File:The American florist - a weekly journal for the trade (1902) (18136827325).jpg

Title: The American florist : a weekly journal for the trade
Identifier: americanfloristw24amer (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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4 The American Florist. Feb. /, her debilitated begoma. Tliey must be prepared to havo tneir honesty impugned whenever a cierit makes a mistaue and sends the wrong variety. They must be prepared very often for the same con- tingency when irom causes entirely be- yond their control' crops fail, plants die or seeds do not germmate. To be suc- cessful, the catalogue man must be not only resourceful in business methods, enterprising in developing and introduc- ing varieties of merit, but he must be optimistic, he must be al.'le to communi- cate his optimism to bis customers, he must be liberal in his dealings, be ev.^r patient, be a natural diplomat, and, above all things, be scrupulously careful to send out only the best obtainable. What is said of the seedsman is also applicable in a great measure to the nur- seryman. The details of his business are hardly as numerous, however, con- sequently not as trying. His business is in a larger degree localized, which tends to simplify it. With San Jose scale, peach yellows and other troubles inci- dent to his stock and the legis.ative etiort to control them, he is not witn- out troubles ot his own. The nursery- man, too, must be up in the "ologies," even more so perhaps than the seeds- man. He must De a fair lawyer, as well, and be an e.-ipert ia transportation mat- ters. The lithographer and the tree agent are powerful agents to the nurseryman. The latter, armed with his book of plates, wends his way over the face of me land, in many cates revi.ed and thrust out, treated little better tnan the hobo. His book is sneered at, and, whiie u may be a tritle highly colored, and the size of the pictured floweis and iruits may be a little exaggerated, yet a long experience has shown that such are the best htted to tempt the wavering into purchasing something which will really be a benent to them. It is a case where the end justifies the means, if tneie ever was one. Many a garden would be given over to weeds which now supper.s a few fruit trees and small fruits, many a porch and dooryard would be as bare of living ornament as the proverbia. "Job's turkey" was of flesh and feather, were it not for the tree agent and his book. That business end of horticulture is not "one grand sweet song" for the men engaged in it; the emoluments aris- ing from It will not make them pluto- crats. Be patient with them, then, if not for themselves, at least for the good they accomplish. The good they do lives after them; the evil is cut down and cast into exterior darkness. The grower lor the catalogue, firms is another ot the business enas of horti- culture; that is, the man who grows plants in quantity on contract or who grows them on speculation to sell in large quantities. His field embraces green- house plants, fruit plants, hardy out- door plants, shrubs, roOcS and bulbs, it is a safe business on the whole, but is not capable of great developmerit, like the catalogue trade. It is generally fol- lowed and taken up by men who have some land, but little worKing capital, and the profits are as a rule very meager. Because of the limited capital wuh which it can be entered, prov'.a.eQ the land is already secured, a great many of the smaller nuiserymen, norists, and even farmers, have entered it ot late years, and it may be sately said to be a well-plowed field at the present time. Because of the fact that these men are not In touch jflth the retail market they grow many tilings for wnich there Is not ready sale, failing to ijbtain buy- ers for these at remunerative pric.os, they are frequently taken up at a sacrihce and pushed by catalogue men, to the detriment of better things. I think it may be accepted as an axiom that the successful catalogue business man must be a bona fide producer, either under his own direct control or by the contract system. This applies to plants more than seeds or bulbs, which can be treated as merchandise. The ^expense of cata- logues, advertising, packing and grow- ing hardly admit ot developing a large business by buying plants and selling again; besides, tlLere is always the trade grower who has a surplus of something Inferior to offer at a tempting price, and it Is well to beware of the "great penny- wopth " The'business end of horUculture rep- resented by the cut flower grower is per- hlpa the simplest, In a business sense, Si'any In that the skill of the grower Is the paramount Issue. His product s sold for what It Is worth on sight. Al- though the market takes exasperating tumbles, he has little, if anything, to do with it. He is saved the nerve wear incident to bargaining, planning how to get rid of his product, how to get his money Sfter he has sold, and the many and vexatious problems incident to bar- ter and sale. I speak of the grower who supplies the large cities and consigns to a commission house. Of course he is constantly consigning the commission man to a place warmer than his hottest greenhouse, but that is his privilege, and the commission hnan gets accus- tomed to it, s'o no one is much hurt. The market is cut out for him. The rose grower has the great triology of Beauiy. Bride and Bridesmaid. The carnation grower has a little more vexed problem as to the varieties he will grow, but it is plain sailing for the violet grower.
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CYPRIPEDIUM EXUL X LATHAMIANUM. (See "Cypripediuni Blooms from England.") The various committees of the leading trade societies settle many a problem for the carnationist and chrysanthemum grower, but they like to nibble at the new things so as not to be caught nap- ping. This gives them a chance to grum- ble once in a while but It makes life In- teresting for them. There is always some- thing new coming up in roses, too, to vex the grower. If the man who gets hold of the new one first has a reputation and can succeed in growing it well it Is an easy, matter for him to get a jnarket for the plants and so turn an honest pen- ny. . But business instinct counts just as heavily in growing cut llowers as in the other business ends of horticulture. It was business Instinct which years ago Inlluenced one of our leading growers of roses to discard every flower which did not come up to his standard. Tliat policy made his reputation and was the founda- tion of his success. It worked both ways; It concentrated his efforts on producing something up to that standard and main- taining It, while it made his reputation. It did more; It elevated the standard and really made two classes of growers In all lines of cut flower growing, the one which alms at "fancy" flowers and which embraces all the high class estab- lishments, the other which does the best he can and takes things as they come. I've been among growers of violets and have seen llowers discarded for slight Imperfections of color which tho unobservant eye would scarcely de- tect. I've seen roses discarded which a few years ago would be sent to the mar- ket for what they would bring. A walk through the wholesale districts In any of the large cities will reveal to the observer stocks of roses, carnations, violets, and so forth, which seem to be different va- rieties although the same, the difference being in the growing mainly, but also in the care with which the cutting, keeping and packing are done. It is one of the most pleasant branches of horticulture and one of the most remunerative for the capital invested. It has developed fastest of.all during recent years and although the constant cry gois up that it does not pay, it continues to develop. The demand for flowers is con- stantly growing and the laws of demand and supply are inexorable. The dally press devotes more attention to It than to any other branch and this has a great deal to do with its development. That advertisement acts also as a corrective, inasmuch as it attracts to the trade pjo- ple with capital seeking investment wne e there is a certain proiit. No one flower has been boomed more in recent years in the daily press than the violet. The ease with which it can be grown and the attractive profits resulting from its cul- ture have been alluringly set forth by writers In the daily press who never grew a violet and knew nothing about the subject. The result has been that many people, particularly women with a pen- chant for flower growing and a desire to earn "pin money," have gone Into the business by the hundreds. Their usual method—following the directions of the dally newspaper horticultural teacher—is to procure sashes and a few hundred plants. The certain result is failure, for they cannot compete with the professional grower who is well equipped with knowledge and has an establishment suit- ed to the purpose. The almost unvarying result Is failure for these enthuslast.o tyros; but they are a disturbing element to the trade. They produce some floweis of a low grade, which come in at a time when the crop is most plentiful. They also disturb the equanimity of the pro- fessional grower by their eager appeals for advice. They disturb the seedsman and general florist in the same way. but they do not disturb th-e equanimity of the daily newspaper, for that institution and the young man or young woman who wrote the articles which were the cause of a.l the turmoil are too busy following up the political fortunes of rival politi- cians, interviewing actresses and society leaders, dilating on the fluctuations ot copper or "nipper" stcck, exploiting tl.e carters of aspiring pugilists, levelhng in the mire of the latest scandal, pictuilng the horrors ot the freshest murder, re- porting horse shows and horse races, thrilling the dear public witli prognosti- cations of Impending wars, and so the florist is left to reap the troubled after- math while the newspaper goes on to fresher fields. The business end'of horticulture repre- sented by the shopkeeper in the large cities is a branch unto itself. It's con- nection with the producing branches is a very slender ore and seems to be grow- ing more attenuated. Why this sliould be does not appear on the surface to most of us. The fact remains, however, that as ii class they hold aloof from the trade or- ganizations, when it would seem that their interests would be conserved by affiliating with them. Tlie comblnatiuii of all branches ot trade hortlcultuilsls In one organization should inuie to the benefit of all. The smaller cities are gen- erally represented In the shopkeeplng by the man who Is himself a grower and whose wife or daughters "tend store" and make up floral designs. The great shopkeepers in tlic large cities are "artLfts" and indulge In fads. They, In some cases, drop their first names, like the ladies tailors and milliners. Hut tho development of that branch has been wonderful. Glass delivery wagons, with gold mounted har- ness and something suspiciously like a crest embossed thereon, have become the sign manual of tho successful Ih.r.il art- ist In tho largo cities. Tho .Lddition of "ribbons and laces to set off tlio faces" of pretty flowers seems a nalural accom- paniment to the style of business; but it seems Inconsistent with the prevailing "natural" style of flower arrangement, it l3 positively painful to see flowering plants swathed In ribbons and paper or tied up with bow knots like a poodle dog,

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