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Fkbbuaby 25, 1909. 



The Weekly Florists' Review* 



..> 



THE RETAIL 



FLORIST I 



• THE MASONIC DESIGN. 



The accompanying illustration shows 

 a somewhat unusual design made by 

 Charles P. Mueller, Wichita, Kan., for 

 the obsequies of a thirty-third degree 

 Mason. The masonic eagles were made 

 with Roman hyacinths, the border being 

 of carnations. The eagles' heads were 

 made of immortelles, although it would 

 have been possible to have made them of 

 colored carnations. The crown was of 

 Paper Whites. Smilax not only backed 

 the whole design but served to outline 

 the upper parts. 



THE RETAIL TRADE. 



[An abstract of a talk by Edward MacMiUkin. 

 of Boston, Mass., before the floricultural cUsses 

 of the Massachusetts Agricultural College, Feb- 

 ruary 17, 1909.] 



During the last thirty years the meth- 

 ods of conducting a first-class florists' 

 business have improved year by year, and 

 the knowledge of the business required 

 of a first-class man has increased corre- 

 spondingly. Years ago it was suflBcient 

 for a man to know the name of a few 

 common flowers and be able to put them 

 in a box and tie them up. That was the 

 end of it. There were no such things for 

 the ordinary public as decorated dinner 

 tables, decorated halls, churches, etc. All 

 those were for people of large means, 

 who had greenhouses of their own. Now 

 all well regulated households have more 

 or less of decorations when they give a 

 dinner, and devote considerable time to 

 the selection of the flowers and expect 

 the florist to be of considerable assist- 

 ance in the selection. This is as it 

 should be, for the reason that if with 

 your assistance your customer is satisfied 

 with the result of the combined efforts, 

 he la sure to want it another time, and 

 not only that, but he will also recom- 

 mend you to his friends who want similar 

 work done for them. 



The Building of a Business. 



The florist is under a handicap, in a 

 way, ^n the conduct of his business, from 

 the fact that conditions are not always 

 favorable to pushing his goods before the 

 public by advertising them, as does his 

 neighbor in other lines of trade, through 

 the daily press, periodicals, etc. It is 

 practically conceded in the trade that the 

 florists ' business is a one-man affair, and 

 that practically all who want to buy 

 flowers know where they are going to 

 get them, or have some friend who will 

 tell them the best place to get what they 

 want. For this reason it is wholly up to 

 the man himself to make his business. 

 He must not only be thoroughly in- 

 formed about it, but he must have good 

 taste, b« courteous to his customers, 

 ready to supply their wants, and prompt 

 in the execution of his orders, and he 

 must demand the same qualities in his 

 employees. 



In this connection I am sorry to say 

 that a large number of florists do not 

 take kindly to the idea of customers of 



their establishment wanting to do their 

 business with ,any special employee. Per- 

 sonally I would consider it a compli- 

 ment to my judgment to have men in 

 my employ in whom my customers have 

 enough confidence to intrust to them the 

 execution of their orders. This difficulty 

 is due more to a lack of education and 

 proper spirit in the employer, and as 

 new men with new ideas enter the bnai 

 ness, this stumbling block to the young 

 men will be remove*!. Any of you yottnlj 



don't take this, you can't get it any- 

 where else." 



Unfair G>mpetition. 



The competition, I am sorry to say, is 

 not always fair in a florist, any more 

 than it is in other lines. In fact, the 

 chances for deception are greater with 

 the florist, if he be at all unscrupulous. 

 For instance, a man may go to a legiti- 

 mate house and say he wants so many 

 of one thing and so many ^f another, or 

 wants a certain decoration put up and 

 wants certain good things in it. You 

 tell him what it will cost him, intending 

 to give him what he asks for. Your com- 

 I)etitor comes in then and says, "I can 

 do the same thing for so much less, ' ' 

 knowing at the time he could not do so 

 except by furnishing an inferior article. 

 You can buy a rose for 5 cents and you 

 can buy the same variety for- 25 cents, 

 but it is still a rose, and the trouble with 

 a great many people is that a rose is a 

 rose and they cannot see why the price 



Masonic Design by C P. Mueller. 



men who intend to enter the business, to 

 be successful, must have one idea upper- 

 most in your mind; that is, the convinc- 

 ing of your customer that you are the 

 man from whom he can get better re- 

 sults for the money he expends than 

 from any of your competitors. Competi- 

 tion is abroad in the land. It has en- 

 tered the florists' business as well as 

 others, and the time has gone by when a 

 man can say to a customer, "If you 



should be different in one place than in 

 another. Of course, this does not happen 

 often and is always disastrous to the 

 cheap man. He makes that one trade, 

 but he can never do business with^that 

 customer again. Every man is entitled 

 to a legitimate profit on his work. He 

 must satisfy himself what that profit 

 should be and he should get it. If his 

 unscrupulous neighbor should take away 

 a trade, it should not bother him. His 



