54 



The Florists^ Review 



March 18, 1915. 



Eetabltahed, 1897. by O. L. GRANT. 



Pabllahed every Thursday by 

 The Florists' Pubushino Co., 



630-660 Oazton Buildlofr, 



606 Soutti Dearborn St., Chicago. 



Tele.. Wabash 8196. 



Resrlstered cable address,' 



Florvlew, Chicago. 



Entered as second class matter 

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

 cago, 111., under the Act of March 

 3.1879. 



Subscription price, $1.00 a year. 

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



Advertising rat(>s quoted upon 

 request. Only strictly trade ad- 

 Tertlslng accepted. 



(V 



IMll...... ., 



NOTICE. 



It is impoMible to guarantee 

 the insertion, discontinuance 

 or alteration of any adTertise- 

 ment unless instructions are 

 received by 



5 P. M. TUESDAY. 



BOOIZTT or AHZRIOAjr FL0BI8TS. 

 Xneorponited by Aot of C«iirreM, Marok i, 1901. 



Offlcera for 1916: PresUcst, Patrick Wolch. 

 Boston; Tice-presldent, Daniel MacBorlo, Sao 

 rranclsco; secretary, John Yonng, 68 W. 28tb 

 St., New Tork City; treasarer, w. ¥". Kastlng. 

 Buffalo. 



Thirty-first annual conTentloa, San Francisco. 

 Gal., Ancrost 17 to 20, 1915. 



Results bring advertising. 

 The Review brings results. 



Florists who send plants through the 

 mails should read the article in this is- 

 sue entitled "Must Mark Plant Pack- 

 ages. ' ' 



Experience seems to show that freesia 

 should be brought in between Christ- 

 mas and St. Valentine's day. Later, it 

 scarcely pays. 



Business cannot be bad when such 

 great quantities of stock are being cleared 

 — it surely would be boom times if prices 

 were not low in such heavily loaded mar- 

 kets. 



The flower business is not highly sys- 

 tematized; the team play between pro- 

 ducing and selling ends often is poor. 

 Better organization would mean less con- 

 fusion and more money. 



No noteworthy results ever were ob- 

 tained except at the cost of great and 

 persistent effort. When you see a flo- 

 rist building up a big business on sound 

 lines, you may be sure he has earned his 

 success. 



"Everybody is looking for the big^ 

 buyers these days; if it was not for my 

 prompt paying they wouldn't look at 

 tne at all." The speaker was a florist 

 who has discovered one of the sure roads 

 to commercial standing. 



The Office of Information in the U. S. 

 Department of Agriculture^ has taken up 

 and is carrying on the work inaugurated 

 some years ago by the National Council 

 of Horticulture, now defunct. A series 

 of articles on a wide variety of amateur 

 gardening subjects is being supplied to 

 the secular press. 



HONORABLE MENTION. 



Not a few subscribers save them- 

 selves the bother of annual renewal by 

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

 times $5, instead of the dollar-bill that 

 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. 

 Cerbouche, G., Greenwich, Conn. 

 Klein, L. H. A., Towson, Md. 

 Eisner, John J., Indianapolis. 

 Haascb, E., Milwaukee, Wis. 

 Wooton Floral Co., Durand, Mich. 

 Beck, T. R., Sioux City, la. 

 Weaver, Wm., McAlester, Okla. 



The Review stops coming when the 

 subscription runs out. The green no- 

 tice with the last copy tells the' story; 

 no bills are run up; no duns sent. 



THE FUNERAL THAT FAILED. 



For months the calamity howlers 

 have been trying hard to hang a ' ' Rest 

 in Peace" wreath on the prosperity 

 of this trade — they have been free with 

 their dismal predictions. "Yes, it's 

 fair now, but just you wait till 'so arid 

 so,' the bottom will drop out of busi- 

 ness then." But it hasn't dropped. In 

 the autumn it was "after Christmas" 

 that the blow was to fall; then it was 

 "in Lent." But, take it by and large, 

 the flower business has been better 

 since the middle of January than it 

 usually is; better, certainly, than at 

 any previous time since the European 

 war broke out. And now we are roll- 

 ing up our sleeves, and our trouser-legs, 

 preparatory to tackling the big business 

 of the year, the spring season, the time 

 when every florist finds the rapidly 

 lengthening days too short for his 

 needs. 



It simply is a case of a funeral that 

 failed — nothing more. 



FAIR RETURNS. 



How much return can an advertiser 



reasonably expect for each dollar spent 



for space? Remember that for 15 cents 



a commission man sells only $1 — he 



sends the grower 85 cents. 



On the little liner ad, one insertion in The 

 Review, I sold 4000 geraniums, at 3 cents each. 

 I consider this a good record, taking in $120 on 

 an ad that cost 20 cents. — Theo. D. Kuebler, 

 Kvansvllle, Ind., March 8, 1915. 



PURELY PERSONAL. 



We are seeing the sights around San 

 Francisco and the exposition; a great 

 treat coming to conventionites. Dan 

 MacRorie has an heiress. Were out to 

 see her. Some girl! 



Mr. and Mrs. McKellar. 



THE LILIES FOR EASTER. 



At this date attention always is 

 turned to the prospect for lilies for 

 Easter — not that there has in recent 

 years been any shortage, but because 

 the lily is the big item of the big day. 



With Easter two weeks earlier than 

 last season, the growers who must wait 

 until the Christmas plants are gone be- 

 fore they have bench room for lilies of 

 course must use extra heat; if the sun 

 does not provide it, the steam pipes 

 must do so. . Reports indicate that a 

 good many lilies will need much heat, 

 but a large part of even the late lots 

 will be sure to get in. 



The growers who follow mums with 

 lilies are in a much easier position; they 

 have from one month to two months 

 more time than the man who is short 



of houseroom until Christmas. These 

 growers are on Easy street. 



There does not seem to be any danger 

 of a shortage of lilies this Easter. Those 

 who do not grow them can get all they 

 want, by speaking in time, in almost 

 any wholesale market. 



OHIOAOO. 



The Market. 



There is considerable variation in the 

 reports regarding market conditions, in 

 the last week. Apparently some of the 

 houses have had better business than 

 others, and from day to day the business 

 has fluctuated more than was the case 

 before Lent. There has been an abun- 

 dance of stock. It seems that city trade 

 has been a bit better than it usually is 

 during March, but the country orders 

 have been uncertain, and somewhat less 

 in number than they were the first week 

 in the month. Bulbous stock is abun- 

 dant everywhere and there are increased 

 supplies of roses, with the result that a 

 good many customers are using home 

 flowers wherever they can and sending 

 to Chicago for less than usual. This 

 condition will change promptly with the 

 passing of the season for bulbous stock. 



Roses are more abundant than has 

 been the case at any time since the 

 Christmas crops went off. Beauties are 

 improving in quality and a few growers 

 are cutting fine stock in some quantity. 

 Mrs. Russell is both abundant and good. 

 Shawyer and Killarney Brilliant also 

 are offered in fine form. Sunburst is 

 the best of the season. Some of the 

 Killarney crops show good color, but 

 others still are faded. There are not 

 many Richmond, and Milady is making 

 a little extra money for those who 

 have it. 



The increase in the supply of carna- 

 tions is not so great as the increase in 

 rose crops, but there have been enough. 

 White was short while the growers were 

 accumulating stock for St. Patrick's 

 day, but there proved to be rather more 

 heldover whites than were needed, al- 

 though strictly fresh white sold well at 

 the opening of this week. 



All bulbous stock is overabundant 

 and prices have fallen to the lowest of 

 the season. Really good tulips are the 

 best property of the lot, and Paper 

 Whites about the poorest, although 

 freesia probably has suffered as much 

 as anything; freesias that were readily 

 salable at $5 per hundred before Valen- 

 tine's day now are difficult to clean up 

 at $10 per thousand. Valley also is a 

 glut, so much so that peddlers are offer- 

 ing it in the growers' original bunches. 

 Lilies of all kinds are abundant, Easter, 

 calla and rubrum, making low prices 

 like the rest of the stock. 



The increase in the supply of Spen 

 cer sweet peas has given violets a still 

 further setback; it never has been more 

 difficult to return the growers a fair 

 average price for even the best violets. 

 The old grandiflora type of sweet peas 

 no longer is worth growing after the 

 Spencers come in. Orchids may be said 

 to be the only scarce item. There are 

 quite a few good gardenias. 



There is nothing new in the green 

 goods situation; enough of everything 

 except asparagus strings, which are not 

 always easily comeatable. 



Easter Prospects. 



The prospect for Easter is the prin- 

 cipal subject for conversation these 



