24 



The Weekly Florists^ Review* 



Jan CAR V 11, lOi; 



tonuT, at a low lij^iirc, say, from HO 

 cents to $1 i»(>r liuiidri'il, or at tlio saiiu' 

 jirico llii' taker |iays.' N'ou \\'\\\ say 

 tlu' latter buys tliousamls at one tiino; 

 true enough, hut only wlien lie can buy 

 at a loss to tlie giowiT. W'Ihmi you 

 are selling at a ]>rolit it is llie store 

 man to whom you sell; in fact, you are 

 cle]ien(lent on tiie legitimate retail flow- 

 er merchant for your i>rofits. Then 

 why not assist the latter in upholding 

 the standard of the carnation? Make 

 it |possible for him to send to his cus- 

 tomers occasionally two or throe dozen 

 carnations giatis, the grower to bear 

 ]iart of the ex]>ense, for you will surely 

 share in the prolits that result from 

 such ad\ crtising. 



K'ight here occurs to me a suggestion 

 from Mr. Elberfield, of Kansas City. 

 His idea is to advertise that ■with each 

 one dozen sold another dozen will be 

 sent free of charge to some friend of 

 the buyer. By selling them at "lO ccTits 

 ]ier dozen at this time, you are really 

 not cheapening the llower, but merely 

 giving a few away. Mr. Elberfield 's 

 contention is that this will result in 

 two sales e\(Mitually, as the party re- 

 ceiving the flowers will want to recip- 

 rocate. Anv such schemes will tend to 



son lind an outlet. Still, the propor- 

 tion of first-class stores in those cities 

 is correspondingly greater and 1 am 

 sure a com-entrated efl'ort by grower, 

 commission man and retailer combined 

 would at least help some. 



T\n\ trouble is that there is too much 

 animosity between the two factors. It 

 would certainly be to the advantage of 

 both if more harmony and more of an 

 exchange of ideas existed. ]f only the 

 ]iroducer of our wares were to enlist 

 his services in a retail store for one 

 season and there meet face to face the 

 final consumer of the products of his 

 thousands of square feet of glass, 1 

 am ])ositive he wouhl b(> well repaid 

 for liis trouble. 



In my (Mithusiasm 1 ha\"e again edg(>d 

 away from my sulijeet, but J trust you 

 will jiardon my negligence. 



How About a Summer Carnation? 



Speaking of exchanging \ lews, why 

 would not a summer carnation lie a 

 good thing to develop? A\'e lunc roses 

 which do especially well during the 

 warm summer months; surely our car- 

 nation growers of today can in time 

 produce some varieties which will be 

 at their best in summer. Not tliat 



Rose Sunburst. 



reliexe a 

 business. 



glut without injuring our 



The Need of Cooperation. 



My suggestions for jiartially r(die\- 

 ing a glut may be rather ^ ague fancies, 

 in consideration of the fact that the 

 surjilus in this city (l)etroitj is naught 

 when conijiared witli the hundreds of 

 thousands of carnations. Aiolets and 

 roses for which the commission man in 

 New York or Chicago must each sea- 



many kinds would be refjuirecl; ;i good 

 white and a good idnk will do I'or a 

 starter. 



As ]ire\iously stated, tlu^ odor of the 

 carnation is one of its \aluable fea- 

 tures. Instead of giving so much 

 thought and care toward the pro<lucing 

 of larger, always larger blooms, i be- 

 lieve that the further devidopmeiit of 

 that sjiicy, e\'er-]dtvisant odor, so pro- 

 nounced in some white \arieties, would 

 not be amiss. 



Another suggestion I might offer is 

 the growing of White Enchantress for 

 funeral work. ]f not disbudded they 

 will prove most profitable to the grow- 

 er, as they bloom freely and bring 

 good size<l flowers, which in turn ■will 

 bring good ])ric(>s from the retailer 

 when white tlowers are scarce. 



]\Iy endea\ or has Ixh'u to make this 

 ]iai)er interesting and instructive and 

 1 may liave made renmrks whi(di some 

 of my audience will resent. I can as- 

 sure you that no harm was nu'ant, but, 

 as stated before, it is only by the ut- 

 most fr.'inkness that we can make the 

 carnation still more true to tl;o title 

 of my paper. 



Grading Flowers Honestly. 



Right hero I might bring to your 

 attention the fact that when a cus- 

 tomer pays a price for one tlozen car- 

 nations, each and every flower in that 

 (loz(Mi must be up to the standard; one 

 poor flower in the lot will bring forth 

 a great big kick. ^Many customers oven 

 go so far as to expect a baker's dozen. 

 Why, then, do some gro^wers still per- 

 sist in slijtping one or two culls in 

 Avith every twenty-fi\o Idooms? I 

 know it must hurt to have a number 

 of blooms in e\ery day's cut which 

 will bring but little on the market; 

 still, by bunching these separat(dy tliey 

 will bring some returns, and as soon 

 as it becomes known that you grade 

 your flowers honestly your stock will 

 be always in denumd. Your braml of 

 carnations will sell hofor(> all others, 

 because the buyer will get \alue re- 

 ceived every time. 



As a final suggestion, I wouM say: 

 Do 7iot resort to any more pickling of 

 sto( k than is absolutidy necessary. 

 Nothing will so jirejudice ])co]>le 

 against a certain kind of flower as the 

 fact that it will not last long, and 

 ]>ickled carnations or any other pickled 

 flower will positively not last. Kose, 

 Aiolet and chrysanthemum growers will 

 also jdease note these last remarks. 



NEW S. A. F. DIRECTORS. 



Charles H. Totty. 



Charles 11. Totty 's recent experience 

 seems to give strong support to the 

 statement that honors, like troubles, 

 never come singly. Within the last 

 three months three honors — and bur- 

 dens — haA'e been heaped upon him; h(> 

 has been made chairman of the S. .\. F. 

 national show committee, president of 

 the Chrysanthemum Society of America 

 and a member of the S. A. F. executive 

 board. 



]\Ii'. Totty Avas boin in Shro]ishir(\ 

 Kngland. in 1^7:l. .\t the age of 111, 

 after olitaining a common school eiluca 

 tion. ho tiegaii a three years' ajipicii 

 ticeship in the gardens of a Mr. Sher- 

 ingham. Then ho s[iont a year in the 

 nurseries of Messrs. Dickson, of < he-: 

 ter, and a year at Noi'ris (ireen, a noted 

 ti'uit growing establishment near Li\- 

 erpixd. He came to America in l^it;?. 

 After being employed for a year and 

 a half on the estate of IMrs. Thomjison, 

 at Canandaigua, N. Y., he renio\'eil to 

 Madison. X. .T., and went to work on 

 the estate of H. McKay Twombly, under 

 the suporintendeney of Arthur llerring- 

 ton. After eight years of valuable ex- 

 perience there, he emliarked in business 

 for himself by Ijuying the .Tames Hart 

 greenhouses at ^Fadison. These he en- 

 larged and improved, and six years later 



