The Weekly Florists^ Review* 



JUMI 10, 1009. 



ent demand on the part of customers 

 whose cut flower business was likely to 

 be lost if they were compelled to go else- 

 where with their outdoor work. Also, 

 the retail flower business begins to fall 

 off about the time the outdoor work be- 

 gins. Last February E. MacMulkin, one 

 of the progressive Boston retailers, told 

 the class in floriculture at the Amherst 

 college : 



Work for the Dull Season. 



"The outdoor work of the florist is 

 gradually assuming large proportions and 



would otherwise have to remain idle. It 

 is necessary to say here that experienced 

 labor is difficult to obtain, and when you 

 get a man who knows his business it is 

 more profitable to keep him than to let 

 him go for a couple of months or so when 

 you really have nothing for him to do. 



' * I found upon investigation that there 

 were a great many men, say men who 

 had a small, profitable business, men who 

 filled good positions in large establish- 

 ments, superintendents of manufactories, 

 etc., who were purchasing small places 

 within a short distance of their work. 



Retinospora Squarrosa Veitchii at Woodside Nurseries. 



is deserving of his best efforts. It 

 is a well-known fact that, what is called 

 the store business of the florist is good 

 only from about the first part of October 

 until the first part of May; the rest of 

 the year the florist who does nothing but 

 a store business has hard work to make 

 both ends meet, generally using up his 

 profits to pay necessary expenses during 

 the summer. Many years ago I saw the 

 necessity of making the dull months 

 profitable instead of a source of expense 

 and, much to my surprise, found condi- 

 tions were such that I would find no difli- 

 culty in providing work for men who 



places of one to ten acres, which they 

 were gradually improving at an expense 

 of $100 or so a year, each with the ex- 

 pectation of making in the end a little 

 paradise of his especial property, and 

 I have today on my books a number of 

 such people who not only keep my men 

 busy in the dull months and have given 

 me a fair profit on the goods and work 

 done, but have become buyers of flowers 

 in the winter months, when I have prac- 

 tically nothing to do outside. 



Fascination in Landscape Work. 

 "Putting aside the financial question 



involved, there is a certain fascination In 

 the work that appeals to any one inter- 

 ested in it. Everyone likes to be suc- 

 cessful and, although the worries aia 

 many, the desire, i result achieved is a 

 source of gratificalion that overbalanct3 

 anything else. The satisfactory execi • 

 tion of the comparatively small orders 

 always leads to larger ones, and whilo 

 we all may not have the financial respor- 

 sibility to attempt larger and more in;- 

 portant work, we have the feeling tha; 

 sometime we will have it, and know tha^ 

 when we do reach that condition we havr 

 the ability to carry the work to success- 

 ful completion. I cannot impress t0'> 

 thoroughly on your minds the necessitv 

 of being prepared to attach this depart 

 ment to your business. The percentage 

 of profit is good and the percentage of 

 loss practicaUy nothing. It, of course, 

 necessitates the carrying of a nursery 

 stock for a year or so, but even that 

 grows into profit for you and, if you 

 have a greenhouse, can be taken care of 

 without additional expense other than the 

 interest on the investment. That should 

 not be an outlay, as I know of nothing 

 that will improve in value as much in a 

 year as a shrub, tree or plant that you 

 put in the ground. ' ' 



Some years ago Alex. McConnell, New 

 York, felt in his Fifth avenue store the 

 call of the outdoors and started a nur- 

 sery at New Kochelle — Woodside Nur- 

 series he calls it. Here he has built up an 

 adjunct to his retail business. His place 

 is along a main traveled street at New 

 Eochelle and is an advertisement in it- 

 self, with its neatly trimmed hedge, its 

 close-clipped lawns, its flower beds and its 

 rank upon rank of specimen trees and 

 shrubs. No effort is made to grow stock 

 for price competition — the competition 

 is alone on quality of stock and charac- 

 ter of service. Specimen evergreens are 

 a feature. Greenhouses at the nursery 

 are used to provide the store with those 

 items not regularly to be had in the New 

 1 ork wholesale" market. 



THE PLATEAU. 



The plateau of roses and orchids is 

 an arrangement by Charles Henry Fox, 

 of the Sign of the Rose, Philadelphia, 

 sometimes used on sad occasions where 

 variety is demanded. The form is suit 

 able, yet by no means commonplace. The 

 material may be either in colors or in 

 white, with the rich purple of the cat- 

 tleyas by way of contrast. Narcissi, 

 lily of the valley and gardenias have 

 been used in smaller numbers for vari 

 ety's sake. Phil. 









Specimen Evergreens at Woodside Nurseries of Alex. McConnell. 



