14 



The Weekly Florists^ Review* 



March 3, 1910. 



THE THEND OF THE TIMES. 



[A paper by Albert M. Herr, of Lancaster, 

 Pa., read before the Florists' Club of Philadel- 

 phia March 1, 1910.] 



There seems to be no decrease in the 

 number of promising novelties year after 

 year; in fact, they seem to increase in 

 number and impi^ve wonderfully in 

 quality. Those of us who were in Pitts- 

 burg could not help but remark on this 

 feature of the novelties exhibited there. 

 Just what to expect from these novel- 

 ties, from a commercial point of view, is 

 a question for the future. No doubt 

 some of them will prove a disappoint- 

 ment either to the originator or the 

 buyer, or both, but what a monotonous 

 world this would be with no disappoint- 

 ments to make us properly appreciate 

 our successes! 



Recommendations that Were Ignored. 



In my address at Pittsburg, as presi- 

 dent of the Carnation Society, I recom- 

 mended that reports be secured from a 

 numlber of growers, giving their experi- 

 ence with the introductions of the pre- 

 vious yearJ these reports to be sent to the 

 secretary of the Carnation Society and 

 published /in pamphlet form each year. 

 The society, or rather the committee I 

 appointed to take up the recommenda- 

 tions in/ this address, did not see fit to 

 even being this up for'^iscussion. We 

 can hardly ask the trade papers to take 

 it up, but the various florists' clubs 

 might have an experience meeting each 

 January and discuss this matter of the 

 preceding year's novelties. The opin- 

 ions of the commission man and the store 

 man would be quite as valuable as those 

 of the growers. We can not expect to 

 get as good results as the national so- 

 ciety could, but with a free interchange 

 of opinion we can buy the second year 

 novelties with some assurance of success 

 and quite a number of the $50 per thou- 

 sand varieties would be hunting buyers 

 at 50 cents per thousand. Publicity of 

 failures is needed, and badly needed. 



Elbert Hubbard says: "Let each in- 

 dividual work toward the betterment of 

 as many other individuals as he possibly 

 can and his financial reward will be 

 money flowing into his pockets as nat- 

 urally as water flows into a river. ' ' How 

 many successes have you had among the 

 novelties bought last season t Don't keep 

 them to yourself. How many failures 

 have you had among the novelties you 

 bought last season! Tell us about them. 

 Some one among us may be able to put 

 you on the track of making failure a 

 success. If not, then neither you nor I 

 want to plant the failure another season. 



Another point I tried to bring out, and 



which was ignored by my committee, was 

 to have a tag attached to each bunch of 

 flowers giving the date they were cut 

 and the grower's name. This in the 

 course of time would be looked for and 

 demanded by the final consumer as a 

 guarantee of good faith. I would like 

 to see a "fresh flower" law enacted on 

 similar lines to the pure food law and 

 believe that such a law properly enforced 

 would treble the use of our flowers. Not 

 long ago I was in a store where a good 

 looking vase of Enchantress stood in the 

 window. The clerk told me about half 

 the blooms in this vase were flowers 



The Kdltor !• pleased 

 when a Reader 

 presents hit ideas 

 on any subject treated in 



t^itPZ 



As experience is the best 

 teacher, so do we 

 learn fastest by an 

 exchanse of experiences. 

 Many valuable points 

 are broucht out 

 by discussion. 



Good penmanship, BpelliDK, and 

 Krammar, tbouRh desirable, ar^ not 

 necessary. Write as you would talk 

 when doing your best. 



WX 8HAIX BS GLAD 

 TO HEAR FROM TOU 



from a distant market and that they 

 were three days old, the balance of the 

 vase being fresh flowers from a local 

 grower. Enchantress is not the best of 

 keepers, and we all know that the final 

 consumer getting flowers from this vase 

 was foreordained to disappointment. 



Let our carnations be sold under a 

 guarantee by the retaU man that they 

 have been cut on a certain date and add 

 a little advice as to the best method of 

 keeping, and many an occasional buyer 

 will be turned into a regular customer. 

 It is not so much the price of flowers 

 that interferes with their sale as the fact 

 that in many cases the buyer receives so 

 little value for the money spent. 



Grow the Keepers* 



Let the grower select such varieties as 

 are known to be good keepers, making 

 this one o| his first demands in buying 

 a novelty. Then let him grow them prop- 

 erly and tag them, as previously sug- 

 gested, and in the course of time the 

 man who does this will find himself on 

 the high road to success, and the man 

 who does not will be traveling in an op- 

 posite direction. 



Enchantress and all of its sports Qan, 

 if well grown, be turned out moderate 

 keepers, but the careless grower wants 

 to leave them alone. Pink Delight, Vic- 

 tory, White Perfection, all of the Law- 

 son type, Winona and O. P. Bassett are 

 all good keepers under ordinary culture 

 and it is this class of varieties that 

 should be planted in quantity and some 

 of the softer but perhaps more beautiful 

 sorts be experimented with until you 

 learn to handle them and turn out flow- 

 ers that will give good satisfaction. 



Another point I tried to bring before 

 the Carnation Society was. our lack of 

 business methods and ideas. The re- 

 tailer in our business is perhaps nearest 

 to 1910 business methods, but he has 

 much to learn. The commission man fol- 

 lows along about 1900 style, and the 

 grower is lagging back somewhere about 

 1850 style. Not that I know much about 

 1850 business methods, but it will do for 

 a simile, and I believe it is a correct 

 one. We do not need cultural methods^- 

 we have them once a week in the trade 

 papers — but we sadly need business meth- 

 ods, and we need someone to come into 

 our societies who has made a study of 

 modern business to tell us something 

 about this end of our work. 



Money In the Business. 



There is some money in carnation 

 growing, in witness thereof just note the 

 modem houses costing $8,000 and $10,- 



000 going up exclusively for carnations. 

 The man who has the cash to pay for 

 these structures is all right, but the man 

 who builds on credit will have many a 

 weary year before his houses are paid for. 



1 maintain that the modern carnation 

 establishment can not produce carna- 

 tions at a profit for less than a two-cent 

 average from September 1 to June 1. 

 Keep your own records, charging up 

 every item of expense, interest, taxes, 

 wear and tear and every item that go6s 

 into the production of your carnation 

 blooms and see if I am wrong. 



When you see retailers paying $16,000 

 a year rental for their stores, and whole- 

 sale establishments without number in 

 all of the larger cities, with the growers 



/ 



