May 16, 1912. 



The Weekly Florists' Review. 



29 



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WHAT HAPPENED -a 

 TO FLOWERS IN 1913 



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|0 anyone conversant with present 

 conditions in America, and espe- 

 _^_^ cially those in the flower trade, 

 it is scarcely possible to hark back to 

 the times before that famous year 1913, 

 in which the flower trade of the country 

 took on a new lease of life and flowers 

 took their proper position in the home, 

 in the school, in the church, in the busi- 

 ness office and even in the factory. 



To say that flowers had been forgot- 

 ten would be to admit that poetry had 

 been killed in the hearts of the people; 

 that beauty and love of fragrance had 

 been crushed beneath the heel of com- 

 merce and that all of the pi*ogressive 

 men in the flower trade had been driven 

 out of it into the banks, where the bulk 

 of the national money lay dormant. 



Such was not quite the case, for there 

 was still a multitude of men and women 

 in whom the finer sensibilities were pre- 

 dominant, and there was still a florist, 

 a grower or two, broadminded enough 

 to see that through uniting to help the 

 many, the few had nothing to lose. 



And even at that time the business 

 done in the few blocks around Twenty- 

 sixth street and Broadway and Sixth 

 avenue and Twenty-eighth street, and 

 by the growers near New York amount- 

 ed to a sum far in excess of seven mil- 

 lions of dollars a year. 



At the time, whatever advertising of 

 flowers there was, was being done by 

 one or two progressive retailers, who 

 realized that in advertising there is life 

 even to flowers. One of these, who had 

 stands in three widely separated depart- 

 ment stores, prospered far beyond his 

 fellows, even with a small expenditure. 



And then the wiseacres among the 

 bigger dealers, wholesale and retail, 

 and among the growers, began to sit up 

 and think — think that they were not 

 going on letting the milliner, the con- 

 fectioner and the jeweler get all the 

 surplus luxury money, just because they 

 had enterprise enough to push their 

 goods while the florists had not. 



Several of the more powerful of these 

 merchants and growers convened at a 

 meeting of the New York Florists ' Club, 

 held in the Grand Opera House building 

 on Monday evening. May 13, 1912, and 

 put their heads together — and to a pur- 

 pose. For had they not done so, it 

 would never have been the privilege of 

 this or any other chronicler of great 

 events to relate the story of "What 

 Happened to Flowers in 1913." 



"Gentlemen," said one of the lead- 

 ing members, on this memorable occa- 

 sion, "why should we stand still while 

 others go on and flourish like the fabled 

 green bay tree? Why should men in 

 such an artistic- profession • as ours 

 drudge along like day laborers? Pub- 

 licity is what we want — publicity for 

 flowers. Where would Roosevelt have 

 been if he had not been the greatest of 

 press agents since Jo^n the Baptist ? 



A summary of a paper by Philip Mindil, read 

 before the New York Florists' Club May 13, 1912. 

 Mr. Mindil Is supposed to be writing in the year 

 1925, "twelve years after the revolution in the 

 flower trade ii> America." He prefaced bis 

 paper with the remark that it is purely a flight 

 uf the imagination,, but, not beyond the realm of 

 reason. 



Where would Mary Garden have landed 

 without the snapshot camera and the 

 persistent promotion of her own pub- 

 licity? What of F. T. Barnum. of Buf- 

 falo Bill, of social and civic retorms in- 

 numerable, of political movements and 

 candidates, of . automobiles and aero- 

 planes, all ma<3e, absolutely, by constant 

 and skillful publicity? 



"Yes, gentlemen," he continue^, 

 "publicity is today the vital force of 

 everything that is watered by the hose 

 of public patronage. They cannot live 

 without it, much less, thrive, and in- 



The Xdltor is pleased .. 

 vrhen a Reader 

 presents bis ideas 

 on any subject treated in 



t'^fitl^ 



As experience is tbe beot 

 teacher, so do -we 

 learn fastest by an, 

 excbanse of experiences. 

 Many yalu^ble points 

 are brouKbt out 

 by discussion. 



t' 



Good penmanship, spellinfr and 

 grammar, though desirable, are not 

 necessary. Write as you would talk 

 when doing youy best. 



WK SHALX. BE GLAD 

 TO HEAR FROM TOU 



crease as we want the flower trade 

 to do. 



"The brick manufacturers have com- 

 bined to present the advantages of their 

 product as a building material. Why? 

 Because the success of the cement men's 

 publicity campaign aimed a death blow 

 at their industry, and one that pierced 

 their pocketbooks. 



* ' And now the wallpaper manufactur- 

 ers, a trade involving a profit of fifteen 

 millions a year, have done likewise, be- 

 cause the paint men have pointed out, 

 in well-written newspaper and magazine 

 articles, the sanitary superiority and the 

 economy of paint as ^ means of interior 

 decoration, 



"These men have to fight to save a 



deteriorating business because their 

 more modern competitors are using 

 against them that most effective and 

 most modern of weapons, the public 

 press, which reaches everyone who can 

 read — and that is everyone worth 

 counting. 



"Let us rouse ourselves from the 

 lethargy, into which I, for one, am 

 broad enough to admit we have fallen, 

 and take up the pen, which grows 

 sharper each day as the sword of sav- 

 agery grows duller— ^take it up for the 

 increase of sales, for the upbuilding of 

 the florists' business — let us have our 

 share. Let us remind the people of 

 flowers — and they will buy." 



The president's remarks were re- 

 ceived in silence. He had said some 

 things so true that they hurt. After a 

 moment's silent thought, the meinbers, 

 all of whom were prominent in the trade 

 and interested in its increase, forgot 

 their personal antagonism, which had 

 been aroused by the poin'ted truths he 

 had uttered and thought only of the 

 good to be gained by coinciding with 

 his progressive ideas. 



They organized a fund for the con- 

 duct of a campaign of publicity for 

 flowers in general and secured an expe- 

 rienced press agent, to take charge of it: 

 Details were left in his hands, but the 

 members were ever ready to assist him 

 in putting before the publiri the pres- 

 ence of flowers and reminding them of 

 their acceptability. Financial assist- 

 ance was cheerfully given by the allied 

 trades, the glass firms who furnished 

 lights for the greenhouses, the foundries 

 who supplied the piping. 



Articles appeared soon and at fre- 

 quent intervals in daily and Sunday 

 newspapers and in the Weekly and 

 monthly magazines all over the cotintry. 

 These, because of their timeliness and 

 interesting construction and the beauti- 

 ful illustration to which the subject so 

 readily lent itself, were gladly accepted 

 by the editors, who could not and would 

 not have published them if they had 

 mentioned the names and addresses of 

 special firms of florists. They did not 

 look like free advertising — -that bane of 

 the editor's existence — because they ad- 

 vanced the interests and the advan- 

 tages, not of a commercial house, but 

 of one of God's best gifts to Man — one 

 of Man 's best gifts to Woman. 



They told of the development of 

 plants and flowers, of their growth and 

 care, their charm in the home, in the 

 sickroom, in the garden. They related 

 how the foremost educators and prelates 

 insisted on having fresh flowers in the 

 school and in the church, and how the 

 most progressive business men provided 

 for their presence in the office and in 

 the factory. And, eventually, .^ these 

 ideal but hitherto little more than imag- 

 ined conditions, through persistent and 

 adroit striking of the same nail, were 

 [Oonclad«d on page 74.] 





