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The Weekly Florists^ Review* 



Makcii 22, 1906. 



on hand early. If •we all ]ivr,d up to 

 this plan \vc would not be so rushed the 

 last days, as very often a customer sees 

 some article that strikes his fancy and, 

 though lit* was just looking around, 

 places an order at once. 



As no doubt you will have some green 

 hands, mark the price on all plants and 

 baskets in plain figures; of course, it is 

 hardly necessary to mark lily plants. 

 Pay particular attention to your show 

 windows, changing the display several 

 times during the week. 



In your spare moments, instead of sit- 

 ting around swapping stories, get a good 

 supply of paper boxes made up; also 

 look over your supply of paper, tags, 

 twine, etc. 



Care is Essential. 



Boxes containing violets or cut flowers 

 should be arranged with the same care 

 during the Easter rush as at other times. 

 The proper way is to urap each box to 

 prevent it becoming soiled in deliver- 

 ing, besides affording more protection 

 against frost. 



One great item of extra expense on 

 special days is extra help, generally very 

 unsatisfactory help at that, but we must 

 have it; so you would better hustle 

 around now and, if possible, scare up 

 some people who helped you in former 

 years, not only because they will have 

 had some experience, but also because 

 you know just what part of the busi- 

 ness they are most suitable for. It is 

 good policy to hire extra help at so much 

 per hour. This will guard you against 

 a lot of kicking and grumbling when it 

 comes to paying off. Appoint someone 

 to keep tab of their time. In hiring ex- 

 tra help steer clear of friends or rela- 

 tives, as it is hard to get the work out 

 of them. 



Just how large an advance order to 

 place for cut flowers you must know 

 yourselves from former years' experi- 

 ence, but place it early, f would advise 

 you not to lay in too many of those 

 green carnations. Don 't laugh ! 



UsiDg Old Baskets. 



If you have any baskets lying around 

 from last year, clean them up and fill 

 with suitable plants; this is your one 

 chance to get rid of some old baskets. 

 Also see to» it that you have a nice as- 

 sortment of new baskets, besides a good 

 supply of plaited wax paper and ribbon. 

 Under no circum.stances will we bother 

 with crepe paper again ; it is unsatis- 

 factory both to yourself and your cus- 

 tomer, as the dampness soon spoils all 

 your trouble taken in trimming the pot. 

 The plaited paper is very quickly ad- 

 justed and not so easily affected by 

 water. Various colored mats also come 

 in very handy for trimming; by first 

 moistening them they will not break and 

 are much more easily manipulated. 



As we are not all in a position where 

 we can afford automobiles for delivering, 

 make arrangements for extra wagons 

 early. See that all your horses are well 

 shod, as it may be slippery weather. 



The Shipping Department. 



It is absolutely necessary to give a 

 great deal of attention to your delivery 

 or shipping department, as many a good 

 customer has been lost through mis- 

 takes in delivering. In fact, here is 

 where really the whole trouble and worry 

 come in at Christmas or Easter. If a 

 card is lost, plants broken, a horse falls 

 down or a driver gets drunk, who gets 

 the blame? The shipping clerk, of 



course. Leaving the shipping all in the 

 hands of one man who does nothing else 

 for three or four of the busiest days is 

 the only way to have it attended to satis- 

 factorily. This clerk should be some old 

 employe of yours who not only knows the 

 city from A to Z, but who knows how to 

 handle a lot of drivers and errand boys 

 and will give every detail his undivided 

 attention. 



We generally manage to have good 

 use for five wagons and three or fotir 

 errand boys during the holidays, and act- 

 ing in the capacity of shipping clerk 1 

 have adopted the following system: 



Arranging for Delivery. 



Select some convenient place where all 

 sold articles are placed by the salesmen, 

 and from time to time arrange every 

 variety of plant by itself with the tag 

 in plain view. I have a cabinet made 

 of eight boxes, just large enough to hold 

 the order slips nicely; in appearance it 

 is similar to a spice cabinet, but instead 

 of being labeled "shoestrings," 

 "nails," etc., it bears the following un- 

 interesting labels, "today," "car," 

 "north," "east," "west," "north- 

 oast," "northwest" and "special." 



Of all the orders to be delivered, say, 

 on Saturday, the .slips are put into the 

 today box by the different salesmen 

 as soon as an order is taken for that 

 day, cut flowers and funeral work slips 

 excepted; these are placed in charge of 

 someone appointed to fill these orders, 

 when the slips are checked off and placed 

 into the today box for delivery. Every 

 once in a while I take the slips out of 

 tlie today box and divide them into their 

 respective boxes, as for instance, 746 

 Cass avenue would go into the north 

 box, and an express order into the spe- 

 cial box. 



The Trip. 



• Now for a trip. Pick about twenty- 

 five or thirty slips out of, say, the east 

 box if you intend an east trip to go 

 next. Find the articles corresponding 

 with your order slips, see that every 

 plant is carefully tied up, card on it and 

 pot trimmed if order calls for it, put 

 all in one place near where you load. 

 As you find an article, check off the cor- 

 responding slip, then lay the slips in the 

 order to be delivered and write in route 

 book. In the book I use every other 

 page is tissue, using copying paper; the 

 iieavy sheet is torn out and given to the 

 driver. See that each and every article 

 is signed for by the receiver; this will 

 avoid a great deal of worry later on. 



The best way is to keep your wagons 

 and boys always on the go, Don 't wait 

 for your orders to pile up. A trip of 

 twelve to fifteen stops is much more 

 sure to be delivered properly than one 

 with thirty or thirty-five. A driver 

 naturally gets careless at the end of a 

 long trip, especially in cold or stormy 

 weather. 



Keep the different batches of slips 

 fastened together and marked with a 

 number corresponding with the route, 

 so that in case an article comes back 

 you can place your hand right on the 

 proper slip. 



Protecting the Plants. 



For furthering the safe delivery of 

 plants, particularly lilies, we have had 

 made a number of boxes of i/->-inch 

 boards, 15x15x6 inches inside measure- 

 ment, divided into four compartments; 

 these are kept in the wagon, and help to 

 keep plants from falling over, the plants 

 being placed in the compartments. 



Go to your hatter and get a load of 

 paper hat boxes; place large trimmed- 

 up pots in them to protect the paper or 

 matting. 



It is advisable to wrap a sheet of 

 some soft tissue around each plant to 

 keep it from getting broken, for of what 

 good is all your previous care and art in 

 decorating a plant if it gets spoiled in 

 delivering? 



Thanking you for your kind attention, 

 I most sincerely hope that these few re- 

 marks will be of some benefit to you all. 



GOLD FISH AND GAS. 



I want to make inquiries about the 

 use of hydrocyanic acid gas. I have 

 two houses, one 12x85, the other 16x75. 

 The first is occupied by carnations and 

 geraniums. The other is devoted to 

 miscellaneous stock, gloxinias, begonias, 

 rubbers and almost everything that 

 grows. There is also a pond in this 

 house stocked with 100 gold fish. Will 

 it be safe to use hydrocyanic acid gas 

 in the latter house, and in what quanti- 

 ties? The houses are not very close. 

 I am troubled with the white fly and 

 greenfly. Tobacco does not seem to do 

 the work. J. F. S. 



The gas will certainly kill your green- 

 fly and white fly if used according to the 

 formula so often printed in the Review. 

 One application may not suffice, as it 

 will not affect the eggs, which would 

 eventually hatch and quickly breed an- 

 other swarm of the fly. Whether the 

 gas would be injurious to the fish is 

 quite another question and would take a 

 natural scientist to knowingly discuss. 

 My own opinion is that it would do them 

 1*0 harm; the gas being so much lighter 

 than the water, it would not penetrate 

 or mix with the water. 



This reminds me of the long ago, 

 '51 or '52 of last century. There was 

 built at my birthplace a house especially 

 constructed to grow the Victoria regia, 

 the mammoth water lily of the Amazon, 

 and it is worth mentioning that it was 

 in that very house that this giant of 

 aquatics was first successfully grown in 

 Great Britain. The house was thirty- 

 five feet in diameter and the water basin 

 thirty feet. A few gold fish were in- 

 troduced in the basin the first y^ar and 

 in four or five years they had so in- 

 creased and multiplied that there were 

 thousands of them, so many that one of 

 the trifling expenses of this beautiful 

 garden was ' ' bread for the gold fish. ' ' 



It was noticed that when visitors en- 

 tered the vestibule leading to the basin 

 the fish would come swimming up in 

 shoals of many thousands to the nearest 

 point to the sound, and this gave rise in 

 a small domestic circle to the question, 

 "Can fish hear?" I don't remember 

 whether the question was ever definitely 

 solved, but the frequent discussion of 

 the loaves and fishes will account for 

 the intimate scriptural knowledge in the 

 writer's possession. There was one fea- 

 ture absent, viz., the baskets of frag- 

 ments left; but as that is the miracle 

 part of it, we will cut it out of ours. 

 There was no fragment left. As the 

 fish were robust and healthy, the two or 

 three loaves were all devoured. 



Fish have no external ears, but that is 

 no proof that they have not the sense of 

 hearing. John Westcott has told me he 

 never caught a fish by the ear, but he 

 did tell me that he caught by the tail at 

 Barnegat bay a flounder weighing 

 twenty-seven and one-half pounds. It is 



