AUGUST 4, 1S9S. 



The Weekly Florists^ Review* 



241 



drobium Phalaenopsis. I.ilium aura- 

 tum is plentiful and is used to a great- 

 er extent that ever before. In fact, 

 aside from gladiolus and asters, it is 

 the only flower seen in the florists' 

 windows at present. 



The Kaiserin is about the best rose 

 in the market just now. At Thos. 

 Young's they are receiving flowers 

 with stems like those of Beauties. Wal- 

 ter Sheridan is handling the only nov- 

 elty on the market. It is a fine new 

 cerise colored carnation named after 

 Maud Adams, the popular actress, and 

 it is very promising. We hear very 

 little about novelties, and it looks as 

 though we will have to rely upon the 

 old standbys the coming season. 



Funeral Designs. 



The funeral of the late Sergeant 

 Hamilton Fish, Jr., who was killed at 

 Siboney, Cuba, took place here July 

 2{). There were about fifty floral de- 

 signs, including some very beautiful 

 wreaths. One was a crescent wreath 

 containing a thousand Valley and a 

 cluster of Victoria roses, tied at the 

 broad part with a large bow of white 

 satin ribbon. Another crescent wreath 

 was of solid purple asters, with two 

 cycas leaves tied at one side and a 

 large cluster of valley and Cypripe- 

 dium Lawrenceanum tied with broad 

 white ribbon where the leaves were at- 

 tached to the wreath. An immense 

 broad wreath of Lilium auratum tied 

 with wide white ribbon was very im- 

 posing, and a very pretty wreath was 

 made of Nymphaea odorata and a clus- 

 ter of Dendrobium Phalaenopsis, with 

 a bow of white ribbon. 



It was most remarkable that all the 

 arrangements sent to this funeral con- 

 sisted of wreaths and bunches. Many 

 of the wreaths were poorly arranged, 

 though coming from some of the 

 "palaces" or "Bon Ton" stores of this 

 city. It is more than likely the artists 

 of these establishments were away on 

 vacations. When purple asters are 

 tied in strings in the center of cycas 

 leaves some one must be trying hard 

 to be original. A great many of the 

 designs were tied with American flags 

 and red, white and blue ribbon. All 

 the flowers were afterward sent to the 

 wounded soldiers now in the city's 

 hospitals. 



Various Notes. 



J. M. Thorburn & Co., the noted 

 seedsmen, until lately at 15 John 

 street, have removed to their spacious 

 new store at ;J(i Cortlandt street, im- 

 mediately opposite that of Peter Hen- 

 derson & Co. 



Wm. E. Hearne, with the Kemble 

 Floral Co., Oskaloosa, Iowa, is an old- 

 time New Yorker, and was recently 

 here on a visit. Mr. Hearne v.-as sur- 

 prised at the size of this village, but 

 says the boys out west are moving and 

 that visitors to the S. A. F. convention 

 will be agreeably surprised. Apropos 

 of this, I may say it is hard to get 

 anyone here down to a positive state- 

 ment that he is going to Omaha. The 



great distance is the trouble, neverthe- 

 less it is expected that quite a few will 

 be mustered up when the last bugle is 

 sounded. Let us have the convention 

 of 1899 in New York city and it will 

 be the greatest the society ever had. 



Herbert Spavins, secretary of the 

 Westchester County (N. Y.) Horticul- 

 tural Society, was in to see us and re- 

 ports a good business in his section. 

 The above society has given out sev- 

 eral hundred double Gen. Grant gera- 

 niums to the school children in the 

 several small towns and villages situ- 

 ate in the Hudson valley, and have of- 

 fered forty dollars in prizes for the 

 best plants, which are to be exhibited 

 at the society's fall show to be held in 

 Mount Kisco, N. Y., in November. 

 This is an example to every society in 

 the country. D. 



BUFFALO. 



There is really little worth reporting, 

 only I feel that if I do not write a 

 word from this much spread out, as- 

 phalt town one or two of my friends 

 may think that I am poorly, alias sick. 

 alias fractured frame, or punctured 

 tire. 



A very recent shower of three hours' 

 duration makes us feel kinder toward.-; 

 all nature, including the weather and 

 although wetting things in general but 

 skin-deep, it makes us frown on the 

 ills of fortune with a relaxed grimace. 



The meridian of the florists' slough 

 of despondency is over and from now 

 on we shall expect a slow but gradual 

 increase in business. The torrid July 

 just passed will long be remembered, 

 not only as having a very high aver- 

 age temperature and extreme drought, 

 but an almost total cessation of flor- 

 ists' sales, and I don't blame the pub- 

 lic a bit for taking a rest, but soon a 

 change will come, flowers will be of 

 some value and an increased quality 

 will attract buyers. The extreme low- 

 est point in the dull times occurred at 

 3 a. m., July 31st, for 54 years ago at 

 that hour and date began the first 

 edition of Miscellaneous Seasonable 

 Hints. 



The only place in town that would 

 lead you to think there was business 

 going on is at Mr. Wm. Kasting's 

 wholesale depot. It is wonderful to 

 see almost tons of asters, gladiolus, 

 tuberoses and carnations, and roses in 

 smaller quantities. You would think 

 at 9 a. m. that it was a much congest- 

 ed establishment, but by noon they 

 have disappeared, showing that al- 

 though we all complain, there is in the 

 aggregate a good deal of business done 

 even if it is cheap. 



G. Sebastian Pickleman, the late 

 president, vice president, secretary, 

 treasurer and general manager of the 

 Buffalo Cutflower Exchange, has sold 

 out the business to Wm. Kasting. 

 There is not much to sell in a whole- 

 sale florist's establishment at this time 

 of year except the good will and ice 

 box. Billy K. says he will get the ice 

 box in easily enough, but the entrance 

 of the good will, will, Will says, com- 

 pel him to take down his whole front. 



Great times are expected at our out- 

 ing tomorrow, the 3rd. How we will 

 masticate those creatures that think 

 they can play ball. We are a family 

 of ball players and when too old to 

 run bases make excellent umpires, but 

 I must not anticipate, only my pen 

 longs to give you a faithful story of 

 our fun. 



Mr. and Mrs. John Walker, of Mar- 

 ket street, Philadelphia, were here yes- 

 terday and unfortunately, for me, I did 

 not meet them. I regret it very mtich 

 for John and his little wife deserve all 

 the courtesy that we are able to ex- 

 tend. We may meet today "on that 

 beautiful shore," Ontario. 



It seems now that the few who will 

 go to Omaha from here will travel to 

 Chicago as cheap as they can. consist- 

 ent with comfort, and there join the 

 big crow-d from that city, who it ap- 

 pears have a most reasonable rate to 

 Omaha and return. The journey is half 

 the thing. When you go anywhere 

 for a holiday, make up your mind to 

 begin to take things easy and comfort- 

 ably just as soon as you have kissed 

 the old lady goodbye. If we could have 

 a week or two of low temperature the 

 attendance in the west would be much 

 larger and that's not fancy. W. S. 



TO MY FRIENDS AND CRITICS. 



My query about the fertilization of 

 cucumbers has been answered fully. 

 Much obliged, especially to my towns- 

 man, Mr. Harry Swift, who wrote so 

 courteously, but I don't like that man 

 who wrote something about it in a 

 contemporary of last week. Such re- 

 marks pain me awfully. I told him 

 that this was the very end of the crop 

 and the little picture was merely one 

 remote corner. It appears that it was 

 not very clear who grew the "cucks." 

 They were on my own little farm. Of 

 the hundreds of dozens that were cut 

 averaging 20 inches, not 10 per cent 

 were deformed or had that "bulb" on 

 the end. They were as straight as the 

 proverbial Mauser rifle barrel and of 

 a uniform thickness, and hundreds of 

 them had been pollinated, while the 

 bottle nosed ones seen in the picture 

 were left to the agency of air and in- 

 sects, so I shall do just as I like about 

 lying in bed in spite of "G. J." 



Another contempoiiary publishes 

 over the signature of "Job." which is 

 doubtless an abbreviation of "Just out 

 Bedlam," a stricture on what I meant 

 for the purest admiration of my 

 friends in Philadelphia. This J. O. B. 

 takes exception to the remark, "and 

 the great majority attend conventions 

 without any axe to grind." If there 

 were a thousand men in attendance 

 at a convention with an axe to grind 

 I would glory in it. Any man who 

 goes to the convention to do business, 

 no matter whether he offers a boiler, 

 flower-pot, palm, bulbs or any other 

 floral requisite has an axe to grind. 

 The trade department of our conven- 

 tion is an essential and worthy part 

 of it and it would be sadly lacking 

 without it. yet when you have an in- 

 centive to go in the way of business 



