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The Weekly Florists' Review* 



JUNE 2, 1898. 



The Chrysanthemum Show. 



The Chrjsanthemum Sliow also 

 came in for its share of discussion and 

 it was pretty well agreed thai on the 

 last day (Saturday) the admission fee 

 be 10 cents all round. 



This in my humble opinion is a 

 move in the right direction and I hope 

 to hear of some other cities doing like- 

 wise. To make a show a true success^ 

 we must get the people (the masses) 

 there; to get the people there we must 

 put the admission fee within their 

 means to go, themselves, their wives 

 and their families. We get the upper 

 ten by the means we have been using, 

 let us continue those means for the 

 first two or three days (according to 

 the time the show is open), l-ut let us 

 also give the lower ten ihousiind a 

 chance; let us cater to them, and we 

 shall give the horticultural (rr.de such 

 a send up in the scale that we shall 

 say ten years hence, what fools we 

 were not to look at the matter in this 

 light before. 



And here I wish to say (1 fully in- 

 tended doing so before) that I entirely 

 agree with the views recently ex- 

 pressed by Mr. Watson of Philadelphia 

 before the New York Florists' Club, 

 where they appear to have been severe- 

 ly criticised. I see the proof of their 

 truth right here in Toronto. Has not 

 the volume of trade here increased 

 ten-fold, aye, twenty-fold during the 

 ten years the Gardeners' and Florists' 

 Association has been in existence and 

 has been holding these flower shows 

 annually? We had flower shows be- 

 fore that, but they had no go in them 

 and were not managed on trade 

 principles or by tradesmen. De- 

 pend upon it a flower show is 

 the best means a florist has of adver- 

 tising his trade, and of producing and 

 increasing a love for flowe.-s amongst 

 the general public. E. 



ST. LOUIS. 



Supply and Demand. 



At this writing Decoration Day 

 found the market with a good supply 

 of flowers and also a fair demand, but 

 mostly in the shipping line. We have 

 had some very cool nights of late and 

 still we have a large supply of roses of 

 all kinds. The growers say that too 

 much rain and the cool nights have 

 caused bad mildew. Since last writ- 

 ing business has not improved and the 

 market has been in good supply all 

 the past week. 



Jacque roses, sweet peas, carnations 

 and cape jasmine were very abundant. 

 Brides, Bridesmaids and Meteors 

 brought from $2 to ?4 for beat stock: 

 Perles, La France and Jacques, $2; 

 fancy Beauties, $2 per dozen; shorts, 

 $4 and $6 per 100. 



Carnations have been and .ire yet in 

 good supply; price on all varieties. 

 $1; some extra fine fancy stock sold as 

 high as $1.50 and $2. Daybreaks and 

 whites have the call just now. Cape 

 Jasmine are selling well at $1 for the 



best, some short ones being sold at 50 

 cents. 



Paeonies and irises are about the 

 only outdoor flowers that are abun- 

 dant. Paeonies of all colors sell at $2 

 a 100. The blue cornflower has made 

 its appearance and sells at 50 cents. 

 Some very fine valley was seen this 

 morning (Monday), which brought ?3. 

 Smilax and asparagus are selling well; 

 the latter brought 35 cents per string. 



Bedding stock has sold very well the 

 past week and the florists in Union 

 market report that business has been 

 better than expected, as the early part 

 of the season things looked bad for 

 them. 



Club Notes. 



The June meeting of the Florist 

 Club should be largely attended, as 

 the growers will be about done with 

 their planting out. Some very impor- 

 tant questions will come up which will 

 be of gi'eat interest to all members. All 

 committees are expected to make re- 

 ports. Two applications will be pi^e- 

 sented: Julius Koenig. Jr., and Gus 

 Eggling. The date is June 9, at 3 p. 

 m.; bowling after the meeting. 



IMews Items. 



Mr. and Mrs. J. M. Jordan left 

 Thursday night for Omaha for the 

 summer. 



Martin Reukauf, representing H. 

 Bayersdorfer & Co., Philadelphia, was 

 in town last week, selling supplies. 

 Martin is growing a new mustache, 

 which has got to be full grown by the 

 time he reaches home. 



CINCINNATL 



Review of the Market. 



There was quite an agreeable change 

 in the condition of the Cincinnati 

 market last week. The fore part of 

 the week was as quiet as the mcnth of 

 August and our ice boxes were taxed 

 to their utmost capacity. Even Charlie 

 Jones remained at home for two entire 

 days, trying to devise some means of 

 regulating the supply and demand. 



Friday morning trade opened up 

 quite brisk, and by Saturday night 

 stock was really scarce. Decoration 

 Day, a couple of large funerals and a 

 Jewish holiday, all coming at about 

 the same time, created an unusual de- 

 mand for this season of the year. The 

 commission men report a good ship- 

 ping trade for Decoration r>ay and it 

 seems to have been satisfactory all 

 around. Stock advanced but very lit- 

 tle in price, but brought all chat it was 

 really worth. 



The Banquet. 



On Wednesday evening. May 25th. 

 between fifty and sixty florists gath- 

 ered at the club rooms to partake of 

 the first annual banquet given by the 

 Cincinnati Florists' Society. Quite a 

 number of ladies were present, and all 

 pronounced the affair a grand success. 

 E. G. Gillett acted in the capacity of 



toastmaster, and filled the position 

 like an old timer. 



President Witterstaetter presented 

 the medals with a neat little speech; 

 first to A. Sunderbruchs Sons, second 

 to Gus Scheible, of the City green- 

 houses, and third, to George ^ Allen. 



Next on the program was the pres- 

 entation of a beautiful umbreKa to 

 Theo. Bock, in appreciation of his val- 

 uable services as judge. Mr. B. was 

 taken by surprise, but was equal to the 

 emergency, and responded with some 

 well chosen words of thanks. 



After dinner speeches were then in 

 order, and^ the following toasts were 

 responded to in an eloquent manner: 

 "Cincinnati Florists' Society," Win. 

 Murphy; "America," Geo. S. Bartlett; 

 "Annual Outing," Frank W. Ball; 

 "Cincinnati," Ed Hoffmeister; "Old 

 Hingland," Benj. Salubrius George; 

 "Gardener Wanted," Henry Schwarz; 

 "Medley," Chas. Sunfish Jones. E. H. 

 Giesy, of the Dockland Lumber Co., 

 was down on the program (or an im- 

 portant part, but was unable to be 

 present. B. 



ROCHES! ER. N. Y. 



Since my last report nothing of spe- 

 cial interest occurred in the trude. We 

 had the usual every day demand in the 

 cut flower line, but no extraordinary 

 event presented itself for the last f.i;ee 

 weeks. The sales in bedding plants 

 are large in proportion, yet we cannot 

 say that anybody is making any 

 money out of them. Neither grower 

 nor retailer are satisfied with the 

 prices paid, the very best of geraniums 

 in 4-inch pots only $1.(K) per dozen, 

 and many of them are retailed at a 

 lower figure. Other stuff is equally 

 cheap and the market is overstocked 

 with everything in this line. 



Memorial Day was as good as usual 

 here. Cut flowers were not scarce at 

 all. and outdoor flowers in great vari- 

 ety were very plentiful. Paeonies, 

 candytuft, iris, pyrethrums, aquilegias, 

 hemerocallis, poppies, lychnis, the 

 large flowering centaureas, spiraeas, li- 

 lacs, etc., could be bought by the bush- 

 el, while roses and carnations were 

 also more abundant than usual at this 

 day. In ordinary years hardly any of 

 these hardy large and ihowy cut 

 flowers are far enough advanced with 

 us to be used on Decoration Day, but 

 this season has been so exceptionally 

 favorable for their early development 

 and everybody had quantties of them. 



The florists around the cemeteries 

 were especially busy with orders for 

 planting beds, and with the filling of 

 urns and vases; all had to be done at 

 once, and many of them had to work 

 all day Sunday to finish up. People 

 could not be persuaded this year to 

 delay the planting of coleus and other 

 soft stuff until after June 1. The 

 weather has been so very mild all 

 through the month of May that no one 

 thinks of the possibility of another 

 cool spell now. K. 



