
To My Friends and Customers: 
Indeed I do feel that the two words, friend and customer, are almost one and the 
same. Many, many of you began by being customers; then you wrote to tell me what 
success you had with Rich Begonia tubers, and the first thing we both knew we were 
writing to each other frequently. Almost always, one order leads to another; one 
customer tells a friend, and soon another name is on the mailing list. 
As I look back over the last twenty years I like to feel that the flower gardens of 
America have been brightened and made better by Rich Begonias. My business was 
started as a hobby, and when you do a thing for the love of it you do your best and 
not your quickest or your cheapest. I have always put quality ahead of everything else, 
for this reason, my stock has not been the cheapest on the market. But if they do 
not know it in the beginning, gardeners soon find out that you generally get exactly 
what you pay for in this world. Reliable, well-grown stock of any nursery product is 
the result of careful work on the part of a number of people over a period of time, 
and it is necessary for the grower to realize a fair return for his work. So it is with 
Begonia tubers. Remember that many bulbs offered at ridiculously low prices are 
those that failed to grow to regular size on account of frost. 
You will see that my “‘base of operations” is now Reading, Penna., instead of 
Atlantic, Maine. Here I will have much better shipping facilities, and the shipping 
season starts twenty days earlier. Please send your orders promptly before the stock 
gets sold out. An added inducement to early ordering this year is the 5% discount 
allowed on all orders received before March 15. If 100 or more tubers are ordered 
at one time, an additional discount of 5% will be allowed, except in the case of col- 
lections. They do not receive more than the 5% discount. 
Cordially yours, 
HOWARD R. RICH’) 
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