76 
August, 1919 
Obe Slower (Brower 
llllll IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII1II1II1III1II lllllllllllllllllllllll illllllllll 1IIMII1IIIIII [lllilllllllllllMIIIIIIIIIIMtlltlllllllllMIIIMIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII 
Slower (Brower 
PUBLISHED MONTHLY ON THE FIRST OF THE MONTH BY j 
MADISON COOPER, CALCIUM, N.Y. I 
FOR BOTH AMATEUR AND PROFESSIONAL FLOWER GROWERS I 
Subscription Price : OUR MOTTO : Canadian and Foreign = 
$1.00 per year. Special favors to none, and a Subscription Price 1 
3 years for $2.00. square deal to all. $1 .25 per year. \ 
Growers are invited to contribute articles or notes over their own 
signatures, but the Editor reserves the right to reject anything which 
in his judgment is not conducive to the general welfare of the business. 
Copyright 1019 by JIadison Cooper 
The contents of THE FLOWER GROWER, formerly "The Modern Gladiolus 
Grower" are covered by general copyright. Permission is given to editors to use not 
more than one-third of any article providing proper credit is given at the beginning or 
end of such quotation, as follows: "From THE FLOWER GROWER, Calcium, N. V.” 
Special permission necessary for reprinting illustrations, long extracts or articles entire. 
Vol. VI August, 1919 No. 8 
“ He who sows the ground with care and diligence acquires a 
greater stock of religious merit than he could gain by the 
repetition of ten thousand prayers.” —Zoroaster. 
Suggestions for Selling. 
It is very evident that there are some growers who are 
capable and efficient in the work of producing a fine crop of 
bulbs but sadly lacking in salesmanship when the time 
comes to dispose of the surplus. 
There are four classes of customers to whom a surplus 
can be sold ; amateurs, growers, retail dealers and jobbers. 
Now let us suppose a grower has bulbs which at a fair 
wholesale valuation are worth $1,000, which method will 
give best results ? 
The jobbers offer the easiest and quickest solution, they 
buy in large quantities, they pay cash and they buy early 
in the season, consequently their offers are accepted by 
many growers to whom quick cash is more important than 
future profit. Of course these jobbers buy to sell again, 
mainly to growers and retail dealers and they must have a 
good margin of profit and they will offer the owner $600 to 
$750, so that the actual cost of the sale made in this way 
is really $250 to $400. In other words the grower pays the 
jobber a very large commission to sell the bulbs and save 
the expense of advertising, correspondence, etc., when he 
could by spending one-half that amount in advertising his 
business sell the bulbs for $1,000, and at the same time gain 
friends and customers and build up a “good will,” an ele- 
ment in business which is worth real money. 
The ambitious grower will not be satisfied with this 
very simple method of wholesale advertising. The next 
step is to go after retail or mail order trade which will give 
him perhaps $1,500 for his crop, and this will call for an 
additional expense for a retail catalog and an advertising 
program which will bring orders and inquiries from which 
a mailing list can be built up. This branch of the business 
is the most profitable, requiring a fair amount of business 
ability, very careful attention to details of growing, sorting 
and shipping. 
Selling at wholesale to growers and dealers is somewhat 
less profitable and involves much less trouble and advertis- 
ing expense, while dealing with the middleman or jobber 
yields the smallest returns in cash and builds no secure 
foundation for future business. 
Leaving the future out of the account, the problem is 
very simple. How much should the grower spend in ad- 
vertising, discounts or commissions to sell bulbs to the 
value of $1,000? 
If he has a good reputation and his stock is already 
favorably known among dealers, ten to fifteen per cent will 
do it, but a beginner can well afford to spend twenty per 
cent for advertising, circulars, stationery and at least one 
good exhibit at a first class flower show. 
S. E. Spencer. 
A Question of Prices. 
The price question comes up repeatedly and it deserves 
constant attention. There seems to be an inclination among 
flower growers when they first enter the commercial end of 
the business to make their prices too low. This is more 
often because they do not know what their costs are than 
from any desire to cut prices. Most people entering a new 
business are inclined to undervalue their own labor, and 
when first starting in business their own labor is one of the 
big items which they do not, therefore, figure. Growers 
should remember that their labor would be worth as much 
if sold to someone else, possibly more than it is in their own 
line of business, and, therefore, they should not undervalue 
it in connection with the making of prices at which their 
product is sold. 
Labor costs apparently will be fully as high as last year 
and it would seem that the price of flower stocks of all 
kinds should be fully as high, if not higher the coming year, 
than they have been during the past year. The prob- 
lem of “ keeping up with rising costs ” has bothered 
many experienced business men during the past few years 
and the novice in commercial floriculture is urged to give 
this part of the business very close attention. 
Madison Cooper. 
Prizes for the Amateur. 
The preparing of a prize list for a flower show is not the 
easiest task in the world and especially from the fact that 
no general principles governing same have been evolved. 
Some seem to think that the amateur should be encouraged 
by offers of cash, but we believe that this is absolutely wrong. 
No amateur who is at the same time a good sportsman is 
looking for cash prizes, but would be much better pleased 
with what may be called merchandize prizes. Prizes should 
consist of honor awards, and preferably suitably engraved 
cups and medals which the winner may keep as evidence 
of his prowess and activities. Money prizes are soon spent 
and should have little value to the true amateur. 
The time is nearly here again when the unsophisticated 
will be solicited to send flowers to fairs and flower shows 
on somebody’s promise to stage them properly. Our ad- I 
vice is— don’t do it. No person on earth will stage your 
flowers as you could or would do it yourself even though 
their intentions were of the best, and sometimes this latter 
point is not always a sure thing. 
Go yourself, and take with you, or send properly packed, 
all the flowers that you have in good condition for display, i 
The flower shows need your help, but sending flowers for 
someone else to stage, usually leads to dissatisfaction all 
around. An experience in staging flowers at a flower show 
will give you more information than you can secure in the 
same length of time in any other way. 
