cover in full the cost of bulbs and the delivery 
charges. In every instance to date, every customer 
to whom we have extended credit for such purposes 
has paid us their balance in full without any neces- 
sity for us to make any special collection efforts. 
For this reason when bulbs are purchased for cut- 
‘lower production and in sufficient amount that we 
are justified in the extra bookkeeping records we 
furnish on the following terms: One-third down, one- 
third August 15th, and the balance September 15th. 
A very nominal carrying charge is added for the 
credit service. By making the payment time due 
during the cut-flower season, your income from the 
sales should enable you to make the deferred pay- 
ments from monies actually received from your cus- 
tomers. We of course having no control over weather 
conditions, and your sales outlets, consider this a 
normal sale and payments due will not be contingent 
on your sales income. As a matter of sound busi- 
ness, we require you to give us promissory notes for 
each of the two payments due, with no interest un- 
less not paid at maturity. Under normal procedure 
we assign these notes to our bank for collection. 
WHERE TO SELL CUT-FLOWERS 
The sales outlet depends largely upon your lo- 
cation, and upon the contacts you have or make. 
Many of our customers prefer to supply their local 
florists. Florists always prefer high-quality home 
grown gladiolus when these are available. They 
have no shipping expense, the flowers are always 
fresh and completely useable, and they are more 
satisfactory to their customers. The prices they will 
pay of. course depends upon the market conditions. 
The local season usually opens at around $1.50 per 
dozen. Within a couple of weeks when the main 
cut is available the price usually drops to around 
$1.00 and later in the season when the large com- 
mercial growers throw their big supplies on the mar- 
ket it can drop to 75 or 50 cents per dozen. In 
the smaller communities you should especially bear 
in mind that the local florists buy glads almost wholly 
for funeral work, altho weddings. require quantities 
as do special events, such as opening of new busi- 
nesses, etc. If one relies wholly on the local florist 
to absorb your cut, there are almost always periods 
when perhaps your bloom is heaviest, when he will 
be unable to use all of them. | It is always wise to 
build up a group of direct-user retail customers, un- 
less your florist agrees to take your entire cut. 
As cut flowers for the home, the. glad will easily 
last a full week if the housewife will use them in low 
arrangement, using the tip flowers when the lower 
florets have withered. Taking advantage of this 
cut-flower durability some of our customers have 
built up a regular clientele who buy one dozen each 
week thru the entire cutting season and it is a very 
simple matter to furnish from a dozen to 50 families 
each week on such a program. We have published 
a 44 page bookletlet, ‘Artistry in Gladiolus Ar- 
rangement,” price 50c, to encourage an increased 
use of Glads in the home. 
Another field is the supplying of offices, stores, 
hotels, restaurants, with fresh flowers regularly. 
Glads last so much better than most greenhouse 
flowers that this group can be easily sold on the 
plan and it is profitable to supply them. Others re- 
port that they follow the news items closely and sup- 
ply Glads for clubs, weddings, showers, and various 
social functions, and of course every hospital room 
is always filled with flowers which someone fur- 
nished. Since glads have no fragrance, they are 
especially liked by the hospital attendants for this 
purpose. 
Ninety-nine men out of each hundred, nearly al- 
ways forget birthday and special anniversary dates, 
and really appreciate a reminder in time to do 
something about it. If you can obtain those dates 
lying within your gladiolus cutting season, and will 
follow up these, you can be absolutely certain of a 
high percentage of sales from them. 
ROADSIDE STANDS AND SUBURBAN AND 
COUNTRY SALES 
Possibly the suburban and country residents, who 
live on well traveled roads, have the easiest method 
of disposing of their flowers. We have checked a 
number of these outlets and find they are very suc- 
cessful in disposing of rather large quantities of 
Glads. 
Some of them simply use a road sign to an- 
nounce their willingness to furnish flowers, with 
preferably a portion of their bulbs growing and 
blooming within sight of the passing cars. Others 
with larger plantings, are operating roadside stands 
that vary from extremely simple construction, to 
quite elaborate, to display their cut-blooms. And 
their sales volume, especially at week ends, were 
actually surprising to us. Oftentimes they combined 
their offering of flowers with seasonable farm and 
garden products. Perhaps the most unusual one 
was a serve-yourself stand on Highway 30, east of 
Portland. Here there was no attendant, but the 
stand was well filled with bouquets of glads in 
varying quantities, each plainly marked as to price. 
The customer was requested to help himself and 
drop the price into a slot coin-box. Apparently the 
plan was a success as the operation continued thru 
the cutting season. 
The ingenious individual will find many, many 
outlets for his flower production providing it is 
reasonably priced and of high quality. Good cut- 
flower varieties may be cut in tight bud (when 3 to 
5 buds are showing color but before a floret is 
actually open, and these if held in storage at flower 
refrigerator temperature will keep as long as two 
weeks and still be saleable. This factor makes it 
possible to hold the spikes for several days if they 
do happen to bloom at a dull market time. Those 
cut in tight bud will not open quite as large a floret 
as those cut when the two bottom florets have op- 
ened in the field, therefore for local use when sales 
“are reasonably sure, it is best to make your cut 
20 
with at least one floret open. It is in an interesting 
fact that every glad grower should know, that the 
floret opening takes place only at night. When 
you observe your spikes in the morning, they then 
show all of the florets that will be open that day. 
IMPORTANCE OF PROPER VARIETY SELECTION 
The choice of varieties is one of the important 
questions which must be answered correctly if your 
cut flower crop is to prove profitable. A cut flower 
variety sells most readily if the flower size is in the 
400 or 500 class. The colors must be clear and 
pleasing; the texture of the floret of sufficient dura- 
