58 



The Weekly Florists' Review^ 



DECEMBER 15, 1898. 



ers -when it Is hard to sell anything 

 (even nuts or gold dollars) and get 

 nothing to sell when there is a market 

 to take it. When the grower begins 

 to ship again the holidays are over and 

 high prices are gone. The broker who 

 has worked hard to make the best pos- 

 sible returns in summer and early fall, 

 when low prices, or any old prices, 

 prevail, and has handled a few tons of 

 flowers for a few cents' commission, is 

 passed by when trade opens for the 

 season and better conditions are at 

 hand. In common justice the grower 

 should give his broker a full year's 

 trial and give him a chance at the pe- 

 riod when prices average better. 



judgment, on the day the stock is re- 

 ceived. 



COMMISSION MAN— CHARLIE'S 

 AUNT. 



BUFFALO. 



Business Conditions. 



Any comments on the weather would 

 be entirely out of place from Buffalo, 

 because we have largely escaped the 

 terrific snow storms that have visited 

 so many parts, but it has come very 

 near us and there is altogether too 

 much weather for good business. There 

 have been a few receptions to help 



Coelogyne Cristata. 



While I, as a broker, do not say that 

 the day before Christmas, or Easter, or 

 any other holiday, is the best time to 

 ship a broker, for I have seen prices at 

 those holidays drop to less than half 

 what could have been secured for the 

 same stock five or ten days before, I do 

 say that every grower, even those that 

 sell their own flowers, should send a 

 quarter, a third, a half, or a small part 

 of their cut to some other house — but 

 stick out the year. And the broker 

 that does the best during the year 

 should have the greater part of your 

 stock the next year. The grower that 

 handles his own stock could then see 

 that he is not the whole thing, for I 

 believe an honest commission man can 

 get more out of his flowers than he 

 can taking the full year on an aver- 

 age. He as a rule covers more ground 

 and has a larger field in which to find 

 customers at paying prices. 

 ' No matter where your flowers are 

 sold, some one must sell them, and it is 

 only a question as to who has the best 



along, and one very swell ball at which 

 a bud budded, but buds have been al- 

 together too few the past fall. There 

 are no flowers going to waste now-a- 

 days. 



Carnations open slowly and with the 

 exception of Daybreak and White are 

 scarce. Violets get picked up quickly 

 if of good quality. We never remem- 

 ber finer roses coming into town. 

 Those from George Fancourt are par- 

 ticularly fine and so are others. Chry- 

 santhemums are about gone, although 

 we know of a batch of Golden Wed- 

 ding and Bonnaffon here and there. 

 Romans and Paper whites are with us 

 in abundance and very welcome they 

 are. 



There will doubtless be a good de- 

 mand for plants, both flowering and 

 ornamental, for this feature of the bus- 

 iness has been steadily on the increase. 

 In flowering plants I find my neigh- 

 bors pretty well supplied. There are 

 going to be lots of good poinsettias, 

 azaleas, begonias, Bermuda lilies, 



primroses, cyclamen, pans of hyacinths 

 and valley and other odds and ends, 

 and if a customer wants kentia, rub- 

 ber, araucaria, pandanus or dracaena 

 he can be suited with any size or price. 

 We hear that holly is scarce, trust 

 it may be so for there is usually too 

 much. Ground pine is decidedly scarce. 

 The price it has advanced to proves 

 that, but we think there will be 

 enough in town and it will bring when 

 made up a good, fair profit. It is quite 

 as healthy for all concerned when 

 these articles are a little short. 



A Visit to Mr. W. J. Pahncr's. 



During our show, when the dismal 

 weather and the prospects of a dread- 

 ful failure stared us in the face for two 

 solid days and we came near jumping 

 into the canal, it was necessary to do 

 something to prevent this rash act, 

 so Peter Crowe proposed we take the 

 Erie R. R. and go and see the veteran 

 W. J. Palmer at his big establishment 

 at Lancaster, and Messrs. Fancourt, 

 Crowe, Troup and W. S. were soon 

 there and fortunately found the old 

 gentleman looking, we all declared, 

 better than we had seen him in ten 

 years; I mean the man and not his 

 place. Such is the happy result of the 

 country air, the steady pursuit of a 

 pleasant business, the absence of the 

 city's temptations, and a general calm- 

 ness of mind. 



Mr. Palmer has too large a place to 

 describe in detail. I had not been 

 there for two years. Several early 

 built structures had vanished and in 

 their place seven large iron frame 

 houses of the latest pattern. These were 

 filled with carnations and Beauties. 

 There are many houses like them, but 

 none can be better. They are actually a 

 little lighter than outside. Then there 

 are half a dozen 240 feet houses filled 

 with Meteor, Bridesmaid and Brides. 

 Further down the lot are seven or 

 eight more carnation houses and al- 

 though everything on the place is in 

 the best of condition, here is where the 

 visitor is most struck with admiration, 

 for such Daybrealis, I believe, it is 

 hard to find anywhere; size, color and 

 quantity are all there — quantity, why 

 there are hundreds of thousands. 

 When Daybreak is grown rusty and 

 weak and hot, it is a poor thing, but 

 as grown here it sells ahead of any 

 carnation grown. Mr. Palmer, when 

 asked how he does it, answers in his 

 characteristically modest way: "I 

 don't know if there is anything in it. 

 I guess they like a good stiff clay and I 

 know they don't want to be over 45 

 degrees at night." Several equal- 

 span houses are devoted to lilies, ferns 

 and at that time mums, which will 

 now be filled with hybrids. 



There are two large houses devoted 

 to violets and although they are yield- 

 ing well Mr. Palmer is a heavy buyer 

 of these little tavoriies. One house 

 was filled with the single Californias 

 planted on a low, solid bed. I meas- 

 ured the stems and they would aver- 

 age 10 inches. These violets, both 

 varieties, had been growing in the beds 



