APRIL 6, 1S99. 



The Weekly Florists' Review* 



475 



Roses held their own, with no ad- 

 vance to spealv of until the last day 

 of the week. Carnations have ruled 

 high and what stock that has shown 

 up was taken at the asking prices. 

 Brides and maids have sold during the 

 week at from $6 to $10 per hundred. 

 Beauties from $1 to ?S per dozen, 

 Meteors from ?1 to $1.50 per dozen. 

 Jacks and Brunners from ?! to $2.-50 

 per dozen. The average price for car- 

 nations has been $5 for a good quality, 

 $3 for splits and poor quality, with ex- 

 tra fancies bringing from $6 to $10 

 per 100. Violets plenty and of good 

 quality, 75 cents and $1 being the ask- 

 ing price. Valley $4 to $6 per 100. 



Lilies, longiflorum, $2.50 per dozen, 

 some Harrisii selling for less. Callas 

 $1.50 to $2 per dozen. Tulips, daffodils 

 and hyacinths $3 to $4 per 100. Lilies 

 in pots $2.50 per dozen. Azaleas from 

 $6 per dozen up. 



The Easter Trade. 



With elegant sunny although quite 

 cool weather, the day was all that 

 could be asked for, and in most cases 

 the volume of business done will ex- 

 ceed that of any previous Easter. The 

 call was about equally divided between 

 plants and cut blooms with the longi- 

 florum as a leader, especially in the 

 line of pots. As had been predicted 

 the supply run short and some of the 

 stores refused to take orders after 4 

 o'clock, although some of the smaller 

 stores had a few left, but most of them 

 of very poor quality. Other plants 

 were in great demand, especially run- 

 ning to plants selling at from $1 to 

 $2 each, notably small azaleas, gen- 

 istas, valley in 7-inch pots, tulips, hy- 

 acinths and daffodils in pans. There 

 was no call for palms or anything in 

 green plants. In flowers the call was 

 contrary to all expectations for the 

 ever popular violet, and in lots of 

 cases with valley worked in through 

 the bunch. Mixed boxes of flowers 

 were more in fashion than special 

 kinds, although carnations had a 

 great sale, with the market getting ex- 

 hausted along toward evening, espec- 

 ially for flne grades. Roses sold well, 

 Brides seeming to sell the best. Other 

 varieties were in good demand, es- 

 pecially the fragrant Jacks and Beau- 

 ties. 



The News. 



The April meeting of the Garden- 

 ers' and Florists' Club of Boston was 

 held on Tuesday evening, the 4th inst. 

 The care of and successful methods 

 for growing shrubby greenhouse 

 plants, such as ericas, heaths, gen- 

 istas, etc., was the subject for discus- 

 sion. 



The building of a new hall is a 

 subject which is agitating the Mass. 

 Horticultural Society, some advocating 

 moving to the Back Bay, others in 

 favor of building an elegant structure 

 on the present site, which does not 

 seem to be hardly adequate for the 

 growing demand for room which is 

 needed by the society. 



At the weekly exhibition of plants ' 



and flowers held at the hall on Satur- 

 day, gratuities were awarded as fol- 

 lows: To Edward Butler, for Den- 

 drobium nobile; H. A. Wheeler, for 

 Dendrobium Wardianum; E. J. Mitton, 

 for display of gloxinias. A certificate 

 was awarded to J. E. Rothwell for a 

 new cypripedium, and to G. G. Roeb- 

 ling for an elegant Cattleya Trianae 

 var. Roeblingiana; and award of hon- 

 orable mention also for a Cypripedium 

 villosum var. giganteum. p. 



CHICAGO. 



The Easter Trade. 



The Easter trade seems to have 

 averaged considerably more than last 

 year, though it contained a few dis- 

 agreeable surprises. The shipping 

 trade was all that could be desired, 

 and prices held up well on everything 

 till Saturday morning, when there 

 was a lack of demand, except for 

 roses (which held their own all 

 through), and as a consequence 

 prices weakened seriously. In fact, 

 quite a few lilies were left over in 

 spite of all efforts to move them. 

 Had these lilies been in on Thursday 

 and Friday most of them could have 

 been placed in shipping orders, and 

 had the weather been more favorable 

 to the retailers home demand would 

 have taken care of them. But the 

 weather made the local retailer cau- 

 tious and there is no doubt local sales 

 would have been much larger had the 

 weather been more favorable. Violets 

 were among the sufferers on account 

 of the weather, though large quan- 

 tities were sold as it was. 



In spite of all drawbacks it was un- 

 doubtedly the greatest Easter we have 

 ever had, especially from the stand- 

 point of the wholesale shipper. And 

 the people got good value for their 

 money, even if prices were a little 

 high, for the quality was excellent, 

 and there is almost an entire absence 

 of complaints from those who re- 

 ceived stock by express, which is a 

 cause of much satisfaction. 



The lily situation was, however, 

 rather aggravating, and the large 

 stock sent in could have been handled 

 to much better advantage had the 

 growers kept their agents better 

 posted as to the quantities they could 

 supply. The supply was much larger 

 than seemed likely a few days before, 

 and to make matters worse the people 

 didn't seem to be as hungry for lilies 

 as usual at the season. The daily 

 papers had been printing a lot of 

 items about the scarcity of lilies and 

 predicting that prices would be very 

 high, and this may have influenced 

 people to use something else without 

 ascertaining whether the reports as to 

 high prices were correct. Again, 

 some prominent eastern bishop had 

 inveighed against the use of the lily 

 on account of the alleged sophoric 

 effect of its perfume, and his "warn- 

 ing" seems to have been generally 

 copied by the press of the country. 



One Chicago clergyman who was in- 

 terviewed on the subject said he 

 thought the "sleepy influence" was 

 more apt to emanate from the pulpit 

 than the lilies. 



All the retailers report an increase 

 over last year in volume of business, 

 but in some cases more stock was left 

 over than was pleasant. One serious 

 difliculty was the delivery of plants, 

 of which large numbers were sold. 

 The weather was cold and blustery, 

 and as a result everything had to be 

 carefully wrapped, which made de- 

 livery expensive and the work slow. 

 And the unpleasant weather deterred 

 many customers from venturing out 

 to make their usual Easter selections. 



In plants Azaleas seemed to lead as 

 usual, and bright colors sold first. 

 White found few buyers. Hyacinths 

 and other bulb stuff in pans went 

 well, and the call seemed to be more 

 largely than ever tor plants and ar- 

 rangements of moderate cost. With 

 three leading florists the sales aver- 

 aged from $3 to $5 each. In Easter 

 plants the only notable novelty was 

 the Japanese tree paeonies grown by 

 W. N. Rudd. The blooms were semi- 

 double, 6 to S inches across and re- 

 markably attractive, but the body of 

 the plant was thin and there was 

 rarely more than one bloom to a 

 plant. They were used mainly as a 

 window attraction, and served their 

 purpose well in that way. Some few 

 were sold, but with many doubts as 

 to their keeping qualities. 



There was a sharp decline in prices 

 after Easter, but trade has kept, up 

 very well under the circumstances. 

 The supply will probably considerably 

 increase now, as sunny weather is 

 with us again. 



Seen at the Retailers. 



At E. Wienhoeber's: A pan eight 

 feet long and two feet wide to be 

 placed in the window seat of a church, 

 filled with plants of white cineraria, 

 Astilbe and Narcissus Ajax princeps 

 and an edging of Pteris cretica albo- 

 lineata. It was very effective. A 

 companion pan was filled with white 

 Azaleas, Cinerarias and Astilbe with 

 stalks of lilies inserted among the 

 plants. Many eight and ten-inch 

 pans of hyacinths, daffodils, etc., in 

 wicker covers. And other plants in 

 wicker pot covers. Though crepe 

 paper was still used there was con- 

 siderably less of it than last year. 

 Fewer arrangements of plants in 

 expensive baskets than last year. 

 Japanese tree paeonies. A host of 

 azaleas and pot lilies. Heaths. 

 Many cyclamens. In the case of the 

 white cinerarias they combined 

 much better with other plants than 

 one would imagine. Mr. Wienhoeber 

 grows only pure white flowered ones 

 for Easter, getting seed of select 

 white sorts. This is sown the first 

 week in September to secure plants 

 for Easter blooming. 



At Chas. A. Samuelson's: In the 

 center of his window a green mossy 



