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8 



The Weekly Florists' Review. 



Jur-T 13, 1911. 



plants or cut flowers, but it will be 

 found well worth while to bring these 

 to the front. Too many keep the fern 

 dishes, the jardinieres, the baskets and 

 the ribbons hid from view. Is it a 

 custom holding over from the time flo- 

 rists feared to charge for the acces- 

 sories! Nowadays we add to the price 

 everything we add to the cost, and 

 then some, and would as soon think 

 of donating the flowers as supplying 

 the basket and ribbon without making 

 the charge that represents the usual 

 percentage of profit. If we are selling 

 the accessories, then why not show 

 what we have for salef 



By all means get some attractive 

 cases and display your wares. Others 

 do it, and they find it increases sales. 



A GOOD MANTEL. 



The accompanying illustration is re- 

 produced from a photograph showing a 

 mantel decoration for a wedding, ar- 

 ranged by E. M. Leavift, Elmira, N. 

 Y. The materials used were blooming 

 laurel, ferns, phoenix, kentias and other 

 decorative plants. 



A UMIT ON ABT? 



One of the pet theories of the retail 

 florist of the old school has been that 

 he was not a merchant but an artist; 

 that his prices should be based, like 

 those of any other artist, not on the 

 quantity of his work, but on its merit. 

 But gradually there has grown up a 

 suspicion that art may not be so mer- 

 chantable as flowers. 



There still are many florists in the 

 larger cities who cater only to those 

 who are willing to pay large prices, but 

 several years ago one thoughtful leader 

 of the artistic school of flower retailing 



concluded that it would be as well to 

 get a part of the trade of those persons 

 who wish merely to buy flowers and not 

 works of art. To that end he opened a 

 branch establishment under another 

 name, and not so far distant but that 

 the two stores would seemingly com- 

 pete. The venture was a success. 



At a still more recent date a high- 

 class retailer in another city determined 

 to try the effect of more popular prices 

 to secure the growth in business which 

 failed to come so long as retailing was 

 conducted on the basis of artistic serv- 

 ice and artistic prices. The way the 

 business since has grown has been one 

 of the marvels of the trade. 



Other high-class retailers are finding 

 that there is a limit on the business 

 which can be done on the strictly ar- 

 tistic basis; their sales are not increas- 

 ing in proportion to the general in- 

 crease in the flower business; they are 

 not getting the natural increase in the 

 consumption of flowers in their neigh- 

 borhood. As one whose work is of the 

 highest merit phrased it: "Our people 

 come to us when they want something 

 really good — when the name on the box 

 counts for possibly as much as the 

 flowers inside — but " when they want 

 flowers for their own use they often 

 stop at some other store — some store 

 that is just winning its reputation, 

 where the service may not be quite so 

 good, but where it still is good enough." 



The trouble at these high-class stores 

 is that expenses and volume of sales 

 do not keep step — expenses move fast- 

 est. All the costs are higher — rents, 

 supplies, miscellaneous and labor, es- 

 pecially labor. The capable help ex- 

 pects frequent raises in wages, and must 

 have them, for tempting offers are often 

 coming to them from stores that are do- 



Mantel Decoration by R. M. (.eavitt, Elmira, New York. 



ing increasing volume and which seek 

 to improve service, to the end that the 

 increase in trade may keep on. 



"The old theory of charging for the 

 florists' artistic abilities," said an ex- 

 perienced and thoroughly capable de- 

 signer, in a discussion the other day, 

 "is like a firecracker on the fifth of 

 July — either exploded or incapable of 

 being turned into money. Nowadays we 

 don't sell art — ^we jBell flowers and 

 throw in the art, along with the box. 

 There are a certain number of people 

 who will pay the cost of exelusiveness, 

 of high-class service and all the inci- 

 dentals which go to make the measured 

 success of the hightoned store, but it is 

 a fact that the number of this class of 

 flower buyers is increasing nowhere 

 nearly so fast as the number of those 

 who will buy flowers at moderate prices 

 and accept moderately good service. It 

 is a fact, also worthy of careful 

 thought, that the expense of doing 

 business does not increase in proportion 

 to the increase of the volue of business. 

 In other words, when one does only a 

 small trade he must inevitably charge 

 higher prices than where a business of 

 several times the volume is done. 'Con- 

 sequently, the store doing the large 

 volume can afford to give first-class 

 service, including all the artistic touches 

 that first-class service implies, and do it 

 without making any appreciable charge 

 for the service. 



* ' More and more each year the flower 

 business is getting away from the idea 

 of selling service and is building upon 

 the theory of selling flowers. When one 

 sells enough flowers the old margins 

 of profit become no longer necessary, 

 and those flower businesses are growing 

 fastest today which are based on the 

 theory of large sales and small profits. ' ' 



Food for thought in that. Is there a 

 limit on art? Is it sooner reached than 

 the limit on the sale of flowers? Or is 

 there any limit on flower selling? 



STOBAOE FOB CUT FLOWEBS. 



We contemplate building an office and * 

 salesroom this season and are in a 

 quandary as to which will prove the 

 better method of storage for our cut 

 flowers. We have these two plans in 

 mind: To build a refrigerator of suf- 

 ficient size in one end of the room, or 

 dig a cellar about eight feet deep and 

 use this instead. Can anyone in the 

 trade who may have had some experi- 

 ence along these lines give us any in- 

 formation as to which plan will prove 

 the more satisfactory the year through? 

 Our experience has been that flowers out 

 of a refrigerator do not keep so long 

 as those from a cool cellar. On the 

 other hand, at this season of the year 

 flowers get soft and rot off sooner in a 

 cellar than in a refrigerator. Could 

 you offer any suggestions as to the best 

 manner of ventilating a deep cellar. 

 Would you suggest a cement bottom iu 

 it? L. 



The inquiry does not give suflScient 

 information as to the circumstances in 

 the present case to afford a basis for 

 other than a general reply. Usually it 

 is as the correspondent says: the flowers 

 keep better if stored in a cellar, so long 

 as the cellar is cool enough. The trouble 

 lies in that the cellar may not keep 

 suflSiciently cool in hot weather^ if it 

 does, you can not beat it, either for 

 care of the stock or for cost. As for the 

 concrete floor, it probably will be nec- 

 essary because of the use of water in the 

 rellar, but I think a concreted cellar al- 



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