548 



The Weekly Florists' Review^ 



APRIL 27, 1899. 



ries ago, were tagged on many of the 

 plants. The auction room on an oc- 

 casion like this is a splendid place to 

 study people. Men and women who 

 would never pay above $10 or $25 for 

 a plant in your store will pay hun- 

 dreds of dollars for Japanese scrags 

 in an auction room. Mrs. So and So, 

 who gave you the devil about that fine 

 rhapis you sold her, comes here and 

 pays twice the amount she gave you, 

 for a rhapis with two leaves and a 

 Shigaraki pot, simply because it's 

 Japanese. 



There is no doubt about it, the Jap- 

 anese are cute little fellows; the fairy 

 tales they put 'round their crippled 

 stunts of trees manage to extract the 

 dollars from the American crank and 

 somehow or other we cannot blame 

 them, and yet it injures the plant 

 trade here in this way: These plants 

 die very soon and the people become 

 too disgusted to spend more money. 

 We are inclined to believe it is the 

 reputed age and manner of training 

 the trees that make them appear val- 

 uable, but even admitting that the 

 soil of Japan is poor and the different 

 elements peculiar to that country con- 

 duce to diminutive growth, it is sim- 

 ply ridiculous to give credence to the 

 stories that a twig 9 inches high can 

 be 75 years old or that a retinospora 

 2 ft. high can be 300 years of age. 

 Put a cutting in now and train it as 

 they do, it will be as good as theirs 

 in ten years or sooner, or better still 

 get an old stump and prune it in 

 and twist it and you have the thing 

 much earlier. These observations are- 

 not made for the purpose of injuring 

 Japanese trade; oh, no! They are 

 written for the benefit of American 

 florists who are asked by their custo- 

 mers to care for these auctioned 

 plants. To these, our friends, we say, 

 refuse to take them on the groun<! 

 that they cannot be depended on to 

 live. 



As to the art displayed in Japa- 

 nese stock, they deserve great credit 

 for it, and we shall dwell upon it 

 later. Now as to prices obtained for 

 these plants, small bamboo bushes in 

 cheap vases brought from $2 to $5; 

 grafted maples from $2 to $6: grafts 

 brought from $3 to $7; trained Pinus 

 densiflora brought from $2 to $12, one 

 specimen 36 in. high, said to be- aged 

 270 years, brought $120; Pinus parvi- 

 flora brought better prices, one 27 in. 

 high won $70, another 200 years old 

 and 21/2 ft. high took $125, and so on. 

 But it was the Chabo Hiba, or what 

 we know as Retinospora obtusa nana 

 that brought out the wild scramble; 

 one specimen 75 years old, height 30 

 inches, brought $240, another piece of 

 the same variety got the highest price 

 of the sale, $397.50; this was sup- 

 posed to be 300 years old, height 3 

 ft, width 5 ft., and it went to Boston, 

 too. There were any amount of R. 

 obtusa nana sold for from $20 to $90. 

 One group of small Cycas revoluta, 36 

 stems fixed on mountain sponge, 

 fetched $50. Japanese miniature gar- 



dens brought good big prices, and we j 

 saw a lady give $5 for an Aucuba 

 japonica stump with 10 leaves on it. 

 One Sciadopitys verticilata, 95 years 

 old and 3 ft. tall, captured $125 in 

 American money. A larch just up to 

 your knee $28, Podocarpus var. 25 

 inches high $30. Bits of camphor 

 grass growing on soft stone brought 

 out from $2 to $4 each, and so on 

 down a list of stock we in this coun- 

 try would have to pay the ash man to 

 cart away, but — they came from 

 classic Boston and were trained and 

 reared in far away Japan. 



Bowling. 



New York florists for some season 

 or other do not take kindly to bowl- 

 ing, and no one can assign any rea- 

 son for it; one or two members of the 

 club have worked hard for years try- 

 ing to keep together a team that 

 would do credit to New York when- 

 ever occasion might arise, particularly 

 at the bowling contests at the na- 

 tional convention. All these efforts 

 seem to fail. It is true that a few of 

 the faithful have stood by the guns 

 through thick and thin, but that 

 merely a few should belong to the 

 section or attend the alleys was not 

 the sense of the meeting which voted 

 $100 to pay expenses. 



The members cannot be suffering 

 from the impression that they can 

 bowl well without practice for they 

 have been often beaten on their own 

 field. Of course there is a wonderful 

 variety of forms of entertainment in a 

 small village like New York, and an 

 occasional absence ought to be ex- 

 cused for that reason, but where is 

 New York's reputation going to be at 

 Detroit, or even in Hoboken should 

 they have a team there. We should 

 have some pride in our sporting as 

 well as in our horticultural ability. 

 There were only four at the alleys to- 

 night and only two games were rolled. 

 Following are the scores: 



I>eulv 127 193 



Hafiier 129 147 



Penman 133 9'', 



Donlan 123 96 



IVERA. 



ST. LOUIS. 



The Market. 



The general verdict is, that business 

 the past week has not been very en- 

 couraging and those who were busy 

 had mostly funeral work. There is 

 plenty of stock in the market and very 

 little sale for it. The fact is the mar- 

 ket is in worse condition than ever. 

 The warm weather towards the end 

 of the past week rushed the crop in 

 at a rapid gait and even with good 

 trade it would have been hard to dis- 

 pose of. The down town dealers say 

 that the transient trade is almost en- 

 tirely monopolized by the fakirs and 

 Cheap John stores. Their signs in the 

 windows read: Carnations 10 cents 

 per dozen; roses, 25 cents per dozen, 

 and so on. But what more can we 

 expect when dry goods men, black- 



smiths, undertakers and bricklayers 

 can go to the wholesale houses and 

 buy a stock of flowers and put out a 

 sign "Florist." They know nothing of 

 the business and will sooner or later 

 get their fingers burned, but it hurts 

 the legitimate florist more than one 

 has an idea of. 



There is no settled price on any- 

 thing in the cut flower line. Roses 

 are held at $1.50 to $4. but the bulk 

 of the stock is sold for much less. 

 Brides, Beauties and Meteors are the 

 only roses for which there is a de- 

 mand. Good Beauties bring $12 to 

 $20; Meteors and Brides $4 to $6 for 

 choice stock and there are plenty of 

 them in the market for everybody. 

 Carnations are overplentiful, espe- 

 cially the scarlet sorts. Portia has 

 to be sold at a low price to dispose 

 of them; Scott, Daybreak and Flora 

 Hill are fine and in fair demand; 

 choice fancy stock bring $3; the gener- 

 al stock goes for 75 cents, and the 

 bulk at 50 and 60 cents, in large lots 

 at even less. 



The bulbous stock is fine and plen- 

 tiful. Lilies are extremely plentiful 

 and it is not possible to hold them 

 at any regular figure. The wholesale 

 men say they have to sell them at al- 

 most any offer made. Tulips, daffs 

 and Dutch hyacinths are coming in 

 freely and are selling very cheap. 

 Good valley brings $3; violets are sell- 

 ing very slow and quantities of them 

 are going to the dump pile. About 

 the only thing the wholesale men have 

 orders for are ferns. Smilax is sell- 

 ing as high as 25 cents per string and 

 it is not overplentiful at that. 



'Variqus Items. 



Union Market is fairly alive with 

 plants of all kinds and the past week 

 was a good one. They report that bus- 

 iness so far this spring has been very 

 good. 



The plant peddlers' wagons, loaded 

 with all kinds of blooming plants, are 

 seen in large numbers in the residence 

 districts. 



The chrysanthemum show commit- 

 tee held a meeting Saturday night to 

 work on the preliminary list, which 

 will soon be in the hands of the prin- 

 ter. The committeB has now on hand 

 $500 in special prizes, this with the 

 Shaw prize of $500 making $1,000. The 

 next meeting of the committee will 

 be held just as soon as Secretary 

 Schray is ready with the preliminary 

 list. 



Mr. John H. Dunlop, of Toronto, 

 Canada, sent us a box of his new rose 

 Lady Dorothea, which was intended 

 for the club meeting, but came three 

 days late and did not reach us until 

 Saturday morning. What was left of 

 them on opening the box could not be 

 judged. From all appearance the 

 roses weie very fine and we hope that 

 Mr. Dunlop will send us some for our 

 next meeting, which will be held May 

 11 at 3 p. m. 



Mr. J. M. Jordan, who has been very 

 sick for some time, is reported some- 



