84 



The Weekly Florists^ Review* 



NOVEMBKU 30, 1905. 



Establishment of the Clinton Falls Nursery Co., Owatonna, Minn. 



Stevia. 



This very useful flower is of especial 

 value when the chrysanthemum season is 

 over. For mixed bouquets and in funeral 

 sprays or designs it is of great service. 

 A succession of it can readily be had 

 until the beginning of February by 

 keeping the plants in a house just clear 

 of frost. Do not allow them to drop 

 below 32 degrees or the foliage will be 

 ruined. Bring a few flats or pots into a 

 slightly warmer house as you need them, 

 always remembering that later in the 

 season it will be more valuable. 



Cypripedium Insigne. 



Tf there is one orchid valuable more 

 than any other to the average florist it 

 is the good old Cypripedium insigne. It 

 grows well in summer, even in a shady 

 spot outdoors. It is very modest in its 

 requirements indoors and invariably gives 

 at this season a liberal crop of flowers, 

 which, if not needed now, are just as 

 good two or three months hence if left 

 on the plant. It grows well, either in 

 rough sod mixed with charcoal or in na- 

 tive fern fibre. It needs pulling apart 

 when done flowering if it is becoming 

 too matted. It increases surprisingly 

 and any florist who possesses a bench of 

 it has something that he can always get 

 a purchaser for. The plants do not need 

 a warm house; 45 degrees at night is 

 enough. Keep them moderately dry at 

 the root while in bloom. These cultural 

 notes may not meet the approval of or- 

 chid experts, but they answer very well, 

 we find, for a hard working retail florist. 



The nursery department of the Clin- 

 ton Falls Nursery Co. is one of the 

 largest in the state, built up from a 

 very small beginning by Thos. E. Cash- 

 man, president of the company, until 

 now the firm has a paid up capital 

 of $150,000, employing a large force 

 on the grounds, growing hardy trees 

 and shrubs for northern trade, and 150 

 salesmen on the road selling this stock 

 to northern tree planters. Some idea of 

 the business done can be gained from the 

 fact that they are at present engaged 

 in getting out for fall delivery orders 

 to the amount of $137,000 and already 

 have on file for delivery in the spring 

 of 1906, orders amounting to $40,000. 



The buildings of the Clinton Falls 

 Nursery Co., including offices, storage 

 building, root cellar, packing sheds, 

 greenhouses and barns, are all within 

 the corporate limits of the city of 

 Owatonna, as is also 125 acres of their 

 nursery land. The remainder of the 

 land, comprising 158 acres, is within 

 j three and one-half miles of the nursery 

 and accessible by good gravel roads. 



Owatonna is a city of about 7,000 in- 

 habitants, situated seventy miles from 

 St. Paul. It has first-class shipping 

 facilities, having three railroads with 

 good train service. Mr. Cashman is a 

 young man with marked business abil- 

 ity and a thorough knowledge of the 

 nursery business. He has the honor of 

 having been twice elected mayor of 

 Owatonna. The other officers are M. 

 R. Cashman, vice-president; W. H. 

 Hart, secretary; J. R. Laughlin, treas- 

 urer, and J. A. Cieszinski, cashier. 



A MINNESOTA PLANT. 



About eighteen months ago the Clin- 

 ton Falls Nursery Co., Owatonna, 

 Minn., added a greenhouse department 

 and erected one of the most modern 

 plants in the northwest. Their houses 

 at present contain over 30,000 feet of 

 glass, equipped with tile benches, each 

 house easily accessible from the work- 

 rooms and all electric lighted, with 

 lights hanging fifteen feet apart from 

 the ridges. The principal crops grown 

 are roses, carnations and smilax, with 

 a liberal line of miscellaneous plants. 

 A general local trade is done, while 

 funeral designs for outside towns are 

 a specialty. The surplus is all disposed 

 of in St. Paul and Minneapolis. 



RETAIL ADVERTISING. 



The managers of the great circuses 

 that tour the country, and there are no 

 shrewder advertisers, say that it no 

 longer pays to cover the countryside 

 with the gaudj' lithographs that were 

 the wonder and admiration of our 

 youth; they say that nowadays the one 

 really effective way of reaching the 

 great masses of the people is through 

 the newspapers. 



Florists, especially the retailers, are 

 proverbially slow to take advantage of 

 the opportunities of advertising; they 

 do not employ the newspapers nearly 

 so freely as do those in other lines of 

 merchandising. For the purpose of 

 showing what various ones are doing in 



the way of local advertising a number 

 of newspaper advertisements are repro- 

 duced on the opposite page of this issue 

 of the Review. These are not offered 

 as examples of good advertising, al- 

 though they are considered the best of 

 a large number received. Too many of 

 them are too much like the average busi- 

 ness card to be really first-class adver- 

 tising, still there are a number of them 

 which are good enough to be worth hold- 

 ing in mind for the suggestion they 

 contain for use in one's own advertise- 

 ment. 



Most of these advertisements occupy 

 much smaller space than a dealer in any 

 other; line would think he needed to do 

 an equal volume of business. Of course 

 in large cities newspaper space is ex- 

 pensive, but it doesn't cost much in 

 country dailies and still less in the week- 

 lies; still space is all too valuable to 

 devote to the stereotyped business card. 

 Of course the publisher likes the card; 

 all is grist that comes to his mill, and a 

 small grist is better than none. But he 

 will like the order all the better if it 

 calls for enough space to contain a 

 little "talk" on seasonable topics, or 

 a priced special offer now and then. And 

 he will be willing, even anxious, to have 

 you change the matter in your space at 

 least every few issues, for he realizes 

 that this is the way to get best results, 

 the results which will make you a con- 

 tinuous advertiser and a user of larger 

 space. 



The successful advertising of a flower 

 store is not so different from advertis- 

 ing any other kind of a store, except 

 that you have so many more and so 

 much more interesting things to write 

 about. 



CATALOGUES RECEIVED. 



F. Dorner & Sons Co., La Fayette, 

 Ind., circular descriptive of Carnation 

 White Perfection; Weigelt & Co., Er- 

 furt, Germany, vegetable seed novelties; 

 UberV) Hillebrand, Palanza, Italy, 

 seeds; Heinrich Henkel, Darmstadt, 

 Germany, plants; E. F. Winterson Co., 

 Chicago, florists ' supplies. 



Wichita, Kan. — H. E. Mueller 

 bought some of the prize-winning chry- 

 santhemum plants at the Kansas City 

 show and the next week used then as the 

 feature of a show at his down-town 

 store. 



