■ ■'^■c: :yvii»jpir^ff\T^-^-'-:'^,i,-ryj^y.-i,-.r'r-v^f,''.,i r^J'-'f' '.•,«r' ■.•■',• T^^'H'njv A !"!ya!'f4?lWl.p'ni'VM'H',(r7^ ■ ' 



6 



The Weekly Florists' Review. 



Fkbuuaby 9, 1811. 



in the general effect of the store. The 

 accompanying illustrations show how 

 elaborate these seasonable decorations 

 are. This is a Japanese effect and it 

 embraced the entire large store, with 

 gardens, joss houses, tea house and illu- 

 mination by Chinese lanterns, throwing 

 a mellow light over the whole. So 

 elaborate a decoration as this cannot 



fice it to say that no matter which 

 policy a retailer pursues personally, he 

 must be most careful that not one or 

 the other be forgotten in rounding out 

 a business. 



Oommercialism in Flowers. 



There is more commercialism in the 

 flower business than there was ten years 



Part of Japanese Decoration in Store of A. W. Smith Co. 



be undertaken once a fortnight by even 

 the most prosperous of retail florists, 

 but something attractive can be done 

 at small cost in every store. The way 

 to get somewhere is to make a start. 

 ' ' Great oaks from little acorns grow. ' ' 



RETAIL STORE MANAGEMENT. 



[A paper bv Irwin Bertermann, of Indianapo- 

 lis, read before the Detroit Florists' Club Feb- 

 ruary 6, 1911.] 



The retail flower business may well 

 be classified in -two well defined parts — 

 the commercial and the ideal. It is 

 most essential that the sterner force 

 which propels the larger industries be 

 combined with the more subtle and deli- 

 cate artistic loving nature. It is not 

 enough to master the art of buying and 

 selling — it is necessary to live the 

 veritable life of the flower; to love and 

 to be able to personally arrange them 

 in beautiful combinations, or to con- 

 stantly teach others to imbue them 

 with a masterful individuality. The 

 retail store man, to gain prominence, 

 must be a composite of the Italian, 

 with his love of art; the German, with 

 his perseverance and perfection of de- 

 tail; the Parisian, with his knowledge 

 of color, and last, but not least, the 

 leader of the van with salesmanship and 

 push — our Yankee. 



Some of the flower dealers lean more 

 toward one qualification than to 

 another. One well-known retailer, who 

 possesses a fine knowledge of figures 

 and segregation, manages his business 

 efficiently and in entirety from his 

 oflSce; another, with innate taste for 

 the beautiful, manages directly among 

 the flowers and throws bookkeeping, 

 figuratively speaking, to others. Suf- 



ago, and there will be more in the 

 future, so it behooves all who would 

 be among the "survival of the fittest," 

 harsh though that may sound, to adopt 

 the bulwark of the larger American 



industries and apply system through- 

 out. Individuality has its merits, and 

 the store man who arranges flowers with 

 taste and skill is to be admired as a 

 creator of the finer arts, but, like all 

 others, must become a unit where the 

 great volume of trade is subservient 

 to the iron hand. It takes no more 

 exertion for a man to do a large busi- 

 ness under a system than it does to do 

 a small one without such advantage, 

 and if anything the favor comes to the 

 larger, as it is certainly more of a pleas 

 ure and a credit to manage it. 



The foreign trade papers are, or 

 should be, a source of much learning. 

 Years of plodding have taught the older 

 countries an insight into perfected de- 

 tail which is hard to discover among 

 ourselves. Our goal has rightfully and 

 honorably been the dollar, but for the 

 sake of finer beauty and success, also 

 more dollars, it is well to take notice 

 of the beautiful wreaths, baskets and 

 easel arrangements of Eussia, Germany. 

 France and England, 



We are store men in a wonderful 

 country. The growers are producing 

 elegant stock, so let the retailer show 

 nature's productions in their most ex 

 quisite arrangement. 



The cost per hour of a well-decorated 

 window is in direct proportion to the 

 amount of store rent paid. A well- 

 arranged window is one of the best ad- 

 vertisements a dealer may have, and it 

 should always be of utmost importance 

 tc* keep the same trimmed in excellent 

 taste. Unlike other lines of trade, the 

 florist has the finest material at hand, 

 and rarely is it necessary to introduce 

 other materials to make it attractive — 

 in fact, goods other than those regularly 

 supplied as accessories should be dis- 

 couraged in featuring a window. There 

 is no better taste than flowers, and as 

 we derive our livelihood therefrom, why 

 promote other attractions? Harmony 

 in color by allotting a whole or a dis- 

 tinct part to one shade of flower adds 

 much to the general appearance of the 

 window. 



Part of Japanese Decoration in Store of A. W. Smith Co. 



