March 7. 1912. 



The Weekly Florists^ Review^ 



11 



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THE RETAIL 



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FLORIST 



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A ST. PATRICK'S DAY WINDOW. 



The Bell Floral Co., of Franklin, Pa., 

 last year arranged a St. Patrick's day- 

 window which, in addition to a liberal 

 supply of shamrock plants, and a large 

 vase of green carnations, contained a 

 block of artificial stone, marked "Sham 

 rock," another piece of the same mate- 

 rial labeled "The Original Blarney 

 Stone," on the summit of which is a 

 miniature representation of Blarney 

 Castle. 



The display included, also, clay pipes 

 tied with a bow of green ribbon, numer- 

 ous small Irish flags, fans for the occa- 

 sion, appropriately decorated with pic- 

 tures of shamrocks and other national 

 emblems, and inscribed with the motto 

 so dear to every Irishman, "Erin go 

 Bragh. ' ' 



There was also a fine black specimen 

 of a shillalah, and several cards on 

 which were marked in plain letters the 

 following inscriptions, the last of which 

 is original: 



Sandle lores the thistle, 



John Bull loves the rose, 

 But Paddy loves the land 



Where the shamrock grows. 



Saint Patrick was a gentleman, 

 And came of decent .people. 



He built a church In Dublin town, 

 And on It put a steeple. 



The Wlcklow hills are very high. 



And so's the hill o' Howth, sir. 

 But I know a hill that's twice as high, 



And higher than them both, sir. 

 'Twas on the top of this high hill 



Saint Patrick preached his sermon. 

 He made the frogs Jump through the bogs, 



And banished all the vermin. 



Good people, ere It Is too late. 

 Your homes and selves adorning 



With pretty shamrocks, celebrate 

 Saint Patrick's day In the morning. 



ABE SPECIAL SALES A BENEFIT? 



[A paper by Z. D.. Blackistone, of Washington, 

 D. C, read before the Philadelphia Florists' 

 Club.] 



In speaking on the subject of the 

 value of special flower sales in a retail 

 store, as a means of advertising, I 

 shall rely mainly on personal experi- 

 ences. This will necessitate frequent 

 reference to myself and my business, 

 which I trust you will not consider 

 egotistical, but as given simply for the 

 purpose of throwing more light on the 

 subject. 



My business career began in Novem- 

 ber, 1898, when I started in a very 

 small store and on a very small capital. 

 For the first five or six years my busi- 

 ness continued to grow and it seemed 

 so easy that I wondered why everybody 

 did not go into business. Then compe- 

 tition in the neighborhood became 

 keener and business seemed to stop 

 growing, but the expenses continued to 

 increase just the same. Things went 

 on in this way for several years, when 

 I awoke and realized that I had to be 

 more aggressive and progressive in the 

 conduct of my business if I wished to 

 succeed. 



First Experiments in Advertising. 



Up to this time I had done but little 

 advertising and even that in a desul- 

 tory manner — in programs, principally, 

 with an occasional ad in a special 

 Thanksgiving or Easter edition of a 

 newspaper, given to a newspaper so- 

 licitor. My first systematic attempt at 

 advertising came when I signed a 

 twelve months' contract at $80.50 a 

 month for a street, car ad. With this 

 space on my hands, I began to get busy 

 to keep it working. My first ads were 

 gotten up something like this: "Blacki- 

 stone, Washington's Leading Florist, 

 Eoses, Violets, Orchids, Telephone — Ad- 

 dress, etc." Well, this went on for 

 several months and I began to wonder 

 if anyone ever read them. 



My first real attempt at special sale 

 advertising came when I photographed 

 a small kentia palm in a jardiniere, 

 had it reproduced and put in my car 

 space, advertising ' ' Special Dwarf 

 Pahn and Jardiniere complete, 50 cents, 

 regular $1.00 value." Now notice: 

 This particular ad had run for at least 

 two weeks and we had not had a single 

 call. I then phoned to the man in 

 charge of the ad, telling him of my dis- 

 gust, and ordered new cards substituted, 

 which required about a week to pre- 

 pare, instead of my special palm ad. 

 But, mind you, that very day we had 



best paying advertising I ever did. It 

 not only paid for. itself, principal and 

 interest, but contiiiued to pay interest 

 for several years. And — would you be- 

 lieve it? — still, to this day, although the 

 ad has been dead for several years, 

 people occasionally come in and ask if 

 we have this article. On this ad I cut 

 my eye teeth as to the value of spe- 

 cial sales as a means of advertising 

 and I can assure you the lesson has 

 been worth thousands of dollars to me. 



After this I used a photo of a table 

 bouquet of carnations, any color, ar- 

 ranged with greens, special at $1, and 

 then, during the spring and summer, a 

 spray of carnations with gauze ribbon, 

 special at $2. Both these were success- 

 ful ads, and good drawing cards. 



Now, I fully realize that all this, 

 while pertinent to the subject, is not 

 what your committee had in mind and 

 wanted me to tell you about. What 

 you are really looking for is informa- 

 tion on the subject of conservation. 

 How shall we florists manage so that 

 the great gluts of the crops of cut flow- 

 ers, which necessarily come from time 

 to time, shall not be wasted? How 

 shall we manage so that they may prove 

 useful and profitable to the florist, in- 

 stead of a bane and a nightmare? 



A Successful Saturday Special. 



The foregoing I have related more as 

 an introduction. It shows you the evo- 

 lutions of practical commercial develop- 

 ment as pertaining to the specific sub- 

 ject. Having shown you the experi- 

 ments which I made and their results, 

 you will readily understand that my 

 mind was now in a receptive mood on 

 this subject. I had finished my street 

 car advertising contract, when, at the 

 psychological moment, a friend of mine, 

 representing one of the largest papers, 

 induced me to sign a 10,000-line con- 



St. Patrick's Day Vindow of the Bell Floral Co., Franklin, Pa. 



calls for our special palm. This was 

 followed up the next day, and the next 

 and the next, with frequent calls, and 

 these customers were nearly all strang- 

 ers, who had never been in my store 

 before, and many of whom had never 

 heard of Blaekistone, florist. 



A Dead Ad That Still Lived. 



That special palm ad I consider the 



tract. This was in the fall, about four 

 years ago. Just after this I was visited 

 by one of Philadelphia's enterprising 

 commission men and offered a special 

 price on roses in large quantities. You 

 must have had an awful crop of Kich- 

 mond roses here at that time. Anyhow, 

 they induced me to place a pretty good 

 sized order at $20 per thousand. 

 And now observe the craftiness of 



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