Feature
12
January | 2022
The Founding of Florists' Review
As Florists' Review celebrates its 125th anniversary this year, we offer this glimpse into how it all began.
By David Coake
A
ppropriating a phrase from one of the
most prolific storytellers of our time,
e Golden Girls' Sophia Petrillo, Picture it:
Chicago. 1897. 508 South Dearborn Street.
Caxton Building, on Printers Row.
It was 125 years ago when a thoughtful, mild-mannered,
cerebral and Renaissance gentleman, 38 years of age,
named Gilbert Leonard Grant, founded the magazine
you now hold in your hands. at makes Florists' Review
the oldest flower industry magazine in the world today!
In addition, since its inception in 1897, Florists' Review
has been continuously published—never missing a single
issue—even through two World Wars and e Great
Depression, when many businesses suspended operations
or converted to manufacturing other products, primarily
to help America's war efforts.
e first issue of Florists' Review (Volume 1, No. 1) was
dated Dec. 2, 1897, and it was originally titled e Weekly
Florists' Review. e "Weekly" was dropped within the
first two decades (becoming, simply, e Florists' Review),
but the magazine continued to be published weekly
throughout its first 70+ years. For math nerds, that's
somewhere around 4,000 issues! After that time, in the
early to mid-1970s, Florists' Review became a monthly
publication, generating another 600 or so issues to date.
