 

 ber these departing friends, orders are 

 likely to follow shortly. 



This is the time for pushing this 

 line and the summer months will prove 



' to be not so dull as usual to the re- 

 tailer who goes after steamer orders 

 from his patrons. That twenty per 

 cent is a good profit for the labor and 

 outlay involved, and an order gained 

 this year will probably bring another 

 next vear. 



LAGGING BEHIND. 



"Kindly accept my thanks r^v the 

 article, 'Live Windows for the Dull 

 Season,' " writes Albert Pochelon, sec- 

 retary of the F. T. D., "as it certainly 

 will stir up even the most sleepy re- 

 tailer and the results for the florists' 

 trade surely will be noticed. The sell- 

 ing end in the florists' trade has not 

 kept up with the producing, or growing, 

 end and if the retailers do not find new 

 outlets and ways and means to sell the 

 growers' product, I am afraid some- 

 thing unpleasant will happen." 



The "sofliething unpleasant" to 

 which Mr. Pochelon refers doubtless 



will be, first, the multiplication of t^e 

 department store bargain sales of flow- 

 ers, which do not 4^&J;he growers the 

 cost of productionl^^^ 



WHY WE GO AHEAD. 



It has become a habit of the retailers 

 in all parts of the country to greet the 

 supply salesman with the queiy, "What 

 have you new?" To interest them, an 

 article must be really new. This goes 

 to show the ever-increasing progressive- 

 ness of the trade and explains wBy in 

 nearly every town where a florist is 

 located, even if it has only a population 

 of 5,000 or so, there is an attractive, 

 well-kept store in connection with the 

 greenhouses. In the store are carried 

 complete lines of chiffons, ribbons, cor- 

 sage effects and accessories, baskets of 

 all the latest styles and shapes, table 

 novelties and supplies of all kinds. 

 There is nothing too new or too good 

 for these florists, "for in their business 

 they are all progressives, no matter what 



Mrs. Bagley's Window Box. 



they may be in politics. For competi- 

 tion in this trade lies nowadays not in 

 cutting prices, but in producing work 

 of a superior artistic quality. 



Some people have, at various times, 

 drifted into the florists' business, who 

 have tried to handle flowers on a 

 strictly mercantile basis, selling flowers 

 and plants merely as so much merchan- 

 ilise. What were the results? These 

 flower sellers would, for a while, sell 

 a large amount of stock, but on the 

 narrowest of margins. They get the 

 re])utation of being cheap and are 

 forced to buy lower grades of stock to 

 keep in business. When daily sales 

 slump, not o^ly their i)rofit but their 

 capital goes into the dump when they 

 are foreec^ to throw^wayStheir stock,* 

 which is too poor to keep at all. So 

 small is the margin in this sort of busi- 

 ness that a few losses cut down the 

 capital, and when credit- is shut off, 

 these tradesmen struggle for a time and 

 then quit, broke and disgusted. 



But the florist who develops liis art is 

 the one who succeeds. He educates his 

 jiatrons to a standard that becomes 



higher and higher, and thereby creaks 

 a demand "for work that is novel and 

 unii^ue. His profits cpme not from liis 

 flowers hut fr'om his art, and since<rtlu re 

 is no limit to thi^.the range of prii es 

 naturally is -greater. This progressive 

 characteristic of the retailer is in cvi- 

 dence in all parts qf the country. I'or 

 this reason the patron of thte florist iu 

 ii remote spot is fully as ^ble to i^et 

 good work a^^new styles in anythiag 

 in made-up flowers as ^is the millionaire 

 patron of the metropolitan retailer.* 

 Well kept stores, good stocks of staple 

 and fancy flowers and plants, the tele- 

 graph delivery of orders and advertis- 

 ing, as well^s up-to-date supplies and 

 high-|;rade workmanship, all have done 

 their part in making the florists' the 

 most artistic -and progressive of trades. 

 Samuel Seli^iau. 



NEW IDEA IN WINboW b6xES. 



That the inventive mmd is not a fac- 

 ulty confined exclusively to those of the 

 sterner sex is proved by the work of 

 Mrs. M. D. Ba^ey, the proprietor of 

 Bagley 's Floral Place, at Anamosa, la., 

 in designing the 'Window box shown in 

 the accompanying illustration. This 

 - particular one is not well filled with 

 plants, as one person after another wants 

 jdknts from it to use in their own win- 

 dow boxes and, says Mrs. Bagley, "of 

 course I sell them the plants, as that's 

 my business." 



The toxes of this design stand about 

 five feet high. They are twelve inches 

 wide and the box itself is nine inches 

 deep. The length depends, of course, 

 upon the size of the window the box is 

 to occupy. ' The latticework extends 

 three feet from the top of the box. 

 ^he whole piece is painteij white and 

 ))resents a most attractive appesfranee. 

 Self-watering boxes may be used with- 

 out alteration of the stand. 



Mrrf). Bagley uses these boxes iu the 

 ,windows«'of her store and their good 

 appearance there recommends the use 

 of them to others. The Civic Club in 

 "Anamosa, Ift., hopes to install these 

 boxes in all the/stores and residences 

 -along Maia street. Thus does the tlo 

 rists ' trade grow. 



■ ' ~ 



IN A RESIDENCE DISTRICT. 



Many florists are pleasantly located— 

 located where they have the inestiniublc 

 advantage of carrying 'piT their 'iis'- 

 ness at home, in quiet, with attractive 

 environru^t. Growers enjoy life, ..mti 

 the city florist sometimes finds his Imes 

 fallen in pleasant places — it is to J'^ 

 doubted if there is a man more to w 

 envied than the retail florist who has 

 picked a site in a well-to-do resid. m'C 

 district. For him life has few womes 

 and Tess than rpan's average shar- ot 

 annpyances. 



Taite, for example, the establish! cnt 

 of F. A. Parkmire, shown in the ac om- 

 panyftig . illustration. He starter! i" 

 business as recently as at Eastc i" 

 191.3, but he jfi^V chose s^sid "<"^ 

 distri<ft— a neighborhood of hotts«SiJl£l- 

 flats. Alfeady he has a prosperous '"*' 

 ness. The establishment consists ''f /* 

 sho^w house 14x45 running out to tb^^ 

 street, with a salesroom back of it. ^^^ 

 two plant Rouses, one 14 x 90 and tm 

 other 25x100, back of the office, l"' 

 heating plant is in tl|e basemen r oi 

 Mr. Parkmire 's residence, in the 1 '^J. 

 ground, an^l tlw? garage also is- on •"' 

 san%e lot. A general business is ''''"^j 

 cut ■flowers, bedding plants, sodditifT ■■^^' 



