year’s bulletin we tolc 
you that our experience extendim 
over a number of years had showr 
that you would require a total oi 
from 20 to 70 tubers per 1 OOC 
copies of your catalog; this numbei 
vapmg according to the space de- 
voted to dahlias, strength of displaj 
a^d whether or not color is used ir 
their presentation. 
We asked all of our customers tc 
spread themselves a little last yeai 
and by crowding dahlias a little 
stronger than usual try and laise 
this average by at least 5 more 
tubers for each 1,000 copies of theii 
catalog. As a result our records show 
that nearly all of our customers sold 
more than 50 tubers, two of them 
sold better than 90 and the Inter- 
^tate Nurseries topped this list by 
selling 117 tubers per 1,000 copies 
ot their catalog. We are taking last 
season s record as a basis and have 
increased your quota 10% this year 
with the hope that every one of our 
customers will do even better than 
that. 
Those who sold the largest num- 
ber of tubers offered them in stand- 
four to six varieties 
at the popular price of $1.00 per 
collection. Collections^ offered at 89c, 
$1.19, etc., almost invariably were 
poorer sellers than those offered at 
$1.00 ^ even though in some cases 
they included better varieties and 
were actually better values for the 
money. Where a gift tuber was of¬ 
fered m case two or more collections 
wmre ordered better than two-thirds 
of the orders took advantage of this 
offer. 
So many new varieties of dahlias 
are being offered each year that the 
temptation is very strong for the 
seedsman to discard the standard 
varieties and feature the new ones. 
Many of us lose sight of the fact 
that new varieties are available in 
limited quantities only and necessar¬ 
ily cost more money from the grower 
and must, therefore, sell for more 
money to the retail customer. To 
determine just how well known these 
new varieties were to the general 
public we asked the great Intei'- 
State Nurseries to cooperate with us 
in circulating a questionnaire among 
a number of people selected at ran¬ 
dom from their mailing list. This 
questionnaire asked these questions: 
Do you raise dahlias in your gar¬ 
den? 
Do you grow Jersey’s Beauty? 
Do you grow Jane Cowd? 
Do you grow Mrs. I. de Ver 
Warner? 
What, in your opinion, are the 
two best dahlias you have grown, or 
actually seen growing, during the 
past two years? 
Out of 1,000 of these question¬ 
naires sent out there were 124 res¬ 
ponses. Of these 38 did not raise 
dahlias in their garden although 
several of the 38 lived in neighbor¬ 
hoods where dahlias were grown 
with success. Of the 86 who grew 
dahlias nearly all grew the three 
most popular varieties and of those 
who expressed an opinion as to the 
best ones the following is the result: 
Jersey’s Beauty, 27; Jane Cowl, 23; 
Mrs. I. de Ver Warner, 12; Satan, 
4; Kathleen Norris and Thomas A. 
Edison, 3; 2 each of the following: 
California Idol, Murphy’s Master¬ 
piece, Ruth Vaughan, Dr. John Car¬ 
men, Jersey’s Beacon, The Commo¬ 
dore, Treasure Island, Prince of 
Persia, and Monmouth Champion; 
and 1 of each of the following: 
Daddy Kemp, Rookwood, Harry 
Mayer, Halo, The Emperor, Red 
Wonder, Eagle Rock Fantasy, Jean 
Kerr, Kentucky, • Vivian, Amber 
Queen, Pride of California, Ava¬ 
lon, Judge Alton B. Parker, Paul 
Pfitzer, Marmion, Margaret Wood- 
row Wilson, Ruby Vallee, The Wbrld, 
Rose Fallon, Salbach’s White, Mar¬ 
garet Masson, Trentonian, Adorable, 
Charles Chaplin, King of the 
Blacks, America’s Sweetheart, Kay 
Francis, Helen Ivans, Little Jewel, 
W. H. T., Mary F., Amelia Earhart, 
Kemp’s White Wonder, Lord of 
Autumn, U. S. A., Palo Alto, Earl 
Williams, Dorothy Stone and Oregon 
Beauty. 
It will be noted that 876 of these 
questionnaires brought no response 
and we can, therefore, assume that 
87.6% of your mailing list have not 
yet become interested in dahlias. 
This is not because the dahlia is 
difficult to raise or because it is too 
expensive for the average person 
but because we have not yet tilled 
our field thoroughly. We find the 
same condition right here in our im¬ 
mediate vicinity where we have 
grown dahlias for years without a 
single crop failure and everyone in 
this part of Michigan knows about 
our dahlias yet not one in a hundred 
has any dahlias growing on his place. 
Based on the responses we find 
8.6% of the average mailing list 
actually grow dahlias. If a single 
collection of four dahlias can be 
sold to each one of these people it 
would mean 344 tubers per 1,000 
copies of your catalog. I don’t think 
any of us should be satisfied until 
we have attained the point of a sale 
of at least 250 tubers per 1,000 
catalogs. We are putting it up to 
our customers to reach this point. 
When we receive a catalog na¬ 
turally the first thing we look for is 
dahlias. A departmental index on the 
front cover of your catalog would 
make it much easier to find any par¬ 
ticular item you offer. You will no¬ 
tice that Burpee uses such an index 
and it is no trick at all to find any 
particular department. Sort of a 
floor superintendent. 
DAHLIAS IN THE 19S7 CATALOGS 
Dealer 
Space 
Devoted 
Color 
Illust. 
B. & w. 
must. 
No. Varieties 
Listed * 
Burgess 
12 3 pages 
_ 
3 
40 
Burpee 
3 
pages 
— 
3 
120 
Condon 
2 
pages 
— 
5 
26 
Dreer 
3 
pages 
6 
3 
55 
Field 
M 
2 pages 
3 
— 
17 
Inter-State Nurseries 
2 
pages 
5 
_ 
19 
Isbell 
1 
pages 
1 
- _ 
12 
R. M. Kellogg Co. 
2 
pages 
3 
1 
16 
Earl May 
1 
pages 
4 
— 
13 
Pike 
12 3 pages 
_ 
4 
38 
Salzer 
2 
pages 
_ ~ — 
6 
50 
Sonderegger 
1 
pages 
_ __ 
_ 
42 
Templin-Bradley 
2 5 pages 
_ _ — 
1 
15 
Vaughan 
4 
pages 
1 
4 
155 
Will 
1/2 
pages 
_ 
2 
5 
* In this column we 
do not include mixed 
or unnamed 
dahlias 
offered 
