20 



The Florists' Review 



Decembeb si, 1914. 



EatabUshed. 1J89T, by G. L. GRANT. 



Published every Thursday by 

 The Florists* Publishing Co,, 



63a-fi60 OaxtoQ BulldlDg, 



006Soutb Dearborn St., Chicago. 



Tele., Wabash 8195. 



Begristered cable address, 



Florrlew, Chicago. 



Entered as second class matter 

 Dec. 3. 1897. at the post-office at Chi- 

 ca«o. 111., under the Act of March 

 3. 1879. 



Subscription price, $1.00 a year. 

 To Canada, $2.00; to Europe, $3.00. 



AdvertlsinK rates quoted upon 

 request. Only strictly trade ad- 

 Tertlsinsr accepted. 



EBB 



"'■■■ ■.-irir^ 



NOTICE. 



It is impossible to guarantee 

 the insertion, discontinuance 

 or alteration of any advertise- 

 ment unless instructions are 

 received by 



S P. M. TUESDAY. 



80CIET7 OF AKERICAN FLORISTS. 

 Incorporated by Act of Conffresi, March 4, 1901. 



Officers for 1915: President, Patrick Welch, 

 Boston; vice-president, Daniel MacRorle, San 

 Francisco; secretary, John Young, 53 W. 28th 

 St., New York City; treasurer, W. F. Kasting, 

 Buffalo. 



Thirty-first annual convention, San Francisco, 

 Cal., August 17 to 20, 1916. 



Results bring advertising. 

 The Beview brings results. 



The gfrafters are busy — the Manetti 

 stocks have arrived and are of excellent 

 quality. 



One of the big sellers this Christmas 

 was the little red wreath for limousine 

 windows. 



A LOT of people in the trade have done 

 an excellent business in the last few 

 months, but their profit is all on their 

 books. 



Next to the evil of lax credits and 

 slow collections, the greatest handicap 

 in this trade is the practice of quoting 

 as many different prices as there are 

 customers. 



The weekly news letter of the U. 8. 

 Department of Agriculture for December 

 23 bad an excellent article on indoor win- 

 dow boxes, calculated to increase their 

 use in the rural districts. 



The European war did not result in 

 the expected general shortage of florists' 

 supplies for Christmas, although a few 

 items were short and some of the novel- 

 ties failed to materialize. 



If it were not that a lot of people 

 consider only what they pay, without a 

 thought as to what they get, some folks 

 we know would find business a lot duller 

 than it ever has been. 



There seems to be a growing belief 

 that express rates will have to go up if 

 the companies are to live; they undoubt- 

 edly are having a hard time. But the 

 average florist finds the new rates, one 

 way or another, as high as the old. 



MAIL SESVIOE. 



You can judge the efficiency of your 

 local mail service by comparing the 

 arrival of last week's issue of The Re- 

 view with the hour it usually arrives. 

 The paper was mailed as usual Thurs- 

 day, December 24. One reader, half a 

 mile from the office, reports his copy 

 reached him Tuesday, December 29. 



"HAPPY NEW YEAE." 



No doubt 1914 has been a year of 

 unusual difficulty for the majority of 

 the readers of The Review, the last 

 five months having been the most try- 

 ing the trade ever has known. Conse- 

 quently the general exchange of New 

 Year's greetings is less of a common- 

 place — less of a formality — than it had 

 become. Everybody means it this year 

 — it comes from the bottom of one's 

 heart. "Happy and Prosperous!" 

 Prosperity is not essential to true hap- 

 piness, but it helps, helps a lot. The 

 Review most sincerely wishes renewed, 

 permanent prosperity to every member 

 of the trade and a Happy New Year 

 to all. ■ 



HONORABLE MENTION. 



Not a few subscribers save thenar 

 selves the bother of annual renewal by 

 sending The Review $2, $3, or some- 

 times $5, instead of the dollar-bill thai 

 insures fifty-two visits of the paper. 

 Among those who have this week en- 

 rolled themselves for more than one 

 year in advance are: 



TWO YEARS. 

 Ralph, John, Saratoga Springs, N. Y. 

 Herron, Dana R., Olean, N. Y. 

 Pankow, R. H., New York, N. Y. 

 Weage & Tyler, Coldwater, Mich. 

 Plttet, Albert, Indianapolis, Ind. 

 Miller & Son, Pontlac, lU. 



The Review stops coming when the 

 subscription runs out. The green notice 

 with the last copy tells the story; no 

 bills are run up; no duns sent. 



FIVE MONTHS OF WAE. 



Now that the great conflict in Europe 

 has run five months its effect on busi- 

 ness conditions in this country can be 

 estimated with some -degree of accur- 

 acy. So many new channels of busi- 

 ness are opening, as a result of the 

 closing of certain old ones, that many 

 further changes in conditions are sure, 

 but they will come more slowly than 

 those of the last five months. Busi- 

 ness has made a wonderful recovery 

 since the paralysis that followed the 

 declarations of war. But it still is be- 

 low normal in most lines. Of course 

 individual experiences differ; there are 

 florists in the grain states who say 

 business never was better, while the 

 heaviest decreases have been felt in the 

 manufacturing districts along the At- 

 lantic seaboard. Under the circum- 

 stances it may be useless to try to lever- 

 age the effect of the war, but it looks 

 as though the florist who finds his sales 

 for the five months not more than 

 twenty per cent below those of the 

 same time last year, when business was 

 specially good, should feel that he has 

 done his share. 



In a recent interview Lord Kitchen- 

 er, head of the British war office, was 

 quoted as saying that the war will 

 last not less than three years. The 

 opinion, and of course it is nothing 

 more than an opinion, is worthy of 

 serious consideration, for it may be 



doubted if conditions in general busi- 

 ness or in the florists' trade will be- 

 come normal so long as the war lasts — 

 perhaps not for a long time afterward. 

 A readjustment in the trade seems 

 necessary. 



TWO WAYS. 



He who keeps his eyes on the horiton stnmblea 

 less than he who studies the cobblestones. — An- 

 cient Chinese philosopher. 



One man's aim is to edit his news- 

 paper so it will be as nearly like an- 

 other as he can get it. A second 

 man's aim is to make his paper as dis- 

 tinctly different as circumstances will 

 permit. Or, stated another way, one 

 man's idea is to divide the field with 

 his competitors, while the other's plan 

 is to create a free field for all. 



I consider The Review, as improved recently, 

 far and away the most convenient of the various 

 florists' trade papers. The placing of the index 

 in the front has, in my opinion, added decidedly 

 to the value of the paper, to say nothing of ths 

 other improved features. I take three trade pa- 

 pers, and while I find much of value in each of 

 the others, if I had to cut down to one paper, 

 I would let the others go and retain The Review. 

 — Philip Marot, Swarthmore, Pa., December 22, 

 1914. 



MAKING CREDITS. 



Deciding, usually in a hurry, whether 

 or not a man is entitled to credit is 

 not the easiest task in the world — not 

 if the question is to be decided right 

 in a large majority of the cases. It 

 is easy enough to pass judgment in 

 accordance with commercial agency rat- 

 ings, but a large number of florists 

 have no ratings; nor 'can they make a 

 showing of assets that will justify the 

 extension of credit. If there ever was 

 another line of business in which a 

 good name was of greater value or 

 more zealously to be guarded, that line 

 does not suggest itself at the moment. 



CHIOAGK). 



The Market 



The story of the Christmas market 

 in Chicago, that part of it not covered 

 in last week's issue, is quickly told: It 

 was highly unsatisfactory to everyone 

 whose interests lie with the wholesale 

 and producing end. The retailers came 

 out a little better. 



There was far too much stock. The 

 supply, everyone agrees, was much the 

 largest the market ever has seen at 

 Christmas. Perhaps a good illustration 

 would be to say the increase was repre- 

 sented by the quantity left over, about 

 the usual number of flowers being sold. 

 But prices were not so good, even, as 

 last Christmas, so it is easy to figure 

 out that most growers and practically 

 all wholesalers took in less money than 

 they had counted on, and less than last 

 year. The exceptions would be those 

 who cut little last Christmas and cut 

 heavily this year. A few such are 

 known, especially among the carnation 

 growers. The worst sufferers were those 

 who cut little, as prices were so low 

 their sales shrunk even more than the 

 quantity of stock handled. In such an 

 event it is difficult to arrive at any- 

 thing like actual figures, but it prob- 

 ably will not be far out of the way if 

 it be said that twenty per cent more 

 flowers than last year brought twenty 

 per cent less money. There are those 

 whose supply increased much more and 

 there are those whose sales shrunk even 

 worse. 



An excellent illustration of the state 



