114 



The Weekly Florists' Review^ 



DECEMBER 29, 1S9S. 



The weather was fine and the dealer 

 had hardly any wrapping to do in 

 maliing deliveries. 



Will close my letter this week by 

 wishing all the readers of the Review 

 a Happy New Year. 



Bowling. 



The Bowling Club rolled its last 

 games of the year on Monday. The 

 attendance was not large and only five 

 members showed up. This ended the 

 December series of twenty-one games. 

 Duncan Finlayson wins the average 

 medal and J. Beneke the high single 

 score medal. Following are the scores 

 of Monday night: 



r. T,- , J ^ ^ * ■' 6 Tot. Ave. 



D. Finlayson. 198 152 153 177 176 184 1040 173 

 J. J. Beneke. 130 171 142 152 153 186 937 156 

 t. A Kuelin.US 114 134 156 162 144 823 137 



E. S<;hray....l36 146 129 159 126 ... 696 136 



F. J. Fillmore. US 93 122 134 114 101 682 114 



DECEMBER SERIES. 



Names— No. G. Total. Av. H. S P 

 Duncan Pin'.ayson.. 11 1S15 165 198 



J. J. Beneke 21 3174 151 206 '.'. 



C. A Kuehn 21 2898 138 162 1 



?■ ^PY- ^ 599 149 169 .. 



i W. Kunz 2 273 136 141 .. 



E. Schray 20 2698 135 166 .. 



V V; ^,?."?"'^ 13 1744 134 168 1 



E- V- ,?,*'"''' * 532 133 137 2 



F. J. Fil.more 21 2474 118 199 2 



J. J. B. 



DES MOINES, 



Christmas Trade. 



Christmas trade was about as follows- 

 .,g<^jO',, central, give me 460. please." 



wi;h''rist''yIarT"^ Christmas trade compared 



•■Oh, about the same or better in some lines 



A large call for ferns and palms but not 



were'' in'"hr'.r ^'°<'^\^?. Plant"^. Good"'fe™s 

 were in brisk demand. 



"How about holly and green?" 

 |;VVell, there was not much call for them " 

 ^ And prices, how were they?" 

 "Why, about the same as last year 75 

 rosel"° *^'"' '""^ '=''""i"o"S. and $2 to $3 for 



BITC ml'lM""'''"''^' ^°°^ ''^^- ^^^' <=<=ntral, 

 "Hello," 



Any^l;,.il'? ^^'"^- ^"^ "^'^^ Christmas trade? 

 Any marked improvement over last year'" 



«„/''^' ,5"v'' "<^ "''=''<= was. I sold clean 'out 

 and could have sold more." 



"S\?''^ ^°°^' "'"'^h <:ail for plants?" 

 fnr^&f /''''■ l''t';^ J^^= ''" increased demand 

 lSfo?i " ' P™''^'"5' 30 per cent more than ever 



-n^.r''?,^ ^'''?'' °f Plants do you mean?" 



. S ■ blooming and decorative " 

 That's fine: thanks, thafs all. Well cen- 

 tral, give me 818, will you'" - 



"Hello, hello.'" 



"Hello, is this 818?" 



;]Yes, what can I do tor you, 731'" 

 rhrT«t„L^"'", "'°"Sht I'd inquire about your 

 *^';."':''"as sales as compared with last year" 



till T iLJ .^ ""? '','="'='"■ J"''' hold the phone 



till I look at my books Hello'" 



Yes." 

 "They were 55 per cent better and prices 

 equally good. We sold lots of holly and green 

 fins" "" increased call tor palms and 



flowlrs'?"' '°- "^"^^ •*'* y°" S^' fO"- «"' 

 $3!of7or ros"^" """"'^ ""■ '=^™^"™=' ^^■'"> to 



™l"''^^,'i''^;,.'%''' ^"■ ^^5" central, connect 

 me with 414, please. 



"Hello!" 



•'Hello, there. I wanted to ask about your 

 Christmas trade, as compared with last vear 

 Was it as good as former years?" 



"Ves, better in most all lines, especially 

 holly and green. We could not supply the 

 demand." ^ 



"Was there much call for plants?" 



"Oh, yes, palms, ferns and blooming plants 

 found ready sale with us." 



"Thanks, that's all." 



"Say. hold on a minute." 



"Well?" 



"Don't forget the club meeting, Friday night, 

 at Liedig's?" 



"All right, I'll try not to." 



"Central. I suspect you're getting tired, but 

 give me 761, will you?" 



"Marshall's Greenhouse." 



"Well, that's what I called for. Say, Mr. 

 M., how were Christmas sales this year with 

 you?" 



"Oh, you know I am principally wholesale 

 carnations, and not much on the retail, but 

 wc sold some few at retail and got 75 cents a 

 dozen for them. We could have sold more, but 

 we had sent them to town. Is that all?" 



"Well, no; I might say do not forget the 

 Florist Club meeting, Friday night, at Liedig's. 

 Be sure to come." 



You better believe I'll be there. Oh, say, 

 when are we going to take in the rest of the 

 greenhouses? You know we only got part 

 way round last time?" 



"Yes, that's so; how will to-morrow suit 

 you?" 



"That suits me all right." 



"Then it's a go, is it?" 



"Sure." 



"Where shall we meet?" 



"At 6th and Mulberry, at 1:20." 



"All right. Good night." 



J. T. D. F. 



GRAND RAPIDS, MICH. 



Christmas Trade. 



The week ■was ushered in with rain, 

 which alternately changed to slush 

 and rain, until it finally on Thursday 

 settled down to cold, solid weather. 

 Business in general was good — better 

 than last year by fully 25 per cent. Cut 

 flowers sold best, and sold out close. 

 Carnations, 50 cents for Scott and 

 Ivory class, 75 cents for fancy, Flora 

 Hill, Jubilee and Irene. Roses, $1.50 

 to $3; American Beauties, $3 to $15; 

 demand for high-priced Beauties very 

 limited. Violets, common, 20 to 25 

 cents; fancy, 35 cents, the latter grade 

 being most in demand. Carnations are 

 the flower for the people. The whole- 

 sale trade was larger than last year, 

 and with more flowers to meet the 

 demand. 



There were a great many palm 

 leaves and needle pines used in church 

 decorations, much to the detriment of 

 the trade. 



An Elaborate Decoration. 



The largest and most elaborate ball 

 ever given here in a public hall was 

 by Mrs. John Blodgett, at the St. Ce- 

 celia building. It took 1,000 yards of 

 laurel wreathing to outline the ceiling 

 projections and do the festooning 

 around the walls of the room; twenty- 

 two large laurel wreaths were sus- 

 pended from the ceiling by a rope of 

 the same material, between loops, and 

 below this effective •work was a band 

 of holly six inches wide around the 

 entire room. Mirrors were placed at 

 each end of the room, with spaces be- 

 tween the blocks, which were filled in 

 closely with wild smilax. At the sides 

 of the room a fringe of smilax suf- 

 ficed. In the parlor the large mantel 

 was artistically banked with panda- 

 nus, crotons, marantas and other 

 plants, to produce a color effect, and 

 was much admired. Sixty baskets of 

 red carnations and sixty holly wreaths 

 constituted the favors. Ten large bas- 

 kets of Jubilee carnations supplied the 

 tables. Crabb & Hunter did the deco- 



rating and furnished the small bas- 

 kets, Henry Smith having the holly 

 wreaths and Jubilee baskets. 



The plant trade was about equal to 

 that of last year, azaleas and palms 

 being the plants most sought after, al- 

 though Romans in pans sold well. 

 There was a noticeable lack of prim- 

 roses and cinerarias, they not being in 

 bloom yet. If the weather had not 

 been so remarkably unfavoi-able, ex- 

 cept Friday and Saturday, trade would 

 undoubtedly have shown a much 

 larger increase. The carnations most 

 called for were Jubilee, Flora Hill and 

 Irene. GEO. F. CRABB. 



QNCINNATI. 



Christinas Trade. 



Christmas trade was all that we 

 could wish for — in fact, it was a great 

 deal better than was expected, the vol- 

 ume of business being at least 25 per 

 cent greater than last year. Every- 

 thing sold out clean at a fair price, is 

 the report from all quarters. Carna- 

 tions were quite scarce — not over one- 

 half enough to supply the demand. 

 There was an increased demand for 

 poinsettias, both cut blooms and pot 

 plants. Prices on all stock were about 

 the same as last year. 



In the fore part of the week the 

 market was overstocked with roses 

 and the store men were slow in plac- 

 ing their orders, some of them looking 

 wise and thinking what a snap they 

 would have. Their foresight was not 

 the best in the world, and some of 

 them had to skirmish for their stock. 



Laurel and holly also sold well, the 

 latter going as high as $8 per case. 



B. 



WILLOWDALE, PA. 



J. D. Erisman & Son, growers for 

 the Willowdale Nurseries, shipped 

 from two carnation houses, 20 x 100, 

 5.700 blooms Christmas week. Varie- 

 ties were Eldorado, Kitty Clover, Mc- 

 Gowan, Scott, Cartledge, Portia, Rose 

 Queen, Mrs. Bradt. and Daybreak, all 

 in a perfect state of health, producing 

 stems 24 and 30 inches long. They look 

 for a good trade for stock in the spring 

 and are busy propagating heavily. 



J. Howard Pyle, who bought Lewis 

 Moore's houses, is having fair success 

 and expects to build more in the 

 spring. 



Edw. Marshall is growing good stock 

 and sent 3,000 for Christmas. 



Fred Carey's plants are a trifle off 

 crop, so he was short Christmas. 



Geo. Love is sending fine violets to 

 market, and plenty of them. 



J. D. Erisman & Son, besides carna- 

 tions and violets, are growing two 

 houses of tomatoes (Lorillard), the 

 fruit averaging Vz and % lbs. apiece. 

 Valentine Produce Co., New York, has 

 been handling them at 30 and 35 cents 

 per lb. E. 



