May 29. 1913. 



The Florists' Review 



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THE RETAIL 



FLORIST 



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THE LATEST FLOWER FASHION. 



Paris Helps the Florists. 



The latest novelty in Paris is the 

 trimming of hats with natural flowers. 

 It may not be the most practical in- 

 novation that has come from the world's 

 fashion center, but, on the theory that 

 every little helps, it is of more than 

 momentary interest to florists. 



The new flower fashion has attracted 

 wide attention from the press, being 

 treated in most instances with a spirit 

 of levity, but there are possibilities in 

 it for considerable extra business if the 

 flower buyers can be induced to take 

 up the fad. Natural flowers are as appro- 

 priate for wear on the hat as on the 

 bodice and, where the wearer is attend- 

 ing a social function at which the hats 

 are not removed, the opportunities for 

 display of taste will well repay the 

 efforts of the best artists. 



For and Against. 



The argument that natural flowers are 

 too fragile for use on millinery is not 

 good — flowers will last as long on a hat 

 as on a gown. No woman wears a cor- 

 sage bouquet for all occasions, and the 

 wise retail florist sees to it that his 

 corsages are not delivered or made up 

 too far in advance of the hour at which 

 they are to be brought into use. It will 

 be the same with hats trimmed with 

 natural flowers; the florist v/ill see to 

 it that the work is done as close as cir- 

 cumstances will permit to the time it is 

 to be brought into use. Also, one natur- 

 ally will select flowers of good keeping 

 qualities rather than those that fade 

 quickly on exposure to light, heat or air. 



The florist does not need to be con- 

 cerned at objections to the cost of trim- 

 ming a hat every time it is to be worn. 

 In the first place, it will not be neces- 

 sary to charge for trimming a hat any 

 more than is charged for a corsage bou- 

 quet. People who are willing to pay 

 the price of corsages will not hesitate at 

 the cost of trimming hats with natural 

 flowers. Then, too, there is the fact that 

 a goodly number of people in this world 

 value a thing only in proportion to its 

 cost. As soon as bicycles became so 

 cheap that everybody could afford one 

 they went completely out of fashion. 



One of the splendid features about 

 trimming hats with natural flowers is 

 that it will be possible to create some 

 highly artistic effects. Almost any cos- 

 tume can be matched with flowers or 

 its beauties accentuated through a con- 

 trast of colors: Daisies for a summer 

 costume of pure white; Blanche Perry 

 peas or Killarney roses for pink attire; 

 ■white roses or carnations for a dress of 

 black. 



Schling's Flower Hats. 



Already the Paris flower fashion has 

 crossed the Atlantic and the New York 

 retail florists are hairing a call for 

 Jiat trimming with natural flowers. The 

 fad as vet has no vogue, but there are 

 possibilities of increasing business in 



this line and it behooves the retail 

 florist to encourage rather than dis- 

 courage those who are willing to lead 

 the style. A study of the accompanying 

 illustrations, the one on this page and 

 the one on page 9, will put the re- 

 tailer in possession of ideas on the sub- 

 ject. These dais^v-tr-mnied hats were 

 the work of Max Schlinf^. whose store 

 in New York adjoins the Plaza hotel 

 and has the patronage of upper Fifth 

 avenue. 



NO FATHERS' DAY. 



Do you, who have done so much to 

 popularize Mothers' day. know anything 

 about Fathers' day? Several persons 

 here have spoken about it, saying they 

 had read of it in the newspapers. One 

 of our customers said Fathers' day is 



such a day will be detrimental to Moth- 

 ers' day, and advises against it. 



MERELY A CHOICE OF WORDS. 



The average flower seller has abso- 

 lutely no set torniula for use in handling 

 orders, and the number who have ever 

 given the subject a moment's thought 

 is probably so small as to be negligible, 

 yet a lesson is to be learned from the 

 practice of the big concerns that con- 

 duct their business, like the telephone 

 exchanges, by the use of set phrases. 

 Here is a case in point: 



In one of the large flower stores it 

 was found that, in taking an order, in 

 reply to the question, * ' When do you 

 want this delivered?" the customer al- 

 most invariably answered, ' ' As soon 

 as convenient," or words to that effect. 

 This was embarrassing, for two reasons: 

 First, it kept the delivery force flying 

 hither and thither, effectually prevent- 

 ing anything like systematic routing; 

 second, it often resulted in flowers being 

 delivered hours before they were to be 

 used, causing complaints that they were 

 not fresh or did not keep. The store 

 does a large business in corsage bou- 

 quets, turning out dozens of bunches 

 a day in the social season. A large 

 proportion of these orders come by tele- 

 phone and requests for too early de- 



The Latest Paris Flower Fashion. 



observed in some of the southern states. 

 It would be great if there were such • 

 day about the middle of June. Mothers ' 

 day is growing tremendously. C. E. 6. 



There have been several attempts to 

 inaugurate a Fathers' day, but thus far 

 none has proved successful. The Re- 

 view believes that any attempt to push 



livery were a frequent cause of annoy- 

 ance. Finally a good customer was lost 

 as the result of his own noonday request 

 to deliver "right away," when in fact 

 the bouquet was not wanted until even- 

 ing. This led to a study of the language 

 used in taking orders, with the result 

 that the clerks are no longer permitted 

 to ask when delivery is wanted; instead 



