File:The American florist - a weekly journal for the trade (1916) (18140100072).jpg

Title: The American florist : a weekly journal for the trade
Identifier: americanfloristw53amer (find matches)
Year: 1885 (1880s)
Authors: American Florists Company
Subjects: Floriculture; Florists
Publisher: Chicago : American Florist Company
Contributing Library: UMass Amherst Libraries
Digitizing Sponsor: Boston Library Consortium Member Libraries

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986 The American jt'lorist. May 27, tons, Ptcris argryrea, Asparagus Spren- geri, with ivy and variegated periwin- kle for vine, will give a pretty effect that should last all summer. For the sunny situation, geraniums, neurem- bergias, calendulas, coleus, ageratum, nasturtiums, petunias, sweet alyssum and a number of other plants will all do well. For vines, there is nothing better than the hardy ivy and varie- gated periwinkle. Scotti ferns and As- paragus Sprengeri are good, if room can be made for them. Color effects are often desirable, such as pink ger- aniums and blue ageratum or Plum- bago Capensis, w-hich blooms the whole summer long. All red geraniums with pandanus center, white petunias, and sweet alyssum, is very effective. A number of equally striking combina- tions will suggest themselves to fit in with the surroundings in which they are to be placed. When the chilly fall season takes away the life and vigor of the sum- mer beauty they are then to be re- placed with bo.x or evergreens; these can be used in assortment as desired, there being many suitable varieties ■with much diversity of color in foli- age. Nothing makes a better show- ing or is more symmetrical, than a sin- gle specimen of Norway or Colorado spruce, or well shaped boxwood, which even after it loses its color in past midwinter, as they all do, still holds its shape, and is not knocked awry by the wind or weight of snow. K. Looking Forward and Looking Backward. A paper by .\lbert M. Hen-. Ijincaster. Pa., read at the May meeting of tUe Lan- caster County Florists' Club. Tour programme committee in a.sk- ing me to write a paper for you, gave me the privilege of selecting my own subject, and as we old men have a tendency to .brag about the good old times, and to prophesy as to the future, the above heading is given to a little rambling talk I shall give you, and having so little time to give the sub- ject I trust you will not be too harsh in your criticisms. Looking backward to the beginning of my actual experience in the florist business, takes me back to the days of A. D. Rohrer & Bro., when as a fifteen- year-old youngster, I put in some good long days and some pretty hard work with that firm. The one thing that stands out most vividly in my memory of those days was the houses (not the house) of geraniums we grew in o-inch pots and sold readily at .$2.50 per dozen, and let me tell you that they were "some geraniums." Looking forward I can see no reason why the same mar- ket is not in existence today, nor why it is not worked up by some good live wire with the ability and cash to do it. The only true road to success in this or any other business is in serv- ice, or in other words, in giving your customers real value for their money. Those 5-inch pot geraniums were real value to the buyer at any price up to $5 per dozen. Without actual figures as to the cost of their production, I do know that if -1-inch pot geraniums can be grown and sold for %\ per dozen, 5-inch stock could be produced and sold for $2.50 per dozen. Right in this town, there are people who would pay .$5 per dozen for such stock if properly educated to it and be better satisfied than they are today with their %\ a dozen stock. We all grow and sell entirely too much second-class stock. Another market for geraniums is for porch decoration, and if it is not worked \ip by some one with sufficient nerve and a little capital, it is simply one of many neglectel opportunities. These geraniums should be grown into 12-inch pot specimen plants on up into regular tub size to be sold at from ,$2..">0 to .flO each. In this city where almost ;iO per cent of the homes have front porches, there should be hun- dreds of porches where a good speci- men geranium would be an addition to the regular porch decoration. Right here I want to say, never sell one of these specimen geraniums where you. as an educated florist, know that it will not give satisfactory results and the customer the best of satisfaction; better to lose 20 sales than to have one dissatisfied customer, who can truly attribute their dissatisfaction to you. Looking backward again to those A. D. Rohrer & Bro. days we sold pansies at 10 cents each or .$1 per dozen from cold frames and our customers were more than satisfied. The plants were a mass of flowers and bloom, and sold early in the season with the express understanding that when the hot weather came they should be thrown out and other stock planted into the bed. Today pansies are sold here for from 50 cents per dozen for fair plants to as low as 10 cents a dozen, and even the latter are not mean stock, but they do not give the satisfaction to the customer, as they are hardly started into bloom properly before the hot weather is on them and it is good- bye beauty. Looking backward over this pansy business, I can distinctly recall the work and expense I put in getting up an especially fine strain of pansies, which for a number of years I sold at .$4 per l.(XIO direct from the seed bed. Thi.s looked like a gold mine
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A BEAUTIFUL LAWN VASE.

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