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The Weekly Florists^ Review^ 



August 17. 1905. 



few years of its history, should some day 

 be written for us. But as your presi- 

 dent, I have too large a conception of 

 our future to devote the time, which 

 your custom gives me, to a backward 

 view. If we made a wonderful advance 

 in the first five years of our existence, 

 what may not our younger members 

 accomplish in the five years which begin 

 today? 



Cur Opportunity. 



There never was a time in our his- 

 tory when opportunities for exploiting 

 our business were greater than today; 

 never a time when the public was so 

 eagerty interested in horticulture and 

 floriculture; never a time when there 

 were so many patrons of floriculture. 

 Nor is this interest a narrow one. It 

 considers the use of horticulture beyond 

 the decoration of private grounds and is 

 alive to its uses in all public ways. 



Therefore, I shall emphasize first 

 those lines on which we can work indi- 

 vidually and as a body. The individual 

 in his own neighborhood, club, city or 

 state; our society, among clubs, nation- 

 ally. 



Interesting; Demand in Plants. 



President James Dean said in 1892: 



Our advance as a society must be comiueu- 

 surate with and excel the advance ot floricul- 

 ture, which, during the past twenty years, has 

 been phenomenal. The trade liaH now assumed 

 colossal proportions In America. The efforts of 

 our memt>er8 have brought floriculture todiiy to 

 be a leading industry of the country. 



How true then, and how true today. 

 We have made Avonderful progress in 

 caring for the advance of floriculture 

 on cut flower lines. The production of 

 flowers to meet the public demand has 

 been far beyond the expectations of the 

 most sanguine. With few exceptions, in 

 all states of the Union, our members 

 seem to be keeping pace with this 

 growth. But there has grown up within 

 the past three or four years, and 

 more especially within the last year 

 or two, an unusual and general 

 interest in plants. Not that the 

 use of cut flowers has lessened, but the 

 public has decided to have horticultural 

 homes, to live among plants, shrubs and 

 trees. This is the demand we must care 

 for today or we will not come into our 

 own. The public rightfully expects this 

 of us and will reward us with a liberal 

 patronage. I am not sure that we appre- 

 ciate this as fully as we should,. 



Vice-President Theodore Wirth, super- 

 intendent of Hartford, Conn., parks, 

 gives us earnest advice in hia state re- 

 port of 1904: 



The cultivation of the taste for flowers and 

 decorations bus become universal. It most de- 

 cidedly has, and I am not only bold enough to 

 state that the tendency of the public in that 

 direction is greatly due to the influence exer- 

 cised on same through the floral displays, dec- 

 orationa and cultivation in up-to-date public 

 parks and private grounds, but claim that but 

 a small percentage of the commercial florists 

 of today, both growers and dealers, are ready 

 and prepared to talce advantage of the demand 

 stimulated and created through same to their 

 benefit. Hu.idreds of visitors to onr parks 

 want to know where they can procure that or 

 the other plant, all easily grown and adapted 

 to our climate, and when they arc given the ad- 

 dresses of our florists they come back and say 

 ttat those florists don't grow them and don't 

 knovr them. 



If the local florists would aim to keep step 

 with tbe times by growing such novelties as are 

 proven to be meritorious introductions and 

 which the public want, they would to their own 

 advantage secure a home trade in plaoe of 

 forcing same Into the hands of unscrupulous, 

 swindling, fake drummers, that go around the 

 country collecting good money for false, worth- 

 less goo«ls. 



Our Art in Public Improvements. 



A large section of civic improvement 

 ^ork now depends upon the use of our 



Wm. F. Kasting, President-Elect Society of American Florists. 



I)roducts. Our art is most applicable 

 and available for this purpose. It ia 

 used in streets, parks, vacant lots, chil- 

 dren's play-grounds, etc. The awakened 

 public interest in horticulture has 

 increased the demand for our aid 

 broadly in this direction. This is our 

 great good fortune and is our oppor- 

 tunity. This favor shown to our pro- 

 fession by our best citizens should be 

 our inspiration. It should cause every 

 florist to join or lead all movements for 

 civic . improvement work which have in 

 their scope the use of horticultural 

 products, not for pecuniary advantages 

 that may come directly or indirectly, 

 but for the better reasons that horticul- 

 turists can handle such matters intelli- 

 gently and efficiently, and because they 

 cannot afford to allow any other class 

 of their fellow-citizens to precede them 

 in applying their art to the betterment 

 of mankind. If they have noble oppor- 

 tunities in their chosen pursuit let them 

 be foremost in putting them into prac- 

 tice. 



Begin Improvements at Home. 



■ J. Horace McFarland, president of the 

 American Civic Association, writes: 



The Society of American Florists at the Wash- 

 ington convention should co-oj)erate with our 

 association by asking its members to clean up 

 and develop their own places as examples to 

 the communities In which they live. Calling 

 to mind the various floral establishments you 

 have seen, you will remember that many are 

 dirty and unkempt. Sometimes there Is a lit- 

 tle ornamental front gate and show greenhouse, 

 back of which Is an ill-looking potting-sbed 

 banked up with rubbish of various kinds. Thus 

 have the florists themselves by dirt and disorder 

 often belled their own profession as beautlfiers 

 and decorators. The platform of the American 



Civic Association is "a more beautiful Amer- 

 ica," and there should be no people in all the 

 country who are so much In line from a busi- 

 ness standpoint as those connected with the 

 horticultural trade. 



Many of us can confirm with regret 

 Mr. McFarland 's words. ' There is much 

 for us to do in this direction. We must 

 not only clean up, repair, and paint, but 

 we must burn or bury the rubbish, and 

 Vve must do more. We must have room 

 for perennials and shrubbery as well as 

 bedding plants in and around our estab- 

 lishments; we must have varied and 

 beautiful window boxes and plants in 

 tubs. These groups of shrubbery, these 

 boxes and potted plants not only deco- 

 rate our surroundings and make them 

 examples, but from all of these, sales 

 may be continually made and the stock 

 continually replaced. Thus instead of 

 making our betterments an expense we 

 make them a source of added income. 



President Lonsdale in 1895 on this 



line said to you: 



The florists' business Is something more than 

 the cut flower trade. There is the beautifying 

 of gardens and grounds, much of which coniM 

 under the care and suggestion of florists and 

 gardeners. But the first thing every wide- 

 awake florist will do is to beautify his own 

 home and surroundings. It is positively neces- 

 sary for us to have examples of everything that 

 is good and grown In the most attractive and 

 best possible manner If we would have the de- 

 sired effect on our surrounding neighborhood. 



The Press a Great Aid. 



You have all seen the increasing space 

 given to horticulture in the public press. 

 The ablest editions of our metropolitan 

 Sunday papers are alive to the public 

 interest in gardening and not only buy 

 svndicate sheets of horticultural news 



