36 



The Florists^ Review 



OCTOBBR 20, 1921 



(I 



Published every Thursday by 

 The Florists* Publishino Co.. 



B00-Q60 Oaxton Building, 



608 South Dearborn St., Chicago. 



Tel.,Wabaah819B. 



Registered cable address, 



Florrlew, Chicago. 



Entered aa second class matter 

 Deo. 3. 1897, at the post-office at Ohl- 

 cacro, lU.. under the Act of March 

 8. 1879. 



Subscription price, $2.00 a year. 

 To Canada, $3.00; to Europe. $4.00. 



AdrertlslnK rates quoted on 

 request. Only strictly trade ad* 

 Tertlsinff accepted. 



RESULTS. 



We give them. You get them. 



We both have them. 



Grow goed plants and you will not 

 have to seek long or far for customers. 



There are indications this trade may 

 with confidence look forward to an ex- 

 (iellent Chriatmas. 



Some store fixtures are display cases 

 and some are merchandise closets. Have 

 your store equipped to help you sell. 



Don 't knock. The knocker betrays 

 the fact that he measures himself by his 

 competitor, whom he thereby concedes to 

 set the standard. 



Advertisements of American-grown 

 longiflorum bulbs are beginning to appear 

 in The Review, usually in the Pacific 

 Coast Department. 



How large the scale of some growers' 

 operations has become is displayed by 

 the orders of two Chicago interests for a 

 new rose, which total 200,000 plants. 



No standard is so high as the simple one 

 of service. No high-flown terms of vague 

 meaning can win the patronage that comes 

 as the result of earnest work well done. 



Nothing is so false a delusion as a 

 profit on the ledger with a large amount 

 in accounts receivable outstanding. You 

 cannot pay dividends with money in some 

 one 's else pocketbook. 



The tax of 1 cent for each 25 cents 

 or fraction postage on parcel i)ost pack- 

 ages was stricken from the tax revision 

 bill by the Senate last week. If this 

 action proves final, tliis vexation will end 

 January 1, 1922. 



Your display window advertises your 

 business whether you dress it or not. A 

 jnussy window indicates a careless florist. 

 A window unchanged from week to week 

 indicates an unprogressive merchant. A 

 bright, well trimmed window gives to 

 passers news of an up-to-date, alert busi- 

 ness man. 



Kvery florist should have a printed 

 letterhead. Many of the houses best worth 

 while dealing with do not allow whole- 

 sale prices to anyone whose identity as 

 a florist or nurseryman is not recognized 

 or apparent. Unfortunately, some peo- 

 ple even consign to the waste basket 

 communijatiOns written in lead pencil on 

 a sheet from a school pad. 



Many of those who make a business of 

 growing geraniums for the trade report 

 they are booked up with all the orders 

 they can fill in 1921. 



Rose America will not be sent out 

 until next year. Already orders have 

 been booked for 213,000, which will be 

 kept on file for the later delivery. 



The man who has his eyes intent on 

 seeing what he can do for his customers, 

 instead of on how he can do them, will 

 build up the most substantial and endur- 

 ing business. 



An award of merit was given Carna- 

 tion Maine Sunshine, Strout's new yellow 

 variety now becoming so popular, at the 

 meeting of the Royal Horticultural So- 

 ciety, in London, last month. 



The trade has had three years of un- 

 usual prosperity, during which some flor- 

 ists watched the overhead expense, looked 

 after collections, lived conservatively and 

 accumulated capital. They are not worry- 

 ing now. 



It is not necessarily the cost of produc- 

 tion which determines the value of what 

 you sell. How many people want a thing 

 and how badly they want it often has 

 more weight than any other factor in 

 making value. 



A customer hesitates to ask a sales- 

 man the price of each kind of flowers in 

 the icebox till she hits one within her 

 means; she may withdraw without pur- 

 chasing instead. A price card on each 

 vase would have made the sale in an in- 

 stant. 



There is a glimmer of hope in the re- 

 ports that bituminous coal production is 

 gaining its seasonal autumn stride and 

 that some coal men are seeking business 

 at low figures — lower than the prices 

 quoted, but how low is not yet known or 

 appreciated. 



One business man who is showing an 

 increase in sales and in profits when 

 many others are facing the reverse was 

 asked how he did it. "Work like Sam 

 Hill!" was his laconic response, valu- 

 able as advice to those who have got out 

 of the habit. 



Greenhouse help no longer is scarce. 

 If you need it, just put a Want Ad in 

 The Review. But good stock, especially 

 potted plants, will be short of the demand 

 all winter and in the spring there will be 

 a tremendous demand for first-class bed- 

 ding stock. Go to it. 



The florists' business is weak in one 

 unfortunate way. Too many florists are 

 without adequate ofiice facilities; they 

 keep too few and inexact records of their 

 business and, lacking clerical assistance, 

 they do not answer letters as they should. 

 Modern business houses employ the rule 

 that every communication must be ac- 

 knowledged on receipt unless performance 

 of the request contained will constitute 

 such acknowledgment. Most of all, a 

 letter of inquiry or complaint must have 

 immediate acknowledgment in an up-to- 

 date establishment. 



AN EXAMPLE TO FOLLOW. 



Outside the windows that extend near- 

 ly to the sidewalk in the Woodward 

 building, at the corner of Fifteenth and 

 H streets, in Washington, D. C, stretch 

 window boxes along almost the entire 

 frontage. J. H. Small & Sons, whose 

 splendid store is in the corner of the 

 building, fronting on both streets, set 

 the example. So much were their boxes 



admired that the proprietors of the ad- 

 joining shops added the feature to their 

 fronts. Now they seem a necessary part 

 of the building. 



The florist whose store lines up with 

 the shops of many other sorts in a busi- 

 ness district can distinguish his from 

 the unbroken row of fronts by window 

 or walk boxes. The chances are that, in 

 a business block of elite shops, his 

 neighbors will before long want him to 

 install boxes for them. A few personal 

 calls may enable him to beautify the 

 whole block. 



Then the florist has the whole block 

 advertising him. A pedestrian's 

 thoughts fall on plants and flowers when 

 he views the array of verdant shop 

 fronts and he is sold on flowers, as\ the 

 advertising men say, by the time he 

 reaches the florist's door. 



THE REAL SOLUTION. 



At Toronto, just as at many other 

 florists' gatherings, many questions 

 were asked about what one is to do 

 under certain trying conditions. An or- 

 der miscarries, a customer complains, 

 unreasonable demands are put upon the 

 retailer — what more can he do when 

 he has already fulfilled his part of the 

 transaction? The situation varies, yet 

 the remedy seems the same: Do what 

 you must to satisfy the customer. 



Penn the Florist put it this way in a 

 folder mailed to brother florists last 

 week: 



When Marshall Field said, "The customer is 

 always right," many merrhants smiled incredu- 

 lously, but that policy built the largest depart- 

 ment store in the world. 



When a certain mall order house first adver- 

 tised "Satisfaction or your money back," Icnow- 

 ing ones then predicted quick ruin, but this 

 business grew by leaps and bounds. 



When any one of us delivers a telegraph order 

 and a kick later develops, the one who deliv- 

 ered the flowers should protect the customer. No 

 questions asked, no quibbling, but a quick, 

 hearty and sincere response. Just send another 

 box. The good will that you thus create for 

 yourself and fellow florists is an indispensable 

 rock In the foundation of bigger business. 



The successful merchant tries to make 



a profit on every transaction. Yet he 



must at times forego what he has earned 



for the purpose of saving for himself the 



profit on subsequent orders. 



WILL A READER ANSWEi? 



Will The Review kindly give us the 

 origin of the name tradescantia and 

 state why the plant is called Wandering 

 Jew? S. & C— Del. 



The plant was named for John Tra- 

 descant, who was gardener to Charles I, 

 king of England, and who died about 

 1638. The Wandering Jew of the green- 

 houses and hanging baskets, usually 

 known as Tradescantia tricolor, is partly 

 T. fluminensis and partly Zebrina pen- 

 dula, according to Bailey's Cyclopedia 

 of American Horticulture. The origin 

 of the common name, Wandering Jew, 

 is not of record. Perhaps some reader 

 of The Review can give it? 



BUSINESS EMBARRASSMENTS. 



Kansas City, Mo.— The Marlborough 

 Studios, at Tenth and Locust streets, 

 have recently filed a petition in bank- 

 ruptcy. 



New York, N. Y.— Arthur T. Bod^ 

 dington & Co., dealers in seeds at 128 

 Chambers street, have filed schedules 

 in bankruptcy, listing liabilities of 

 $12,608 and assets of $5,837, the main 

 items of which are stock, $2,500; ac- 

 counts, $1,728, and fixtures, $1,500. 



