JULY 6, 1905. 



The Weekly Florists' Review^ 



355 



Two Bunches of Violets Ready for Market, One With Leaves and the Other Without. 



(Leaves are sometimes added after the bunch reaches the market. These bunches measured about eight Inches In diameter.) 



flowers and plants whether you adver- 

 tise or not, there are thousands who are 

 not buying, and many who are not 

 bujing of you, who would do so if re- 

 minded of your location and of your 

 plants and flowers. What . would you 

 think of a clothier who would advertise 

 winter clothing in the summer, or sum- 

 mer clothing in the winter? It is the 

 same way with florists. You cannot 

 expect people to buy when society is 

 away at the mountains and lakes. 



Advertisements should describe flow- 

 ers and give prices. Few people know 

 the diflferent flowers and their uses and 

 are inclined to believe that flowers are 

 an expensive luxury. Tell them how to 

 use flowers and show them that they 



not be expensive beyond moderation. 



Sales on special days are a good thing 

 for new business, but do not give an 

 inferior grade of goods when a first- 

 class article is advertised. The public 

 will soon find you out and then no mat- 

 ter how much you advertise it will not 

 bring results. Be honest with the peo- 

 ple. If you advertise first-grade roses 

 for 75 cents a dozen see that they are 

 first grade. 



It takes years and lots of effort to 

 build up a business. The best way to 

 talk is through the newspapers of your 

 home town. They reach the people of 

 whom you expect patronage. Start a 

 campaign this fall, order your cuts and 

 keep at it. Henry L. Patthey. 



The First Picking. 

 Usually by the beginning of October, 

 weather conditions being favorable, the 

 |""st violets may be picked. Of course, 

 the flowers that are produced in the early 

 part of the season are never so large or 

 jine as those later on. Still they are vio- 

 '«ts, and it has been our practice to be- 

 gin sending them into the market at the 

 ^arheat practicable moment, simply with 

 ^ \^ew to creating a desire for better 

 **o\\crs later on. It requires a certain 

 ani'Hint of time to educate the people to 

 ne fact that violets are in the market, 

 "'' the earlier one can start, even with 

 thesL' ordinary flowers, the better. 



Bunchinsf. 



'J'le may be ever so successful in grow- 



ing a crop of this kind, have fine flowers, 

 and yet without good taste and judg- 

 ment in picking, bunching, and market- 

 ing, poor profits will result. A man with 

 very ordinary flowers and good judgment 

 in the matter of handling and picking 

 can often get a great deal more for his 

 crop than one who has good flowers and 

 fails to recognize the essentials in put- 

 ting them up in attractive bunches. We 

 have seen very ordinary bunches which 

 had been put up without any regard to 

 neatness, bring, when rehandled and re- 

 bunched, more than four times the price 

 they were selling for before such treat- 

 ment; that is, violets selling on the street 

 for 35 to 40 cents per hundred have been 

 bought, rebunched and neatly tied, and 

 sold readily for $1.50 per hundred. 



The usual practice is to put the violeta 

 in bunches of fifty, or on special occa- 

 sions in bunches of 100. Surrounding 

 each bunch should be a neat backing of 

 violet foliage, either of the single variety 

 or the leaves from the double sorts. This 

 matter will be more fully understood by 

 consulting the illustrations of the 

 bunched flowers. 



Marketing. 



Attention has already been called to 

 the necessity of having a constant supply 

 of good flowers, and if the crop has been 

 carefully grown there will be no difficulty 

 on this score, providing the grower has 

 2,000 plants or more. The violets should 

 be got into the market as quickly as pos- 

 sible after the picking, as every hour de- 

 tracts from their desirable features, es- 

 pecially in the matter of odor. Odorless 

 violets are practically worthless, but not- 

 withstanding this fact great quantities 

 of them are thrown on the market each 

 year by growers who must necessarily 

 ship long distances. A well-grown, large, 

 sweet violet, properly bunched, will al- 

 ways be able to command good prices in 

 the face of any number of cold-storage 

 kinds which have been so long separated 

 from the mother plants as to have lost 

 all odor and pretty nearly all semblance 

 to the flower. 



No success can be obtained in the sale 

 of the flower without a careful study of 

 the markets. The local needs should be 

 investigated and pandered to. Wherever 

 it is practicable to create an interest in 

 the flower by unique systems of bunch- 

 ing or handling, such systems should be 

 adopted. It is the man who looks out 

 for such innovations that usually is able 

 to command the best prices. If the vio- 

 lets are intended for the local trade they 

 may simply be loosely packed in the 

 greenhouse and sent to the stand or store 

 and bunched there. This always has 

 some attractive features and advantages, 

 in that it enables the people to see the 

 bunching actually going on and is in the 

 nature of an advertisement of the goods. 

 This is particularly the case where one 



