Ai'KiL i:;, i'jo5. 



The Weekly Florists^ Review^ 



1215 





THE RETAIL 



FLORIST 



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THE EASTER BUSINESS. 



Not Jong iigi) a ('liicayo rctaili'i', ouv 

 whose store is in a j'csidciico street, was 

 quoted as saying that last Easter iiiiicty- 

 live per cent of his sales were plants. 

 If not an exaggeration, that is ecrtainly 

 an exceptional case but it cannot be de- 

 nied that the sale for lloweriiig j)lauts 

 at both Christmas and Easter is increas- 

 ing much faster than is the sale for cut 

 flowers. 



Just before Christmas, when the rush 

 was at its height, a peculiarity which 

 marked the sales in one of the leading 

 retail stores of the country impressed 

 itself on the writer. The teleplume de- 

 manded almost constant attention and 

 almost invariably the call w-jxs for roses 

 or ("arnations. But out in the store the 

 customer who hail both the cut flowers 

 and flowering plants on the counter for 

 comparison in almost every instance 

 chose the plants, even where the sales- 

 man ofiferetl no encouragement. It was 

 simjily that the telephone l)uyer did not 

 know about the plants; ev(>u when the 

 telephone salesman tried to tdl about 

 them he could not convey a clear idea of 

 what an aucuba or even a pan of poin- 

 settias woidd look like when delivered. 

 But the cut flowers! That was different. 

 Everyone knows what a box of roses or 

 carnations is like, and the tele[)hone 

 buyer ordered them. But the clistomer 

 who saw the plants 

 every time. 



One January day 

 vei-sation took place 



"TIow much are the roses?" 



"These are $'2 and these arc 

 dozen." 



"A do/en and a half of the shorter 



chose them nearly 



the following con- 

 in the same store: 



$.1 



ones would (111 but what a |irctty plant '. 

 Is if a hrgonia .' ' ' 



'•Begonia (iloire de Lnnaini'. W'l' 

 sell tliiit size, with crepe paprr to covrr 

 the pot, for $3." 



"llow long will the flowers last.'" 



"Oh I Three or four days; maybe i 

 week; possibly nuire. We do lupt guar- 

 antee it in any way. ' ' 



"That's not encouraging, still tin' 

 roses wouldn't last beyoml tomorrow. 1 

 believe I'll try the begonia as it doesn't 

 cost any more than the roses. What did 

 you call it, (ilory ." ' 



Easter the Plant Season. 



I'^aster is preeminently the plant si;i 

 son, btit it is not every retailer who can 

 sell the magnificent specimens seen in 

 the splendid stores in New York. Even 

 in Chicago there is a limit to the cost 

 and size of the plants which can ue sold. 

 The other day Frank Oechslin, of the 

 Garfield Park Flower Co., which supplies 

 tlie majority of large plants to leading 

 Chicago retailers, said that last year he 

 hail a lot of large and finely flowered 

 azaleas which he wholesaled at $10 tiiid 

 •tlli eacli, but the retailers who bought 

 them in most cases had them left un- 

 sold. This year Mr. Oechslin did not 

 grow any azaleas to wholesale at 

 abo\e .tS. 



The leading stores throughout the 

 country, and particularly in New ^'ork, 

 Tiiay sell a few of the beautiful H:\w- 

 blers, rhododendrons, great jians of lil- 

 ies and other jdants freipiently illus- 

 trated in the pages of the Keview but 

 tiie average n>ader is not able to supply 

 himself with these ]dants if he would 

 and could not sell them if he had them. 

 I'lven in the best class of stores the sale 



for' large plants is liniilcd. by far the 

 ;:i-eatt'r munber of gonil-^izi'd orders 

 lalling for arraiigements of plants nr 

 riit lln\M'i-s ill liam|iers or liaskcts, of 

 vvhirli sii i^reat a variety i-; riuw od'er''!. 



The Florists' Requisites. 



Whili' few noxelties ill tlie jdaiit line 

 are ollVred, the il.;ileis in ilorisls' sup- 

 |ilies annually piovide many uni(|ue 

 things to help the retailers present tlieir 

 uares in attractive sliape. There is a, 

 great \ariety in Imiiipers, boxes ami bas- 

 kets, so great ill I'aet that, no store- 

 ki.-ejier has use fer nujre than a few of 

 the really good things at his disposal. 

 The rallia hamper .and basket is no lon- 

 ger a novelty; it has traveled tin? length 

 and breadth of the land on its own mer- 

 its. A last year's novelty wliich lia« 

 come into general use this si ason is the 

 tuig basket in its m;iiiy fnriiis. Two of 

 these shapes are shown in illustrations 

 in this issue of the Kicvii^w. 



The handled basket cimt.-iiiis a zinc 

 pan which will not leak and mi the out- 

 side the zinc is stttined dark Lrown so 

 that it will not show betwe n the small 

 twigs which comjiose the sides of the 

 basket. In this case the basket held 

 some daisies anil sweet peas with a little 

 green and stood on the sales counter of 

 one of the leading stores, where few cus- 

 tomers failed to speak of its simplicity 

 and grace. The other twig basket is 

 round and low, with a cii\er. It con- 

 tains a cocos, i'oiir primroses, three 3- 

 inch ailiantums and a dozen valley. 



Chicks and Ducklings. 



The same twig l>askets are offered in 

 many other shajies, including the form 

 of birds' nests, and to go with the birds' 

 nests, as well as for many other uses, 

 thousands upon thousands of chicks and 

 ducklings will be used. All the supply 

 houses rejiort them selling rapidly ami 

 going to all parts* of the country. Last 

 year a few of the>e were used and madi' 

 a hit in many an ]-]aster plant arrange- 

 tnent and box of flowers. The use nf 

 such accessories as thesi; i^ rapidly in 

 creasing. 



But no matter how many ne\v or dii 

 ferent i)Ot covers there may be, the 

 Porto Kican nuitting, a novelty of half a 





Easter Requisites The Chick, the Baby*s Shoe and the Ugly Duckling, 



