:^^-p''.Tx 



12 



The Florists' Review 



May 27, 1916. 



the non-existent bridal party, the bas- 

 ket of loose blooms for the flower girl, 

 and other appurtenances of a wedding 

 ceremony. 



The Old Man removed his cigar. 

 "Tomorrow," he said, "we'll have 

 staff baskets for the maids, and the day 

 after, baskets. Different fixin's all the 

 time, so as to make 'em look. A doll 

 from Higgins' all dressed up, for the 

 flower girl; maybe ribbon-bearers too. 

 We'll get out the altar one day — won- 



der if we could make the lady kneel." 

 Gus wondered at the Old Man's en- 

 thusiasm and perhaps extravagance. 

 The more he surveyed the window, 

 however, the more enthusiastic and 

 proud of it he, too, became. He cocked 

 his h«ad on one side to get a better 

 view. The Old Man stepped nearer 

 and, carefully knocking the ash from 

 his cigar, said in a low tone: 



"It don't cost 80 awful much either, 

 when you get right down to it. And 



V. 



it draws; look at 'em, we've got 'em 

 all rubberin' their necks off already." 



They walked towards the door, to 

 enter the store. "Say," said the Old 

 Man, "do you remember the bride's 

 bouquet on the easel we had in the 

 window last June! This makes it look 

 like — ' ' He stopped to think of a suf- 

 ficiently contemptible comparison. 



"The hole in a doughnut," supplied 

 Gus. 



RETAIL STORE MANAGEMENT 



WHAT THE LEADERS IN THE TRADE ARE DOING 



MALANDRES' WEDDING WINDOW. 



A window display of much more than 

 ordinary merit is that shown in the 

 photograph on page 11, the work of 

 one of the leading New York retailers, 

 Malandre Bros., whose main store is 

 at 2077 Broadway. Though the photo- 

 graph from which the reproduction was 

 made was a remarkably good one, the 

 illustration does not show all the good 

 points of this display. Sufficient ap- 

 pears, however, to make its high qual- 

 ity easily discernible. 



PERMANENT BUSINESS. 



A good many of the larger cemeteries 

 do all they can to keep the florists out 

 — they have departments that are sup- 

 posed to turn in the money the florists 

 would get — but in smaller cities the 

 cemeteries usually encourage the flo- 

 rists. Then it is in line to keep a 

 mailing list of lot-owners, especially 

 those who have moved away from 

 town. It will pay to address them on 

 various occasions. The following is an 

 extract in point, taken from a circular 

 letter sent out by an Indiana lady flo- 

 rist w;ho only operates part of the year, 

 but who gives evidences of a business 

 acumen that would do credit to a large 

 establishment. She says to lot-owners: 



"We solicit your order and can serve 

 you best for Memorial day if we know 

 early what flowers you will want. We 

 will also accept orders from persons liv- 

 ing out of town who cannot themselves 

 decorate the graves of their loved ones 

 on Memorial day. The flowers will be 

 placed on any grave designated in 

 Southmound cemetery, and the wishes 

 of the person fulfilled the same as if 

 they were here in person. The peonies 

 are $1 per dozen and 25 cents will be 

 charged for placing flowers on a grave. 

 The gardens are on the direct way to 

 the cemetery." 



If a florist works up a trade of this 

 character, adding to his mailing list as 

 the cemetery fills up, he will find he 

 has a permanent business. 



A UNIQUE AD, 



It is well known that Henry Penn, 

 of Boston, is devoting to advertising 

 more time, attention and money than 

 is any other florist, so it is quite tn 

 the natural course of events that he 

 gets off some unusually good things. 

 Here is one of them: "An Apprecia- 

 tion." 



Just what thought Mr. Penn had in 

 mind when he prepared this advertise- 

 ment one can not tell; probably he was 

 occupied with the idea that the stimu- 

 lation of the love of flowers is a boost 

 for the flower business, and it is doubt- 

 ful if he had in mind obtaining so 

 good an advertisement for his own 

 business as resulted. Probably it was 

 in his mind that the appeal to flower 

 lovers would be strongest if the adver- 

 tisement contained nothing of commer- 

 cial character, so he used 200 agate 

 lines of high-priced newspaper space 

 to tell such people of Boston as did 



An Appreciation 



And Message to Flower Lovers 



Yesterday I had occasion to walk 

 throu^ the Doaton Public Garden 

 and was filled with admiration at the 

 truly wonderful display, particularly 

 of tulips, now at its best. 



The thought occurred that per- 

 haps thousands and thousands of 

 people, old and younf, were uncon- 

 sciously missing a tnarvellous treat 

 by not making a pilgrimage to this 

 beauty spot and enjoying the ex- 

 quisite shadings and- graceful form 

 of what is, perhaps, our most appeal- 

 ing Spring-time flower. 



Myriads of these blooms make a 

 riot of color In the many beds, and a 

 few moments or even hours spent in 

 the Garden just now. far away from 

 the rush of the city fend yet so near, 

 will fully rep«y any lover of the rarely 

 beautiful in nature. 



HENRY PENN 



mf^^ 



Publicity Worth a Thousand Dollars. 



not know that there was something 

 worth looking at in the Public Garden. 

 The result must have been something 

 of a surprise. The ad caused such 

 comment among business people, and 

 people who know, that Mr. Penn was 

 continually called on the phone to 

 be congratulated on the "best ad pub- 

 lished in the newspapers of Boston 

 this year." J. K. Allen, advertising 

 manager of the Christian Science Moni- 

 tor, considered it the best ad he had 

 ever seen, as did Thomas Drier, one of 



the leading advertising men in New 

 England. The vice-president of the 

 William Filene Sons Co., one of the 

 largest mercantile establishments in 

 Boston, considered it worth while to 

 write Mr. Penn a personal letter re- 

 ferring to the ad. 



Mr. Penn considers the results ob- 

 tained from this ad, "Appreciation," 

 equal to a thousand dollars' worth of 

 publicity. 



TEXAN FLOAT TAKES PRIZE. 



In the San Jacinto day parade at Bay 

 City, Tex., the prize-winning float of 

 R. D. Baker was a striking feature. As 

 will be seen from the illustration 

 on page 14, it represented a small 

 greenhouse surrounded with a well-kept 

 lawn of Bermuda grass, with shrubbery, 

 a lake and a hedge of santolinas and 

 alternantheras. At the entrance was a 

 welcome arch, decorated with American 

 flags and a lone star rising from a 

 garland of blue bonnets, the state 

 flower. 



Mr. Baker reports business quiet just 

 now. The people of Bay City, he says, 

 appreciate good flowers, and so tem- 

 porary slackness does not especially 

 worry him. He has an able assistant in 

 Mrs. Baker, who has skill in making up 

 and decorating. 



THE FASHION IN STORES. 



The most noteworthy feature of the 

 florists' business in the last year or 

 two has been the increase in the number 

 of retail flower stores. The opening 

 of hundreds of strictly retail stores in 

 good locations to catch trade has made 

 it necessary for hundreds of men who 

 formerly looked to the public to come 

 to the greenhouses, to open stores in 

 the center of town — they had to do it 

 or lose the retailers' profit. And at the 

 same time there has been a wonderful 

 improvement in the equipment of 

 flower stores. With the new men buy- 

 ing first-class fixtures and putting up 

 a front in keeping with modern ideas, 

 the older stores had to spruce up or 

 see the people go to the fresher look- 

 ing places. The store fixture men have 

 had good business among florists of 

 late. 



The illustration on page 14 will 

 serve as an example of modern equip- 

 ment for an unpretentious store. A. 

 Steffeter had done business for some 

 time on the southwest side of Chicago. 

 When he decided to open a new store 



