Apbil 13, 1903. 



The Weekly Florists' Review* 



J2J9 



Pans of Lily of the Valley, with Light Green Crepe Paper Tied with Ribbon. 



quirements of the business will soou be 

 in the tear of the procession. 



But a few years ago a piece of wrap- 

 ping paper around the pot was all- 

 sufficient, and off went the plant. Now- 

 adays, not only at Easter but every day 

 of the year, the simplest plant, let it 

 be only a hyacinth or a primrose, must 

 have some colored tissue paper around 

 the pot and tied with baby ribbon, and 

 for larger or more expensive plants a 

 more elaborate covering of the plebian 

 pot is an essential. Take, for instance, 

 a 10-inch pan of hyacinths. Silk paper, 

 or the crepe, tied around the pan taste- 

 fully has cost little, but to the eye of 

 the customer it added wonderfully, and 

 you can get well paid for your trouble. 

 Anyway, it is now demanded. 



Make Early Preparation. 



Put nothing oflf for tomorrow. You 

 can't make purchasers come to your 

 place until they feel like it, and it seems 

 to me our customers, at any rate the 

 most of them, delay the buying of their 

 plants until the rush of Friday and 

 Saturday, The better you are prepared 

 for this rush, the fewer mistakes will 

 occur, and delays in delivering, whicli 

 is 60 important a part of our Easter 

 labor. You always have to call in extra 

 help to wait on customers, and it is an 

 excellent plan to have all your plants 

 plainly marked with the price of each. 

 This may not be necessary with all 

 your plants — lilies, for instance — but 

 with azaleas, Eambler roses and others 

 it is necessary, and a great convenience 

 to all parties. 



Flower boxes are wanted every day, 

 and by the hundreds on Saturday night. 

 There is no excuse for not having hun- 

 dreds put together and put in some dry, 

 clean place, waiting your demand. There 

 is no excuse for the greenhouse man 

 who does not wash the pots of all plants 

 that are likely to sell at Easter time, 

 and if he should brighten up a few hun- 

 dred that did not sell he will be for- 

 given. And if any plant, such as a 



lily, wants a stake and tie, do it at 

 once and do not wait until you are 

 driven off your legs. 



• The Value of System. 



Now, I can't help repeating what I 

 have often said before, and that is, have 

 some system, and stick to it, with re- 

 gard to getting off your orders. Our 

 experience is that on the Thursday, Fri- 

 day and Saturday before Easter we are 

 kept busy waiting on customers and 

 sending out the deliveries of the previ- 

 ous day, and business that demands im- 

 mediate attention. And the wrapping, 

 tying up and addressing is done after 

 the doors are locked. A few men undis- 

 turbed can do a lot of that work and do 

 ii coolly and correctly. What a pleasure 

 it would be if a customer selected a 

 plant, paid for it and took it along 

 with him — or, mostly, her. No such 

 luck! 



Our best customers drive up, select an 

 azalea and perhaps a Crimson Rambler, 

 niid then it begins: "Send the azalea 

 1(1 Mrs. Roosevelt, with Mrs. Booker 

 Washington's card, and send the rose 

 to Judge Dunne with my card." Now, 

 such orders are likely to end in a mix- 

 tip of cards, where perhaps one person 

 will leave an order for a dozen plants, 

 each one going to a different person, 

 and perhaps some little greeting written 

 on each card. The cards are filed, and 

 all we can do at the time is to put the 

 plants away on a space devoted to 

 Thursday, Friday, Saturday or Sunday 

 delivery, and each plant tagged with 

 the name of the purchaser. Of course 

 the salesman has taken an accurate item 

 of the order and that is filed away with, 

 say, Saturday's delivery, which will be 

 wrapped and all ready for delivery on 

 Friday night. 



When the boss comes to the order 

 Friday night he knows who took the 

 order and the cards and addresses, and 

 the order is handed to the man who 

 made the sale, and there is no excuse 

 for there being a mistake. The order 



is brought back as executed, and filed 

 away. You may have a better system, 

 evolved from your own experience, but 

 do have a system of some kind, and 

 adhere to it. You can stand a lot of 

 work and short hours in bed if all goes 

 pleasantly, but a few call-downs over 

 the' telephone and grumbling at mis- 

 takes will wreck your nervous system far 

 more than hard work. 



Holiday Delivery. 



The delivery is a most important part 

 of the whole business, and every en- 

 deavor should be made to get your sales 

 to their destination on the day prom- 

 ised, and in good order. A man who 

 knows the city well should be entrusted 

 with the job of "routing" the loads. 

 It does not pay to drive two miles in 

 one direction and then three miles in 

 another. Let each load contain deliv- 

 eries for a certain section, and for no 

 other, and don't wait for too big a 

 load. I have seen a wagon kept an hour 

 waiting for a few more plants, when half 

 the load could have been delivered and 

 the team back again, much to the bene- 

 fit of . the plants. 



Hampers of Plants. 



Except in our very large cities, the 

 combination plant baskets are not in 

 great demand, but it is well to have a 

 few made up. If they sell, more can 

 soon be fixed up. Azaleas, heaths, lilies, 

 hyacinths, Primula obconiea, genista and 

 a liberal mixture of ferns are all good 

 plants for baskets, and your taste must 

 guide the arrangement. How fortunate 

 for many of us that it is lovely flowers 

 we handle, for with all the crudeness 

 and poor taste of many of us, it is diffi- 

 cult to arrange a basket that is really 

 ugly. 



It is impossible to foretell what will 

 be in most demand at Easter. At pres- 

 ent it seems the lily will be plentiful. 

 Azaleas have almost ,been the leading 

 Easter plant for several years, and they 

 are not so plentiful on account of the 



