86 



The Florists' Review 



Mabch 13, 1013. 



and 68 to 70 degrees, except on severe 

 nights, is better. Syringe on bright 

 days, just often enough to keep the 

 plants clean. A top-dressing of Clay's 

 fertilizer mixed with some soot, loam 

 and leaf-mold, not too much decayed, 

 will bring a network of feeding roots 

 on the surface. This form of feeding 

 is preferable to using liquid manures. 

 A small number of growers only are 

 successful in flowering gardenias in 

 winter, the time they bring highest 

 prices. Anyone can flower them in 

 spring and early summer. Values run 



all the way from $6 to $50 per hundred 

 at wholesale. Few bring the highest 

 price, and then only at the holidays. 

 A fair winter price is $25 for good flow- 

 ers with 12-inch to 18-inch stems. Short 

 stems bring, of course, much less. The 

 production per plant is hard to give. 

 Those flowering in winter give far 

 fewer blooms than such as are kept 

 for spring crops, but it is in winter 

 that they bring the highest prices; still 

 there is a demand for good gardenias in 

 the big markets the year around. 



C. W. 



THE RETAIL 



I 

 FLORIST I 



EXPENSE OF BETAIL DELIVEBY. 



I should like to hear from any of my 

 brother florists who are situated as 1 

 am in regard to that increasingly im- 

 portant part of our business, the deliv- 

 ery service. 



I am located in a town of about 12,- 

 000 inhabitants, with a large country 

 territory, and with the nearest opposi- 

 tion of any importance over 100 miles 

 away. I have a small greenhouse in the 

 outskirts of the town and a store in 

 the business part. All the help I need 

 is a man in the greenhouse and a sales- 

 lady at the store. The sales run all the 

 way from 25 cents to about $3 per pur- 

 chase; few purchases are over the lat- 

 ter amount, while by far the largest 

 percentage average from $1 to $1.50. 



Of course, every store in town deliv- 

 ers free of charge and so do I, but 

 here is where the rub comes in: The 

 free delivery on such small purchases 

 not only eats up the profit but often 

 devours a slice more. I am getting most 

 of my flowers from the city and accord- 

 ingly have to figure on the cost of the 

 flowers laid down at my place. On the 

 other hand, the florists in the city are 

 doing quite a business shipping flowers 

 out here and people are constantly go- 

 ing back and forth; hence I have to sell 



tit city prices in order to sell anything 

 at all. Now, if I deliver free of charge 

 and have to send my man from the 

 greenhouse to the store, have him de- 

 liver a package or two or even three, 

 and figure his time until he comes back 

 again, as well as the cost of the box, 

 wax paper, paper and string, the store 

 expenses, etc., I am more than likely to 

 be money out on purchases which do 

 not amount to more than $1, while on 

 purchases of from $1 to $1.50 I come 

 out about even and on anything over 

 $1.50 the profit is cut down to a con- 

 siderable extent. 



A short time ago a wholesale grower 

 from the city was here and I spoke to 

 him about it, but, as I expected, he 

 simply told me that I would have to 

 deliver free at any time and anywhere, 

 or I could not expect people to patron- 

 ize me. Does he do the same thing f 

 Let us see: I have a standing order 

 with him for cut fiowers, which, with 

 special orders sent in quite frequently, 

 amount to from $10 to $20 per day. The 

 flowers are all packed at a certain time 

 and in one box. Any of the express 

 companies will be glad to call at his 

 place and get them, but at the end of 

 the invoice I find a charge of 25 cents 

 for packing and delivering. This in- 



cludes box, paper, string, icing, and tlie 

 time it takes a man to do the packing. 



Now, how is it that the grower or 

 wholesaler charges me 25 cents for this 

 packing and imaginary delivering to 

 the express company, on any order 

 amounting to $15 per day, while I am 

 supposed to furnish all boxes, wax pa- 

 per, paper, string, clerk hire and inci- 

 dental expenses without charge, and 

 then deliver all these flowers free in 

 small lots to all parts of town and at 

 any time my customer wants them de- 

 livered?"" It is simply because all the 

 growers and wholesalers make this 

 charge, while we little fellows tumble 

 over one another to get the trade at 

 any expense, without doing any calcu- 

 lating as to whether or not the expenses 

 connected with a sale eat up the whole 

 profit. If we would come to an agree- 

 ment to stop this tremendous expense of 

 free delivery; if we would, like the 

 wholesaler, charge our out-of-town cus- 

 tomers with packing and delivery, we 

 could all make the delivering pay for 

 itself instead of being a heavy burden. 



In the city a boy can probably be 

 hired for the job of delivering for 

 about $3 per week; here I have to pay 

 any young fellow from $6 to $8, and 

 half the time cannot get one even at 

 those wages. In the city the gasoline 

 for a motorcycle or auto delivery car 

 can be purchased for a good deal less 

 than here. We are paying nearly 18 

 cents per gallon in tank lots, and for 

 everything else correspondingly. 



Again, there is the delivering on Sun- 

 day. I keep my store open on Saturday 

 night until 10 o'clock, and on Sunday 

 from 10 a. m. to 1 and from 7 p. m. to 

 9. I am not making a practice of deliv- 

 ering on Sundays, but have a good 

 many kicks on that. Some of my cus- 

 tomers have even walked out without 

 buying because I would not deliver 

 free of charge. However, I look at it in 

 this way: I cannot get anyone to work 

 seven days a week for fifty-two weeks 

 in the year by compensating him for 

 only six days' work per week. One of 

 us must be at the greenhouse and one 

 at the store, and if delivering is done 

 on Sunday, another helper is needed for 

 this. Thus all three of us would have 

 to work 365 days in the year, which I 

 do not think is an enjoyable prospect 

 for anybody. If I have to pay someone 

 for delivering on Sunday, the expense 

 is more than my profits amount to. If 

 I call an A. D. T. messenger I have to 



Getting Packages Routed for the Deliveries, a Typical Easter Moroing Scene, in Front of a Hartford Flower Store. 



