Mai 19, 1010. 



The Weekly Florists' Review. 



15 



1 



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THE RETAIL 



FLORIST 



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I 



A MEMORIAL WREATH. 



Of made-up flowers for Memorial day 

 siiles, probably the wreath takes the lead 

 — it is the design invariably chosen 

 where a piece is ordered for the tomb 

 of some noted man. Flat sprays prob- 

 ably have the preference for private uses, 

 l)ut if a club, or lodge, or church wants a 

 design, the wreath is the one that will 

 be called for. The accompanying illus- 

 tration shows an excellent form for such 

 a memorial purpose. This wreath is 

 made of laurel and lilies, but it might 

 as well be made of any one of the flowers 

 now in season. Instead of lilies, roses, I 

 carnations or peonies could be used with 

 equally good effect. Instead of laurel, 

 the wreath might be made of galax, box- 

 wood or leucothce. The ribbon adds more 

 to the appearance than to the cost. 



MEMORIAL DAY. 



The Cut Flower Growers' Own. 



Memorial day is one of the special 

 tiower holidays at which the grower of 

 blooming plants "cuts no ice." No 

 matter how loudly the retailer may pro- 

 claim at Easter or at Christmas, " I 'll 

 push the plants; no more high priced 

 pickled- cut stock in mine," as May 30 

 approaches he has not a word to say, for 

 plants or against cut flowers — the 

 Memorial day requirements are prac- 

 tically exclusively for cut blooms; no- 

 body wants plants that holiday. 



There is, of course, a large demand for 

 plants for bedding out at Memorial day, 

 or rather a demand that the bedding-out 

 sliall be completed by that date, but as 

 for special plant sales for May 30, there 

 are none, nor is there any reason why 

 the retail florist should care to change 

 the existing condition. 



Memorial day comes at a time when 

 cut flower supplies ordinarily are large. 

 This year the general prospect is for 

 rather heavier supplies than usual of 

 greenhouse grown cut flowers, if for 

 rather light supplies of outdoor stock, 

 stock. 



Good Stock Abundant This Year. 



Memorial day is not a time that qual- 

 ity counts so much as at other seasons. 

 Most of the flowers sold find their way 

 to the cemeteries, and if in presentable 

 • ondition at the time they are left there, 

 no one is the wiser if the lasting quality 

 does not prove to be exceptional. "What 

 is wanted more than anything else at 

 Memorial day is a big showing at no 

 great expense. The peony is an ideal 

 <emetery flower, but the carnation never- 

 theless has the lead in popularity. The 

 cool weather which has prevailed since 

 the middle of April has put greenhouse 

 stock in finer shape than usual for Me- 

 morial day. Indeed, the quality of car- 

 nations and roses is almost up to the 

 best midwinter grade and supplies are so 

 large that only moderate prices are ex- 



pected to prevail in the wholesale mar- 

 kets. 



Growth of the Demand. 



It is not so many years ago that 

 Memorial day was considered as a little 

 private affair of the survivors of the 

 Civil War, and their families, but of late 

 years the observance of the day has be- 

 come general, and everyone now takes 

 flowers to the cemetery May 30. "When 

 it was striftlv an old soldiers' observ- 



that outdoor flowers will be scarce, at 

 least in the section of the country that 

 had the hard freeze in late April, the 

 retailers can proceed to stock up heavier 

 than ever before. To meet the demand, 

 more flowers will be required than on 

 any other one day in the year. 



Memorial day promises to be speciaDy 

 good this year, because it falls on Mon- 

 day. Experience has shown that where 

 the day either next precedes or follows 

 Sunday, the business is greater than 

 where the day falls in the middle of the 

 week. It virtually amounts to a two 

 days' decoration. 



Why Hide Your Light? 



Although the business has grown to 

 such large proportions, it has been al- 

 most wholly without the assistance of the 

 florist. Hardly any retail florist has 

 done more to increase the Memorial day 

 business than simply to provide the stock 

 in anticipation of the demand. While 

 manv have learned the vklue of adver- 



ance the extra demand in flower stores 

 was hardly worthy special preparation, 

 but it is quite different nowadays. No 

 matter how fast the average florist 's 

 Christmas and Easter business has 

 grown, the increase for Memorial day 

 has been far greater. With the expe- 

 rience of recent years and the certainty 



tising, especially at Christmas and 

 Easter, extremely few have applied pub- 

 licity at Memorial day. Slow to adver- 

 tise as the average local florist is, he has 

 done rather less at Memorial day than 

 at any other time. 



The possibilities of advertising to in- 

 crease the retail flower business are sim- 



