April 16, 1H14. 



The Florists' Revicvi- 



11 



OCEAN VOYAGERS FILL 

 M FLORISTS' POCKETS 



The telegraph and improved methods have made orders for outgo- 

 ing ocean liners an increasing factor in the Retail Florist's business 



EAELY every day in the 

 year at least 500 cabin 

 passengers leave New York 

 on ocean liners bound for 

 foreign ports. The average 

 for each day is about 1,000, 

 and in the height of the 

 tourist season the number of ocean 

 voyagers leaving New York in a sin- 

 gle day sometimes runs well above 

 3,000. These figures are only for the 

 port of New York; including Boston, 

 Philadelphia, Baltimore, Montreal, San 

 Francisco, Seattle and ocean ports of 

 lesser size, the number of departing 

 voyagers each day reaches an immense 

 total. According to the latest figures, 

 approximately half a million cabin pas- 

 sengers leave this country's ports each 

 year. As all these figures exclude 

 steerage passengers, which are about 

 equal in number, it may be safely as- 

 sumed that the great majority of these 

 half million ocean voyagers are patrons 

 of the retail florist in their home town. 

 It is only by the statement of these 

 figures that the enormous size of the 

 business in steamer orders now open to 

 florists can be fully appreciated. Day. 

 by day this is increasing. It now puts 

 thousands of dollars 

 into the pockets of 

 New York retailers 

 each year; yet it has 

 only begun to be de- 

 veloped. 



Season Now On. 



This month of the 

 year marks approxi- 

 mately the beginning 

 of the tourist season, 

 and every week 

 enough people leave 

 the port of New 

 York to populate a 

 small town. From 

 six to a dozen ocean 

 greyhounds leave 

 each Saturday, the 

 favorite day of sail- 

 ing, and the total of 

 their lists of cabin 

 passengers invariably 

 reaches well into 

 four figui*e8. 



Some of these peo- 

 ple hail from New 

 York city, but the 

 greater part come 

 from scattered points 

 on the map. The 

 friends of many of 

 them wish to send 

 them bon voyage 

 tokens, and what is 

 better than flowers t 

 So the retailer who 

 has persistently 



called this branch of his business to his 

 customers' attention receives orders to 

 be telegraphed to the port of departure. 

 The influence of the advertising of the 

 telegraph delivery of flowers on this 

 branch of trade has been considerable. 

 Those florists who, by means of the list 

 of steamer sailings published in The 

 Review, have kept their patrons posted 

 in regard to the dates of departure of 

 the ocean liners begin at this time of 

 the year to reap the results. 



Van-loads of Flowers. 



As a result, the retailers in the ocean 

 ports have as an important part of 

 their business the filling of orders for 

 departing voyagers. Some of the New 

 York retailers who have given espe- 

 cial attention to this line have so many 

 orders for the passengers of a single 

 vessel that several automobile trucks 

 are required to deliver them at the 

 dock. 



It was not so long ago that the dock, 

 and steamer officials looked upon the 

 few flowers they received as so trifling 

 a matter that they need not even give 

 receipts for them. But the growth of 

 the business, supplemented by the de- 



Type of Steamer Basket of Corsages that is Adding to the Retailer's Trade. 



mands of the New York retailers, has 

 forced them to make special provision 

 for its care. 



Particular attention has also been 

 given these orders by the retailers of 

 the large ports. Every effort that they 

 have made to the greater satisfaction 

 of the steamer passengers has been 

 the means of bringing more business, 

 and recognizing this, they have in- 

 creased their efforts and their business. 

 The advance from the former paste- 

 board boxes of flowers to the corsage 

 baskets shown in the accompanying 

 illustrations is a big one. How this 

 progress was made and how the orders 

 of the present day are put up, are best 

 described in the words of Max Schling, 

 the New York retailer, whose baskets 

 are those reproduced herewith: 



Big Besults from Little Change. 



' ' For a long time we filled our orders 

 for outgoing steamers in the same way 

 we filled any city order — ^put the flow- 

 ers in a box and sent them to the 

 steamer — until I once had a chance to 

 see the lack of facilities for caring for 

 flowers on a steamer, the scarcity of 

 vases or any vessels to put them in, 

 and from that time 

 on we changed our 

 methods. It is easy 

 to get a simple, in- 

 expensive box with 

 a zinc liner, arrange 

 the flowers the way 

 they should be, and 

 send them already in 

 water. Or the flow- 

 ers can be placed in 

 a cheap glass vase, 

 sufficiently deep to 

 contain whatever is 

 ordered. Whoever 

 receives them will 

 not forget this little 

 extra attention, but 

 will remember the 

 name of the florist 

 who filled the order 

 in this manner. We 

 have found that in 

 many instances those 

 who received the 

 flowers kept our tag 

 and called on their 

 return from abroad. 

 This, certainly, 

 showed their appre- 

 ciation. 



The Corsage Basket. 



"A novelty in this 

 kind of work can be 

 made with corsages. 

 A box about six 

 inches deep can be 

 filled loosely with the 



