Afbil 15, 1909. 



The Weekly Florists' Review. 



rsif &if tesr i^n^n^r^rm 



THE RETAIL -^^^^ 



FLORIST I 



THE HAT-HAMPER. 



"The bee that gets the honey doesn't 

 hang around the hive," nor does the re- 

 tail florist who has always something new 

 to show his customers get his novelties 

 by sitting down and waiting, like Micaw- 

 ber, for "something to turn up." 



How well the wide-awake florist can 

 turn current events to account is shoiyn 

 by the accompanying illustration, made 

 from a photograph of an Easter hat- 

 hamper, originated by George Wienhoe- 

 ber, of the rieischman Floral Co., Chi- 

 cago. This has been previously de- 

 scribed, but not hitherto illustrated. Mr. 

 Wienhoeber's attention was attracted by 

 the great amount of comment created by 

 the current styles in women's hats. So 

 pronounced are the shapes this season 

 that almost every morning paper has a 

 fresh cartoon on the "inverted waste- 

 baskets," and Mr. Wienhoeber conceived 

 the idea of using the milliner's 

 ' * shapes ' ' in the manufacture of ham- 

 pers for corsage bouquets of violets or 

 orchids. He simply went to a millinery 

 wholesale house and bought a lot of the 

 straw shapes in various colors. Taking 

 these to his box-maker, he had a paste- 

 board bottom sewed across the opening 

 in the hat, the crown removed and hinged 

 for a cover, a box set in the bat, and it 

 was ready for the decorator. The hats 

 were trimmed variously, according to the 

 price to be asked and according to the 

 color. They were of the right size to 

 hold a corsage of 200 violets and when 

 a window of them, no two alike, was 

 shown, they made an instantaneous hit. 



Of course, a novelty like this, selling 

 for from $8 to $15, takes only where a 

 high class trade is handled, as at Fleisch- 

 man's store in the Railway Exchange 

 building, and is good only for a short 

 time, but during the period that it re- 

 mains exclusive, it is well worth the 

 trouble it takes to get it. The success 

 of the hat novelty depended upon cur- 

 rent fashions, and when this style has 

 passed on, the hat-hampers also probably 

 will fail of success, but by that time the 

 novelty will have worn off, anyway, and 

 Mr. Wienhoeber will have his eyes open, 

 on the lookout for a fresh inspiration. 



THE EASTER BUSINESS. 



Easter ha^ for years been the big day 

 with the retail florists. This year it was 

 no exception to the rule. Every retailer 

 throughout the whole country had .a big 

 trade, in most cases as large as the 

 help could handle in so short a time. It 

 seems that every year the holiday busi- 

 ness, both at Easter and at Christmas 

 and other times, must be handled in 

 shorter and shorter time. Years ago the 

 customers placed their orders several days 

 in advance, but now it all comes at the 

 last minute. It adds greatly to the strain 

 of doing business, exhausting nervous 

 energy and subtracting from the profits. 

 It would be in order for retailers to make 

 a united effort to educate the public to- 

 ward earlier buying. Something can cer- 



tainly be done in this, direction if every- 

 body tries and keeps at it. 



It has become the regular thing to re- 

 port an increased Easter business with 

 blooming plants. Year after year the 

 sales of these increase. The lily is the 

 leader, and probably always will be, but 

 the lily forms only a small part of the 

 blpoming plants that are sold. The 

 az&lea was a particularly good seller this 

 year. Th© pink^ rambler roses are better 

 Easter plants than the red ones. A good 

 many retailers found it does not pay to 

 overbuy on plants. Plants may not be 

 as perishable as cut flowers, but they still 

 cost money and if not sold out pretty 

 clean there is a loss of profits. 



The supplies of cut flowers were large 

 this Easter and in general the stock was 

 of splendid quality. Most of the retail- 

 ers did a big business with cut flowers, 

 in spite of devoting a large share of their 

 energy to plants. In the larger and me- 



flower business at such times. The large 

 supply this Easter favored the operations 

 of the quantity merchants. Prices gener- 

 ally were at a reasonable level. 



It is interesting to note the advance 

 made in the consumption of pot covers 

 and other plant embellishments. Not all 

 the stores can sell the fancy hampers and 

 baskets of plants, and a good many 

 stores in the smaller cities quite recently 

 thought their trade did not care for even 

 crepe paper pot covers, but as soon as 

 one florist in a town started decking out 

 his plants, even in the most simple man- 

 ner, all the others found it necessary to 

 follow suit. The increase in the use of 

 plant decorations recently has been more 

 rapid than the increase in the sales of 

 plants themselves. 



On the whole, it was a good Easter for 

 everyone, but there probably is no one 

 who would not be glad to see a good 

 month's run of regular business and cut 

 out the holiday push. 



NEED SMALL BLOOMING PLANTS. 



"What there is most need of, in the 

 plant line, is small stock that can be 

 used in the great variety of small dishes 

 now available, and that can be sold at 

 moderate prices." 



The speaker was one of the women 

 who know the flower business, and who 

 deals with the best class of trade in 

 Chicago. 



Fleischman's Hat-Hamper. 



dium sized cities it is noticeable that the 

 regular flower stores push plants at holi- 

 days, but the Greeks do not handle many 

 plants and by devoting their energies to 

 buying and selling cut flowers in large 

 quantities, are gradually getting to have 

 a larger and larger share of the cut 



"We find oply a limited number of 

 people to buy the high-priced plant ar- 

 rangements, but there are plenty to buy 

 the moderate-priced ones. Even the best 

 of customers limit their purchases* of 

 large plants, but where something at 

 from $1.50 to $2 or $2.50 is offered 



