Pin-Money Crops for the Home Gardener—sy F. F. Rockwell 
Il. 
Tickling Profits With Cut Flowers 
: [Eprror’s Nore.—From time to time THE GARDEN MAGAZINE is the recipient of letters from more or less successful amateurs who are consumed 
with a desire to convert their hobby into a money maker. They have been told by enthusiastic friends, or have read, of the prices brought in the city 
flower shops by the self same flowers that they grow so successfully. 
They want information as to packing and shipping; and think they should 
be ready then to go into the business of owtdoor flower growing. This article will serve as a general reply to these enthusiasts who see too rosily.] 
UT flowers for profit” seems to be a 
hobby enthusiastically recommended by 
typewriter gardeners for would-be “get- 
rich-quick” flower amateurs. There are 
profits in flowers: the job is to get them 
out. In other words, the whole thing is largely 
a question of marketing. ‘The flowers are in- 
expensive to grow, and more certain than many 
vegetables. The problem is how to sell them 
all, or to get a big enough price for those 
that you do sell to reap a profit on the whole 
transaction. 
On paper it looks something like this: Blue 
Cornflowers, Bachelor Buttons, sell for five 
cents apiece. In my little garden of one-eighth 
of an acre I can grow 1,815 plants, spaced 18 
by 24 inches, and each plant 
should produce at least ten good 
flowers. 18,150 nickels=$907.50. 
Allowing 40 per cent. for ex- 
penses, commissions and loss, 
which certainly should be ample, 
leaves $544.50. Perhaps that isn’t 
as good as owning munitions 
stock, but still a very acceptable 
return, as the work is pleasant 
and the capital required small. 
THE GARDEN MAGAZINE is not 
a “trade” papers it has no ax to 
grind, and nothing to gain by 
discouraging energetic amateurs 
from competing with the profes- 
sional florists. But I am going 
to devote a few sentences right 
here to showing any one, who 
may be thinking of making money 
in this particular way, why it is 
an idle dream. 
In the first place the market 
for cut flowers during the spring, 
summer and early fall months is 
limited. There is comparatively 
little demand for flowers, and 
many people who buy in the win- 
ter, in summer grow flowers in 
their own gardens, or bring them 
in from the country on their 
daily or weekly auto trips. At 
times neither growers, commis- 
sion men nor retailers are making anything on 
the flowers they handle. The only reason they 
handle them is because they are losing less than 
they would to do nothing for three or four 
months. Furthermore, many cut flowers are 
practically a by-product. Gladioli and Dahlias, 
for instance, of the finest kinds are produced 
by the tens of thousands where the bulbs are 
grown. If you could look for a minute at the 
hundreds of acres which annually break into 
sheets of color in certain sections of New York, 
Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, New Jersey and 
Maryland, the blooms on which the owners 
would be glad to dispose of for the cost of gath- 
ering them wholesale, you would never dream 
again of growing them for shipment to a city 
market to sell. Even the flowers that are 
grown for cutting—Sweet Peas, Asters, Corn 
Flowers, and so forth, are practically a by- 
product with many growers, to help maintain 
their organizations during the barren months. 
And naturally the commission houses give the 
preference to men with whom they deal the 
year round! So, if you have been thinking of 
growing flowers in a small way for the com- 
reat market, my advice decidedly is, “for- 
get it.” ; 
But it is possible to make pin-money out of 
cut flowers. By that I do not mean that every 
one who can grow them successfully will be able 
to make enough during the summer to buy a 
new winter suit. The personal equation is the 
deciding thing; and conditions must be at least 
not unfavorable. In the following paragraph 
several methods of disposing of your flowers 
after you have grown them are mentioned. 
After studying and comparing them, you can 
quickly form a pretty good opinion as to which 
This is a “roadside’ Sweet Pea garden in Massachusetts. 
would be the most likely to prove successful in 
your own case. I would, by all means, advise 
that you select one, and stick to that. If you 
find it cannot be made to work, try another. 
But, before giving up the one that you first try, 
be satisfied that it is the method, and not timid, 
half-hearted effort, or carelessness on your 
part, in attempting to use it, that is at fault. 
The method that I consider most advisable, 
where conditions are such that it can be util- 
ized, is that of “the roadside flower shop.” The 
“shop” may be a bench under a shady tree, and 
the display windows the neatly kept flower 
garden where the blossoms are always fresh and 
attractive. This scheme of selling has three 
very great advantages; in the first place, you 
get retail prices, all there is in it; in the sec- 
ond, there is no delivery expense—no packing 
material, containers or conveying to the express 
office or to the local place of sale, to say noth- 
ing of transportation charges; in the third, 
there need be little or no waste of time in wait- 
ing for customers, and such flowers as you do 
not sell, you can at least use about the house or 
give away yourself. 
The essential thing for this system is a well 
traveled highway near the home, preferably one 
of the main automobile routes through your 
section. This has everything to do with the 
amount of your sales. It should be a natural 
stopping place; car owners do not like to stop 
at the beginning of a steep grade, in the blazing 
hot sun, or just before a sharp curve, nor where 
the machine cannot be run well to the side of 
the road so that it will be out of the way of 
passing traffic. First of all, then, the place 
should be convenient; second, it should be made 
attractive—this is where you must use your 
ingenuity as an advertiser—something striking 
that the passer by cannot help seeing, first, 
and, in addition, something which he or she 
will want to stop to look at more carefully and 
closely once the eye has been caught. On a 
trip through three of the New England states 
this summer, I saw scores of places where some 
such scheme was being attempted. But the 
majority of them, however, were evidently made 
up on the inspiration of the minute. In the 
near future competition along this line will 
undoubtedly become so great that only those 
who use skill and ingenuity can hope to capture 
enough “trade” to make the thing profitable. 
There is another important thing which ap- 
parently few people realize. Very seldom in- 
90 
The great supply of 
flowers sold came from another garden, but the growing vines here helped to advertise 
the stand. Some mistaken customers like to see their flowers picked 
deed, will a car stop and go back. Whatever 
you do to arrest attention should be placed 
where it will be seen in advance of your dis- 
play; then the lady in the back seat will have 
time to tell the driver to slow down, and he 
will be ready to stop his car if things look 
worth while to the occupants. That is nine- 
tenths of your sale for very seldom will a car 
stop without something being purchased; the 
desirability of what you have to sell and your 
skill as a salesman will determine how much. 
Two of the best signs which I remember were: 
something like those shown below. 
Not far from the well referred to on one sign 
was an attractively arranged flower booth dis- 
playing goods with price cards attached. 
SLOW DOWN! 
A Bad Turn 
of the neck certain if you 
pass our gardens at 
full speed 
STOP 
For a Cool Drink! 
This well full of ice-cold 
Water 
Help Yourself 
You may not have an old- 
fashioned well handy, but possi- 
bly there are other equally good 
advantages which could be util- 
ized. I stopped at one shady 
place among some pines which 
evidently was made use of by 
many parties stopping for lunch. 
A sign might have been placed. 
here reading something like this: 
“LUNCH PARTIES WELCOME. 
Clear cold water can be had at 
the next house for the asking. 
Don’t fail to see our flower gar- 
dens and take a box of fresh blooms home with 
you.” This sign could not fail to attract at- 
tention even from those who would not stop: 
for lunch. 
Whatever sort of a sign you use, do not fail 
to make it short and pithy. Use plain black 
block letters on a light background. Also it 
should face in the direction of approaching cars. 
and not be put parallel to the road. Make two 
signs if necessary. 
In many large towns and small cities there 
is the possibility of growing cut flowers in the 
summer for local demand. In such places it is. 
often the case that there is no local florist, but. 
that some store in the town, the woman’s ex- 
change, or the druggist, or the jeweler, handles. 
cut flowers as a side line, receiving the winter 
supply from some neighboring city; and pos- 
sibly bedding plants, etc., from a local market. 
gardener, who is too busy with his vegetables 
during the summer to grow cut flowers. Here, 
provided the proper conditions exist, it may be 
possible for the amateur flower grower to do a 
nice little pin-money business during the sum- 
mer and early fall months. But be certain that 
the right conditions do exist before you start; 
also determine in advance what flowers are 
likely to be in demand. 
Even near larger cities, where there may be 
a local florist or two, there is sometimes a pos- 
sibility for the amateur grower to make good. 
by growing one thing supremely well. 
It is sometimes possible to find a few custom- 
ers who will take enough flowers to make it 
worth while to cater especially to them. Most 
hotels use flowers in quantity, but, of course, 
they will not pay retail prices. (For the keep- 
ing of cut flowers, see page 96.) 
