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The Weekly Florists^ Review^ 



NOVEMBEK 29, 1900. 



Faurc, Belle of Castleuood, and Mrs. 

 11. Weeks were among the best. In the 

 cut blooms Modesto, Mrs. H. Weeks, 

 Solar Queen, Mrs. Trainor L. Park, Au- 

 tumn Glory, Wni. H. Chadwick, Marion 

 Cleveland, Mayflower, Philadelphia, 

 Black Hawk, Viviand-Morel, Pennsylva- 

 nia, Frank Hardy, Golden Wedding, Mi- 

 nerva, Mrs. Jerome Jones and Queen 

 were especially prominent for size and 

 beauty. The largest bloom was an enor- 

 mous" Wm. H. Chadwick, about the 

 finest mum ever shown in Hartford. 

 Second prize was for Viviand-MoreL 



The geranium exhibit was fine and 

 was quite popular, loo, Ian MacLaren 

 and ;\rme. Malin being about the hand- 

 somest and best grown. Carnations, 

 violets, roses, hot house grapes and other 

 good things made up the show and 

 came in for their share of attention. 

 R. 



CHICAGO. 



The Market. 



The reports on Thanksgiving trade by 

 the various wholesalers are somewhat 

 at variance, some noting a decrease and 

 others an increase as compared with 

 last year. On the average the trade was 

 probably somewhat less than that of 

 last year in money value, for while a 

 large amount of stock was handled the 

 average price was lower, and this no 

 doubt brought down the receipts in dol- 

 lars. 



High grade stock, especially in roses, 

 was hard to get and prices luled above 

 printed quotations, but there was a de- 

 cided surplus of lower grade stock, and 

 this was moved at low figures. In car- 

 nations there was a shortage in colored 

 sorts, but there was plenty of white. 

 Chrysanthemums, especially yellow, 

 moved slowly, and an enormous number 

 had been sent in. An abundance of poor 

 violets and but few good ones. 



The bulk of the demand up to Tues- 

 day was from outside points, and there 

 was little indication of the local trade 

 awakening at the last moment. 



Certain it is that prices averaged 

 some little lower than last year, though 

 it cannot be told with certainty yet 

 whether the cash receipts in the aggre- 

 gate will even up or not. 



The local retailers will not be able to 

 make a definite report until Friday or 

 Saturday. But few advance orders had 

 been placed by customers. 



Various Items. 



Kennicott Bros. Company's new cat- 

 alogue of cut flowers and florists' sup- 

 plies is a beauty. The three red roses 

 in color on the cover are very striking 

 and handsome, and the half-tone illus- 

 trations of wire designs are certainly 

 novel and effective. An excellent feat- 

 ure is the series of illustrations showing 

 how many of the wire designs look when 

 filled. There is quite a long list of sup- 

 plies, and this and the fine engravings 

 make it a book that every florist will 

 want to keep. 



Bassett & Washburn did a heavy ship- 

 ping trade for Thanksgiving. They had 

 a big supply of fancy carnations, of 

 which 4,000 sold readily at the fancy 

 rate of $5 a hundred. Their place on 

 Tuesday was a whole carnation show in 

 iteelf. 



Architect Richard E. Schmidt has 

 made plans for a one-story and base- 

 ment conservatory, with a dome forty 

 feet high, of brick, stone, iron and glass. 



which Montgomery Ward is about to 

 build for John Mangel, the florist, in 

 Lake avenue, south of Forty-seventh 

 street, on a lot 1)0x130 feet. A lease of 

 the holding for twenty years has been 

 agreed upon. 



Mr. M. F. Kyle, of Kalamazoo, Mich., 

 was in the city visiting old frien..; List 

 week. 



Bouquet green is scarcer than ever. 

 It is reported that there is two feet of 

 snow in one district that has heretofore 

 sent a good supply to this market. 



Roses will be the subject at the first 

 meeting of the Florists' club in Decem- 

 ber. 



The date for the next games to be 

 bowled by the florists in the Anson 

 league is Dec. 12. 



A notice has appeared in the daily 

 papers of the incorporation of the "Chi- 

 cago Carnation Co., Chicago." The capi- 

 tal stock is given as $5,000 and the in- 

 corporators as S. L. Adams, R. S. Lud- 

 ington and D. M. Moore. We are as- 

 sured that the action was not taken by 

 the Chicago Carnation Co., of Joliet, and 

 as the incorporators are not known in 

 the trade the probability is that they 

 are attorneys acting for some one whose 

 name does not appear. The duplication 

 of names will surely cause confusion 

 and is to be deprecated. 



BUFFALO. 



Another foot of wet snow yesterday, 

 a regular suicidal day, but this Tues- 

 day morning the sun is shining brightly 

 and all troubles are forgotten. But we 

 never will forget the wet November of 

 1900. In spite of clouds there seems 

 to be a good supply of flowers, except 

 violets, which are in very short supply. 

 Choice flowers went up to $4 per 100. 

 We don't mind a short crop now if we 

 can have plenty for the holidays. 



Mr. Guenther, of Hamburg, this 

 county, is now sending in grand blooms 

 of several varieties of chrysanthemums, 

 the best of which is Golden Wedding. 

 What a pity that more cannot grow 

 this fine sort, for it is the king of them 

 all when well done. It has the size and 

 form and grace and color that none 

 other possesses. 



You hear every day or two from one or 

 other of the Main street florists that bus- 

 iness has been "first-class." When this 

 is admitted you can conclude that it is 

 generally good and no doubt it is quite 

 an improvement over last year. 



There came very near being a $1,400 

 florist's locomobile delivery wagon in 

 the streets for Christmas, but the deal 

 fell through and "S. A. A." says "we'll 

 bide a wee." 



There is a new establishment in town. 

 Mr. Foss, who has been working in the 

 greenhouses of the Pan-American, has 

 built two very substantial houses very 

 near the corner of Main and Amherst. 

 This is right in the heart of what is 

 known as the Central Park district, 

 which contains hundreds of our finest 

 homes. 



Mr. John Battolph, who by profes- 

 sion is an expert draughtsman, but al- 

 ways showed great taste for gardening, 

 has built a 75x20 house and will run it 

 semi-professionally. I expect to see an 

 addition next summer and then John 

 will blossom out as a full-fledged flor- 

 ist. 



You ■will remember that about a year 

 ago the trade hero took a bold stand and 

 all agreed that no more flowers or plants 

 should be donated for any purpose what- 



soever. We cut it out short. We had 

 to. To send a dozen palms on certain 

 occasions and donate a few flowers for 

 charity's sake was a pleasure, but it 

 grew simply unbearable. We were ap- 

 pealed to four or five times a day and 

 all felt a great relief when the agree- 

 ment was reached. Being published in 

 the papers it worked charmingly. Hard- 

 ly a single request has been made and 

 you can defend on it, reader, that you 

 \vill offend "no one by such action whose 

 trade is worth much. The beggars are 

 those who would spend very little 

 money for flowers for any occasion. 



We have sailed along in peace for 

 months, almost forgetting that we were 

 ever pestered with beggars, till two 

 weeks ago we ran against a snag. A 

 number of our leading society ladies got 

 up a ball, the proceeds to go to the 

 fund for support of the district nurses, 

 a splendid organization that does great 

 good among the poor and need}-. "We 

 will have everything donated, my dears. 

 We won't have any expense, so that we 

 must make money. Mr. Jones will pay 

 for the ice cream, Mr. Robinson will 

 pay for the music, Mr. White, 1 know, 

 will pay for refreshments, in fact I feel 

 sure that we can get everything, and 

 we will get the florists to decorate our 

 hall. Won't that be just lovely; let's 

 telephone to the florists at once to meet 

 us tomorrow morning." We met and 

 the five Main street florists offered to 

 decorate the hall at cost, each one send- 

 ing a man to do the work. The ladies 

 felt a little hurt at our refusal to do- 

 nate the whole job, but we made no bad 

 friends. Seeing that we were all united 

 and meant to adhere to our agreement, 

 I think they rather admired the stand 

 we took and they very sensibly made up 

 their minds that some flags and ribbons 

 would do just as well for the occasion. 



Now, you see, the man that played 

 the fiddle got his pay and the man who 

 made the cakes and ice cream, etc., got 

 his, but a wealthy man paid for it, 

 and as no wealthy man offered to pay 

 for the floral decorations they went 

 without any. This is the first serious 

 snag that we have run against and the 

 snag had to give away, and as our 

 agreement was not wrecked in this en- 

 counter we expect to go sailing along 

 serenely. Take notice many of you 

 Buffalo florists who were not approached 

 about this job that those who were 

 stuck to each other and to our agree- 

 ment. W. S. 



PHILADELPHIA. 



The business conditions during the 

 past two weeks have been very encour- 

 aging. The supply of nearly all kinds 

 of cut flowers has been sold at fair 

 prices with little waste, possibly except- 

 ing in the poorest grade. From the 12th 

 to 17th days of the month or during the 

 first of these two weeks the demand for 

 some varieties of choice flowers exceed- 

 ed the supply. This applies particu- 

 larly to good violets on Saturda.y, the 

 17th. On that day Yale was playing 

 football at Princeton and Pennsylvania 

 was also playing at Franklin Field 

 against the Indians. This made a great 

 demand for violets, blue being Yale's 

 color and also Pennsylvania's when com- 

 bined with red. The violet growers were 

 hardly in a position to take full advan- 

 tage of the opportunity, for the weather, 

 which had been warm and bright, be- 

 came dark and cool a day or two before 

 the football contest took place. 



