18 



The Florists' Review 



Apbil 30, 1914. 



States and Canada covered the sides 

 and back of the window, while in the 

 eenter was a flock of doves, in full 

 flight, with orders in their bills to 

 "Sceery" from all parts of the world. 

 This same idea was used by Holm & 

 Olson, of St. Paul, with much success. 



Now Is the Time. 



Your advertising campaign for tele- 

 graph delivery can be begun at any 

 time, but now is a fine time to start. 

 While you are getting up your adver- 

 tisements for Mothers' day, put in a 

 line or two suggesting the sending of 

 some flowers ' * by telegraph ' ' to mother 

 at the old home. A distance of a 

 thousand miles or more is no bar to 

 mother's receiving as fine a plant or 

 box of flowers as if she were next door. 



WHAT THEY DID. 



\. 



Can Be Done Again. 



The function of a trade paper is to 

 show its readers how to make two dol- 

 lars grow where only one, or none, grew 

 before. A suggestion is no good unless 

 people act on it — and it works. The 

 Review saw the chance for the trade to 

 develop a big business for Mothers ' day 

 and, before many had even heard of the 

 day, offered some suggestions as to how 

 it could be done. Of course it was ex- 

 pected that they would be tried, for the 

 trade reads The Review to get ideas, 

 but it really was a surprise to see the 

 way literally thousands took them up. 

 What these did is of interest because 

 hundreds more will be boosting the busi- 

 ness this coming Mothers' day. Here 

 are a few hints: 



Went to His Editor. 



At Hanover, Pa., F. E. Cremer wrote 

 for the local paper an article entitled 

 "Flowers for Mothers' Day," in which 

 he pointed out the impossibility of 

 there being enough flowers of one kind 

 to supply everybody. Said he: "All 

 those whose mother is among the de- 

 parted wear a white carnation, white 

 rose or other white flower, and those 

 who have a mother still living, a col- 

 ored flower; or, still better, send her a 

 box of flowers, a house plant or a dozen 

 spring plants for her garden or flower 

 bed, thereby expressing the love and re- 

 spect due to a mother." In sending a 

 marked copy to The Review, ' ' It turned 

 the demand to a general line of stock," 

 he wrote. 



Beprinted "The Story." 



"Acting on the suggestions in Tha 

 Review, from May 1 I carried an ad- 

 vertisement in our local paper and got 

 the editor to reprint 'The Story of 

 Mothers' Day' as it appeared in The 

 Review of April 24, 1913, ' ' writes Nixon 

 H. Gano, of Martinsville, Ind. "The 

 results were most gratifying, and next 

 season I am sure we can double the 

 sales of this year, as I shall grow a lot 

 of stock especially for the occasion, as 

 we do for other big flower days, and 

 shall advertise reduced prices, which 

 we cannot do at other times, as flowers 

 are too scarce." 



At Minneapolis. 



Writes G. N. Ruedlinger, chairman of 

 a publicity committee of Minneapolis 

 florists: "We took up a subscription 

 among the trade, raising $130, to be 

 expended in a general Mothers' day ad- 

 vertisement in the three local daily pa- 



pers. No one flower was pushed and 

 there was a shortage of roses and violets 

 as well as carnations. Many stores ha^ 

 sold out long before closing time. ' ' 



Double Day in the South. 



May 10 is Memorial day in the south, 

 when graves of the Confederate dead 

 are decorated, and the public now is 

 taking flowers to the cemeteries as has 

 become the general custom in the north 





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Lincoln Literature for Mothers' Day. 



May 30. With Mothers' day and Me- 

 morial day falling together the southern 

 florists have their hands full, yet Hol- 

 lingsworth. Inc., last year sent a postal 

 card to all its customers in Atlanta, 

 printed with the following message: 



MOTHERS' DAY 

 Sunday, May 11, 1913. 



This is her day — the day of Mother love. 

 Send her a box of choice cut flowers, and 

 wear a flower in honor of the best Mother 

 that ever lived. 



Bright flowers for mothers living. 

 White flowers for Mother's memory. 



"It worked fine," wrote Hollings- 

 worth, ' ' especially your ' bright flowers ' 



Mothers Day 



Ma^ 11 1913 



N<u Sundiy is Moihcn' I>iy, ici nidc by the whol* 

 o< North Americ* lo hooof upiranal Mothcriioad. 

 Bvcryooc icodi flowen to aotMr, and ia bcr booor 

 tlowm wc worn tad koi broadeatc whh Ibcir cbecria| 



Rttlizioi the inportince ol this oocasioo, w* uric yoa 

 to order e«riy, ud for two d«ys bctorc Mothen Dey, 

 to-morrow tad Siturdiy, we will oHer one ol (b« omM 

 importeiM weck-«id tpeeiili we heve ever nude. 



Look for Our AdMrtU4m*nl§ 

 and Window Display To-morrow 



To Start Buying Early. 



line; it was possible to sell anything 

 that was good." 



Doubled His Business. 



This is from Peter Curran, Penn Yan, 

 N. Y.: "I always read The Review 

 with a gfreat deal of interest and it is 

 due to following the suggestions in the 

 paper that I have built up my business 

 so that I have just moved into a much 

 larger store. I used the Mothers' day 

 advertisement suggested by The Re- 

 view, printing it in the local papers, and 

 completely sold out for the day. Since 

 taking the paper my business has more 



than doubled, due to your many hints 

 btfir to sell flowers. ' ' 



Tripled His Sales. 



* ' Mothers ' day with us was certainly 

 a great success,'' wrote Fred 0. Witt- 

 huhn, of Cleveland, May 13, 1913. "We 

 increased our business 200 per cent 

 over last year. We probably owe this 

 to the fine weather we had Sunday 

 as well as to the local club advertising. 

 Your little lines, 'For mothers living a 

 flower bright; for Mother's memory a 

 flower white,' certainly helped along a 

 good deal. We had The Review handy 

 and when people asked for white car- 

 nations we showed them the suggestion 

 of colored flowers for the living and 

 most of them we could induce to buy 

 something we had plenty of, such as 

 tulips in various colors, also potted 

 plants, such as roses, primroses, potted 

 tulips, Soupert roses, hydrangeas, etc. 

 The Review certainly is entitled to a 

 great deal of praise for helping to make 

 the day. As for the trade all around, 

 it is a pretty nice thing to have a 

 clean-up just between times, but now I 

 would suggest that your valuable paper 

 try to keep us craftsmen in check in the 

 matter of prices, as that is liable to 

 cause ill feeling. People protest when 

 they pay 50 cents a dozen for carna- 

 tions one week and are asked three to 

 four times as much the next week. My 

 advice is that we try to cater to this 

 day, and not kill the goose that lays the 

 golden egg, which may result if we ask 

 exorbitant prices." 



Wm Get at It. 



Mothers' day makes so strong an ap- 

 peal that mayors and even governors is- 

 sue proclamations on it, though some of 

 them, like the governor of Michigan 

 last year, get their dates mixed; and 

 churches generally observe Mothers' 

 day with special services that get lib- 

 eral advance notices in the newspapers. 

 At Jackson, Miss., the society support- 

 ing the Old Ladies' Home takes ad- 

 vantage of the interest created to have 

 a flower sale, ' ' but they can not by any 

 means keep pace with the increase in 

 the demand," write the Misses Caban- 

 iss, "and we shall have to take a hand 

 in pushing the day along the line of the 

 suggestion in The Review: 



For Mother at home, flowers bright. 

 In Mother's memory, a flower white. 



LINCOLN LITESATXTBE. 



Frey & Frey, at Lincoln, Neb., 

 wanted to tell quite a story on their 

 Mothers ' day circular, issued a few days 

 before the event last year. The illus- 

 tration on this page shows how they 

 laid it out. The cut is much reduced. 

 The circular was 6%x8%. On the left 

 side is the Mothers ' day poem by Mabel 

 C. Bushnell, reprinted from The Re- 

 view. In the lower right-hand corner 

 is the "Love of Mother" quotation 

 from Washington Irving. At the top 

 is a brief history of Mothers' day and 

 its purpose. The larger space in the 

 center tells what Frey & Frey offer 

 for Mothers' day, with prices on a gen- 

 eral line of cut flowers. 



The circular was distributed from 

 house to house throughout the section 

 of the city from which they draw their 

 patronage, and it was enclosed"^ with 

 May statements and such parcels as 

 permit of putting in advertising, ^here 

 was just a little too much matter on 

 the circular to get a thorough reading 



