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The Weekly Florists^ Review* 



1575 



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^ PffONE LAKE VIEW SSl^SSS 



DESIGNS "^ 



CUT FLOWERS 

 DECORATING 



^ FLORIST 



3 STORES 



16571659 BUCKINGHAM PL.- 512-514 N.CLARK ST. 

 803 DEMPSTER ST. Evanston 



Decorating a specialt/ 



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 .PERENKULS 

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One of Several Street Signs, 8 x 25 Feet, Erected by a Chicago Retail Florist. 



|Hissible of tiio many avomu'S open to 

 tlioin for attractiijg the attention of the 

 pulilic. Nevertheless, retail llorists are 

 j,'railualiy eoining to sec the light in 

 this respect. Tliere arc those who bc- 

 lic\e that anvthiiifi in tiie nature of piil)- 

 lic'it.v detracts from tlie ''tone" of their 

 estalilisliment, and this may be true 

 if tin; advertising is of the common sort, 

 but It appllos to only a few high class 

 slons and to only siu-h as liave no 

 thought of growth save a growth in 

 keeping with tlie incieasing wealth of 

 thcii patrons. This is too slow a growth 

 to suit the average young man in the 

 floHir trade. 



dill of the most active advcrtis.M-s in 

 tiic business is the Geo. Wittbold Co., 

 Chicago. For years they have pushed 

 their wholesale department by liberal 

 use .pf printer's ink and have built up 

 the largest decorative jdant business in 

 the west. They conduct three retail 

 stores in connection with their whole- 

 Bale business and have steadily been add- 

 ing to their sales in this department by 

 the use of the same advertising plans 

 which are used by other linos of busi- 

 ness, of course with such changes as are 

 necessary to fit tlie florists' trade. This 

 was the first concern in the west to 

 employ tastefully color-printed signs in 

 the street cars operating in that sec- 

 tion of the city in which their stores 

 arc located. This served to give their 

 name familiarity to large numbers of 

 people. Then, too, they trie.l advertis- 

 ing in tho daily papers' and also in the 

 monthly magazines. The Wittbold 

 stores are jo.atcd in tlie icsidcnt dis- 

 tricts, where they are accessible to only 

 a small jiart of the jieoplc in so big 

 a city, and it was soon evident that the 

 daily newspaper advertising did not pay. 

 The cost was too high when one considers 

 that only a small jiart of the circulation 

 of t!ie paper wa< of value to its adver- 



tiser. Ivouis Wittbold, the secretary of tli<! 

 Wittbold Co., says that because tli-\v 

 did not find daily newspaper advertis- 

 ing to be ]irofitable in their case, it is 

 no sign it would not pay a florist with 

 cc|ual facilities anil a location in the 

 renter of the city. As to advertising for 

 country trade through the use of sin li 

 papers as the liailies' Home Journal, 

 tlii'y found that the responses were im- 

 mediate and very nuniiMous, but the 

 iiii|uiiies were for i-atahigues or for in- 

 t'.iiniation and little nmney came in. 

 'riii'ii again, tli?y I'oiind tliat the in- 

 i;iiiries ranie from localities in whidi 

 tiicy had wholesale custciiners and they 

 did not care to follow them up mi that 

 account. Therefore this plan of .-nher- 

 tising was discontinued. 



This spring the ^^'ittbold Co. l;as put 

 a number of luge street signs along 

 the electric c:>r lim^s in that jiart of the 

 c'ty in which their stores ai-r locateil. 

 (^ne of these signs ir, shown in the ac- 

 ciinipanying ;llustration. Tlifv ari' 

 ])ainted on billboards eight feet high 

 and twenty to twenty-five feet loTig. 

 ( Jiicago has a number of companit^s op- 

 ciating these boards and painting really 

 attractive signs. On a contract of ordi- 

 nary amount they paint the sign and 

 maintain it at a charge of HO cents per 

 month for each lineal foot. These signs 

 have already served to attract much at- 

 tention to the Wittbold establishments. 

 It is the first time they have been use*l 

 by a florist. 



The Wittbuld Co. has an addresso- 

 graph list of many thousands of names 

 of people located in the neighborhood of 

 thiir stores. Kvery few weeks they get 

 u[) some attractive printed matter to 

 mail to these names. It costs them 

 much more in proporticm to the people 

 reached than does any other form of ad- 

 vertising, but by having the names care- 

 fully selected it is pretty certain that 



the people reached are interested. The 

 experience is that no direct results are 

 seen unless a definite proposition is con- 

 tained in the printed matter. For in- 

 stance, advertising the cut flower ds- 

 partmcnt brings only indirect returns; 

 that is. it brings oiclers at some future 

 time when the people addressed are in 

 need of floral designs or similar service. 

 I'.ut when the offer is a definite one, as 

 f<M' instance, the planting of a stated 

 number (if red geraniums in a flower bed 

 for a certain price, the rcsjionse is im- 

 mediate, two tele|ilioiies being necessary 

 tci the handling of their business. In 

 the past month nf Aiiril the total of 

 sales was larger than in any previous 

 niiinth, and the liusiness goes back to 

 1 s.-)C. 



WOOD LICE OR SOW BUGS. 



Will you kindly let mo know through 

 the Eeview' the i)est way to get rid of 

 siiw bugs, as they arc doing me much 

 <i:nnagc.' A. W. 



Take your choice of names; they are 

 biith elegant. If you do not want to 

 use jioison, gt't some large potatoes, cut 

 in halves iuul scoop out the inside. Lay 

 tliese jiieccg about and the sow bugs 

 will creep under them to feed jhkI roost 

 and in the morning you will find them 

 there. Kutabagas are even better than 

 potatoes. P>rown sugar mixed with one- 

 tenth of its bulk of arsenic ami a small 

 quantity placed on tho beds or benches 

 on pieces of shingles or chips will soon 

 rid you of these pests. You should re- 

 move the poison when watering or the 

 siig.ar will melt and be no longer at- 

 tractive. W. S. 



Syc.vmore, O. — Mrs. T. f!. Babcock 



will add one greenhouse iOx.'JO feet this 

 summer. Trade is gmid here, particu- 

 larly nil vegetable Jilailfs. 



