THE NATIONAL NURSERYMAN 
121 
Reminiscences of a Nursery Salesman 
T HEUI'] used lo be a ^vIl()le lot of eontioversy among 
we youiigsters in llie i)otling slied as to whether a 
a praetieol grower ever made a good salesman. 
Those taking the negative side were usually in the ma¬ 
jority, hut there was always sutlieient instanees (luoted 
lo prove the exception to the rule. 
It was invariably claimed a good gi'ower knew too much 
about the plants and rarely had the eommereial inslinet 
sullleieiitly developed. While this is very often true, liis 
failure to make a good salesman does not come fiom hav¬ 
ing a practical knowledge of the goods he tries to sell hut 
in spite of it. 
1 always prided myself on being a practical grower, 
gardener or horticulturist, whieliever you may wish to 
call it, having started in as pot hoy and working through 
the various phases of the profession on private estates, 
eommereial nurseries and llorists’ eslahlisliments. To¬ 
wards the latter end of my experience, I naturally gravi¬ 
tated into selling. 
While I do not claim to he anything more than an aver¬ 
age of those who hold down their jobs for a number of 
years, without getting fired, and do not hold remarkable 
records you hear about in the hotel lobby and potting 
shed, hut rarely come in contact w ith, it was always an 
interesting game, although not a money maker. 
My first experience along this line was in a florist’s 
establishment that did both a wholesale and retail husi- 
luiss. Having charge of the range of houses adjoining the 
olliees, I was very handy w hen customers called and 
gravitated into selling. There were many times, when 
work w as pressing, the appearance of a customer was 
about as welcome as a frost in June. 
There was one old lady especially w-ho “just loved 
dowers” and who w ould spend about an hour selecting a 
fifty cent i)lant, w ho always seemed to come at the most 
inconvenient time. 1 am fairly sure the boss would have . 
approved even a little discourteous treatment to such an 
unprofitable customer, hut somehow' she was such a per¬ 
fect lady and evidently so innocent of w rong iident that 
my patience held out. 
Tlie results may sound very much like the story hooks 
w ilh a moral, hut are true Jievertheless. 
One Sunday morning a genllemaji came to Ihe green¬ 
houses and bought two dozen mums at per dozen, and 
w Idle 1 w as w rapping them up asked if my name w as not 
John Doe. Wdien told that it was he sai(l: “Mrs. D. has 
told me about you. She is a friend of my wdfe’s. Here 
is my card. If you w ould like lo go in business for your¬ 
self, I will advance you all the money you need.” The 
man j)roved to have a millionaire’s rating. 
Since that time I have never had leason lo change my 
mind fhal the most insignificant euslomer oi‘ prospeci is 
worth ev(M'y consideration you can give it. You nevei' 
can tell where they will lead to. 
From that tim(‘ on it seemed as if “.selling” was my 
fate, rather than growing. 
J udging from my ow n experience the very best asset a 
salesman can have is a thorough know ledge of his goods. 
If he is S(‘lling nuiscuy slock, it may not he luaa'ssary hut 
it is an advantage lo know llie plants by tin; Latin mum', 
the common naim*, w lu'ie they come from, how to [)run(‘, 
plant, in fact, he cannot know too much. Ih; w ill find his 
know ledge will often h(^ the nu'ans of g(‘tting an oich'r or 
making a friend. 
In S(‘lling lh(‘ retail lrad(\ lh(‘ most diflieult ])ai1 is g(‘f- 
ling in touch with Ihe prosi)eel. An experience in this 
line I had in Akron illustrates th(‘ j)oint. A very larg(‘ 
place w ith some very fine sj)eeimen trees and |)l(‘nly of 
room for more seemed lo he worth a call. After looking 
up the gardener, w ho proved to he a foreigner w ho could 
barely speak English, I found it would he necessary lo 
see the proprietor to do business, doing to the door I pr(‘- 
senled my card, reejuesting an interview'. The lady very 
nicely told me that they did not w ish to purchase. 
This information, of eours(‘, was aeeept('d w ithoul any 
attempt at argument, and as gracefully as possible. U})on 
leaving I took the opportunity of eomplimenting her on a 
fine specimen Koelreuteria grow ing on the law n, and gave 
a little information about it. This led to talk on other 
trees, and “Oh, by the way if you can spare the lime,” 
w hich I most certainly could, “I w ould like you to see my 
husband. We have a tree which we have never been 
able lo find the name of. A tree doctor told us it was a 
Crataegus.” 
The tree })roved lo he a nice specimen English Cork 
Maple, Acer campeslre. It was easy to prove the “Doc¬ 
tor” w rong by tellijig them it bore w inged seeds and not 
berries like the Crataegus. 
The net results of knowing your goods on that call, 
were a nice order by sliowing where and telling what 
they should ])lant, and what was far better, an introduc¬ 
tion to the best prosi)ecls in town, for the gentleman took 
me in his machine and personally introduced me. 
On another occasion I crossed the trail of a tree agent, 
who was either supremely ignorant of the stock he was 
selling or there was a had mix-ui) in filling his order. 
The lady received me in anything hut a gracious manner, 
in fact, 1 think she had serious thoughts of calling in the 
police. At any rate I got the scolding tlial was due my 
predecessor. It w as plainly evideid it would he w aste of 
tim(‘ to try and sell or to argue I was honest, or that my 
house was more reliable. She was eonvinecal nursery 
agents were frauds, and this was the longed for oppor¬ 
tunity lo tell them so. 
While listening to the lirad(‘ it was an easy matter to 
j)ull out a long-handled budding knife and cut llu^ siring 
that was culling into tin* hark of a tree growing near, 
and ask for anolluM- pi('e(' to redie it, tluMi to g<d talking 
about roses, with a few instructions how lo [)rune them 
and wliy, and lo call attc'idion lo seah^ on the lilac hushes 
and suggest a few plants for along the porch. Interest 
was my 
