DECEMiiBB 31, 1014. 



The Florists^ Review 



9 



AHEAD OF EXPECTATIONS 



Lincoln, Neb. — 0. H. Prey says he 

 was obliged to refuse large wholesale 

 orders for cyclamens and other bloom- 

 ing plants and that the retail trade 

 cleaned up everything he had left, mak- 

 ing it the best Christmas he ever has 

 had. He is enthusiastic about it. 



Belleville, HL — Adolph G. Fehr says 

 the use of flowers is on the increase 

 and Christmas sales were better this 

 year in all lines. He estimates the 

 increase at twenty per cent. He 

 pushed cut flowers, especially carna- 

 tions and roses, but noted an increase 

 in the popularity of cyclamens, primu- 

 las and ferns. He thinks the flower 

 business is about to experience the 

 greatest boom in many years. E. W. 

 Quy reports an excellent Christmas. H. 

 Emunds is still cutting good chrys- 

 anthemums. 



Marinette, Wis. — George Vatter says 

 business in all lines has been as good 

 as ever and the flower business this 

 season the best yet. Christmas sales 

 were ten per cent ahead of last year, 

 but made up of moderate-priced plant 

 sales. The wealthier people did not 

 buy as much as usual. He pushed 

 plants and baskets, as cut flowers at 

 Christmas are too high-priced for his 

 trade. Medium-priced flowers also sold 

 well. Zero to 10 degrees below made 

 delivery difficult. 



G-reat Falls, Mont. — Despite the busi- 

 ness depression so prevalent in table 

 talk, the Electric City Conservatory re- 

 ports a forty-five per cent increase over 

 the previous year. Stock was excellent, 

 but the supply was on the short side. 

 Early Christmas morning everything 

 was cleaned up. Baskets of poinsettias, 

 crotons, pandanus and begonias were a 

 ready seller. Boses were excellent, but 

 Beauties scarce and of poor quality. 

 Cut poinsettias and mums were good 

 and took excellently. In the words of 

 the proprietors, "Business was far be- 

 yond our expectations and was the best 

 in the history of the company." 



Vincennes, Ind. — "Business in gen- 

 eral has been rather quiet this fall," 

 says Paul C. Schultz, "but Christmas 

 trade was excellent, much better than 

 was expected. It was ten per cent bet- 

 ter than in 191d and thirty per cent 

 ahead of two years ago. A big supply 

 of azaleas, poinsettias, cyclamens, hya- 

 cinths and narcissi cleaned up to the 

 last plant. There was a special call 

 for roses, including Beauties, Shawyer, 

 Richmond and Killamey; the local cut 

 was light because of dark weather, but 

 good stock was obtained from Evans- 

 yille and Newcastle. Carnations were 

 in fine crop and brought good prices. 

 Sweet peas dropped their buds because 

 of the bad weather and represent a 

 loss of sales." 



Litchfield, HI. — B. A. McPheron says 

 the holiday business was better than 

 ever before. He noted an increased 

 call for both roses and poinsettias. The 

 usual Christmas prices were obtained 

 without difficulty. 



Princeton, HL— The W. E. Trimble 

 Greenhouse Co. reports an excellent 

 Christmas trade, both wholesale and re- 

 tail. They say: "Our customers for- 

 got the war and got busy buying roses 

 and carnations." 



Canal Dover, O. — Factories running 

 one-third to one-half time, everyone 

 complaining of hard times, yet our 1914 

 Christmas business ran away ahead of 

 1913 in local retail sales, says C. 

 Betscher. Carnations had first call; 

 roses in good demand; pot plants in in- 

 creasing demand; boxwood and holly 

 wreaths freely called for. "Now for 

 the largest St. Valentine's day, Easter, 

 Mothers' day and May in our his- 

 tory," he adds. 



Elmira, N. T.— From Leavitt: "The 

 flower business this season has been 

 better than trade in other lines. The 

 general business situation did not seem 

 to affect florists' Christmas sales, 

 which were about the same as last year. 

 Nothing was specially pushed, ' but a 

 large supply of baskets of plants and 

 of baskets of artificial stock was sold 

 out clean. More azaleas could have 

 been sold. There does not seem to be 

 much demand for pink begonias." 



Dubuque, la. — W. A. Harkett thinks 

 the Christmas trade was affected ad- 

 versely more by the zero weather than 

 by any other condition. Sales ran 

 ahead of anticipations. Cash trade fell 

 off about ten per cent, but charge sales 

 were practically the same as last year. 

 The business was in every respect 

 about the same as usual. The grocers, 

 butchers and others have gone into 

 holly and greens to such an extent that 

 florists cannot handle them except by 

 putting them up in some better way 

 to command higher prices. 



Hamilton, O.— Karl W. Heiser, of the 

 Heiser Nursery & Floral Co., says: "As 

 our retail flower store was opened only 

 a few days before Christmas, we have 

 no opportunity to make comparisons of 

 business with other years. About all 

 we can say is that the business that 

 came to ua was away beyond our ex- 

 pectations. In a town with a large 

 part of its working population idle, 

 and a town not especially rated as a 

 flower-buying community, one would 

 not expect too much in flower purchas- 

 ing ability. But it seems that among 

 people who have any money at all to 

 spend in gfift-giving, the tendency to 

 put their money into flowers and plants 

 rather than into jewelry and other 

 trinkets is growing rapidly." 



Newark, N. J. — Christmas trade was 

 good at Begerow's and generally 

 through the city. 



Detroit, Mich. — A broken electric 

 light fixture in the window of E. A. 

 Fetters' store, at 114 Library avenue, 

 set fire to the Christmas decorations 

 Monday afternoon, December 21. The 

 fire was checked before a great deal of 

 damage was done. 



Alton, HI. — The Alton Floral Co. 

 says trade in other lines has been slow 

 this season, but florists have done about 

 as much as ever and the general con- 

 dition did not seem to affect the Christ- 

 mas trade unfavorably, as there was 

 an increase of twenty-five per cent, 

 about equally divided between cut 

 flowers and plants. 



Pontiac, HL— From J. W. Miller & 

 Son: "We wish to report a grand 

 trade this Christmas, far exceeding our 

 expectations. The sale on blooming 

 plants was the leading feature. We 

 cleaned up everything that was in sal- 

 able condition. Our carnations were 

 exceptionally fine this season and our 

 only shortage was on good roses." 



McKeesport, Pa. — J. H. Orth says the 

 Christmas trade was affected by the 

 slack season in the mills, being thirty 

 per cent less than a year ago and only 

 half what it was in 1912. Baskets of 

 boxwood, ruscus, etc., and plants were 

 pushed, as it looked as though cut flow- 

 ers would cost too much to sell well. 

 Mr. Orth says the showing made tells 

 him to prepare a larger stock of good, 

 medium priced plants for next year. 

 J. M. Johnston had fine azaleas and did 

 an excellent trade in his three stores. 

 There was an unusual run of funeral 

 work during Christmas week. It was 

 unusually cold, but the greenhouse men 

 succeeded in selling practically all their 

 plants. 



Sioux Falls, S. D. — G. A. Thomas 

 says the principal lesson learned from 

 the Christmas trade is the value of 

 early preparation, backed up by strong 

 advertising. He used a good space in 

 the local newspapers and had some re- 

 prints struck off from the ad to en- 

 close with every parcel and envelope 

 that went out for some time before 

 Christmas. As a result the Christmas 

 trade was the best ever, a full third 

 better than last year and fifty per 

 cent better than in 1912. The people 

 took to plants, although cut flowers 

 headed his price list. Quite a number 

 of customers bought five or six plants 

 each. Cyclamens, poinsettias and aza- 

 leas were th^ favorites, in the order 

 named. He cleaned up on carnations, 

 but did not do so well on roses, which 

 he attributes to the difference in price. 

 Novelty wreaths and baskets of pre- 

 pared stock met with increased favor. 



