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The Weekly Florists' Review^ 



SEPTEMBER 8, 1S98. 



THE FLORISTS' REVIEW 



G. L. GRANT, Editor and Manager. 



■ BY 



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THE FLORISTS' PUBLISHING CO. 



520-S3S Caxton Building, ChicaKO, 



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Copyright iSg8. 



NEW YORK. 



Business Conditions. 



The weather has been unmercifully 

 liot here for the past week, rendering 

 life scarcely worth the while, with the 

 thermometer in the streets often up to 

 108, people flying to the seaside resorts 

 and the hospitals. It seems cruel to 

 be bothered about business, and yet 

 the awful amount of deaths occurring 

 have their peculiar influences on the 

 florist's trade. 



Our streets seem to be never with- 

 ■out either ambulance or hearse; but 

 the saddest sight of all is the remains 

 of some young hero wrapped in his 

 country's flag being escorted to his 

 last resting place by his fever-ema- 

 ciated comrades. Carriages laden with 

 all kinds of abominable funeral de- 

 signs generally precede these sad pro- 

 •cessions, and when we see these bad- 

 ly made and preposterous combina- 

 tions we are almost tempted to agree 

 with the soulless crank who tacks on 

 to the obituary notice, "Please omit 

 flowers." The florist— I mean the per- 

 son — who works off a cape-flower de- 

 sign trimmed with scarlet gladiolus, 

 at a time when the finest white flow- 

 ers are obtainable for a mere pittance 

 4S the greatest enemy the florist 

 business has. I am very sorry to ad- 

 mit there are such people, but thani 

 heaven they are few. 



Mostly all our East side or down- 

 town florists have been more or less 

 busy on funeral work, and though the 

 majority of the orders were small, 

 still, with an over-abundance of Hy- 

 drangea panieulata, white gladiolus, 

 asters, lilies and such flowers, these 

 orders have been turned out at a fair- 

 ly good profit. 



Roses, and the best of them at that, 

 <can be bought by the hundred for a 

 Tew cents, by the thousands for a 

 ^'Greek song;" Beauties are being 

 stuck under every girl's nose in our 

 principal streets, and valley — well, 

 some days it looks cheerful; more oft- 

 ■en it hangs its head in disgust. Or- 

 <;hids are about the only flowers able 

 to retain their self-respect. 



Dendro'bium formosum giganteum 

 are fine, and are selling from 25 to 35 

 ^ents. Cattleyas are scarce; a few C. 



Gigas and C. Labiata are watched for 

 and snapped up at 50 cents each. Out- 

 side this the market is demoralized 

 and the weather is demoralizing. 



Asters seem to be very poor around 

 New York this year. I am inclined to 

 think it is the varieties grown. Last 

 year they were to be had like chrys- 

 anthemums; this year they are but 

 puny and very ordinaire. 



Many of the florists of New York, 

 Boston and Newport were busy for the 

 funeral of Lieutenant Tiffany, who 

 was buried at Newport August 29. 

 There were over sixty designs sent to 

 the church at Newport. 



Notes. 



The Broadway stores are putting on 

 their finishing touches and getting 

 ready for business, myriads of electric 

 lights are kept blazing early and late, 

 and — well, alas! the indications are 

 that we shall have a very late sea- 

 son. 



The New York Florists' Club will 

 hold its first meeting of the season at 

 their rooms, 19 West Twenty-seventh 

 street, on Monday evening, September 

 12. The principal topic for discussion 

 at this meeting will be, "The best 

 means of keeping members not only 

 interested in the workings of the club, 

 hut to encourage a better attendance 

 at its meetings." We sincerely hope 

 every endeavor will be successful. We 

 need more enthusiasm and friendship 

 among New York florists. 



Teams from the New York Florists' 

 Club, Flatbush Bowling Club, New 

 Jersey Horticultural Society, West- 

 chester Horticultural Society. Hudson 

 County Florists' Club, possibly one 

 from the Newport, R. I., Horticultural 

 Society, and a few yet to be heard 

 from, are expected to compete at the 

 New York Gardeners' tournament at 

 Central Opera House, September 10. 

 D. 



BOSTON. 



Review of the Market. 



The weather the past week has been 

 a great improvement over the early 

 part of the summer, and business has 

 been very good for this time of the 

 year. There has been no surplus of 

 any kind of flowers, and the demand 

 has about equaled the supply. Asters 

 are not over-plenty, white ones being 

 in excellent demand, and are selling 

 at from $1 for Victorias to $2 for Sem- 

 ples. 



The supply of carnations has in- 

 creased, but are most all of the va- 

 riety Mrs. Fisher. Prices range from 

 75 cents to $1.50 per hundred, while 

 colored pinks of good quality easily 

 bring $2. The hot weather still keeps 

 the size of Brides and Maids below 

 the average, but they sell fairly well 

 at $4 per hundred. Kaiserins still 

 bring from $8 to $12.50; Meteors, from 

 $6 to $8. while Beauties are not plenty 

 and easily bring from $1 to $3 per 



dozen; Valley steady at $4 per 100; 

 lilies of the lancifolium type sell well, 

 averaging $4 per hundred; gladiolus 

 and tuberoses, $4 per hundred stalks. 

 Odds and ends, especially of white 

 flowers, are cleaned up daily. 



The Annual Exhibition. 



The annual exhibition of the Horti- 

 cultural Society, held August 31 and 

 September 1, was a decided success, 

 and the perfect specimens of both 

 plants and flowers were a revelation 

 to the visitors. Among the prominent 

 and notable exhibits were the collec- 

 tions of stove house plants of J. D. 

 Bailey and John L. Gardner, the col- 

 lection of adiantum ferns of Dr. C. G. 

 Weld, and the specimens of cycad and 

 Asparagus Sprengerii, shown by H. H. 

 Hunnewell. Yamanaka & Co. exhibit- 

 ed a collection of dwarfed Japanese 

 plants, including a specimen of tha 

 cypress family over 200 years old. 



Orchids were shown by J. E. Roth- 

 well and E. A. Wheeler, and Francis 

 Blake had a fine group of conifers in 

 pots. For flowers, dahlias had the 

 call, and the collections were numer- 

 ous and the individual flowers fine. 

 There were also some fine collections 

 of zinnias and other seasonable flow- 

 ers, with the usual exhibits of hardy 

 and native bloom. 



Prizes and gratuities were awarded 

 as follows: On flowers — For a collec- 

 tion of 18 named show dahlias, first to 

 W. C. Winter, second to same. For 12 

 named cactus dahlias, first to Lathrop 

 & Higgins. For 6 blooms show dah- 

 lias, first and second to H. F. Burt, 

 who also got first and second for 6 

 blooms of fancy dahlias. For collec- 

 tion of named pompon varieties, three 

 blooms of each, first went to L. N. 

 Snow, second to W. C. Winter, third 

 to H. P. Burt. The competition for a 

 general display of dahlias was strong, 

 there being three prizes. W. W. Raw- 

 son & Co. received first, W. C. Winter, 

 second, Lathrop & Higgins, third. 

 Sumner Coolidge was awarded first 

 for a collection of hardy lilies. Dr. 

 C. G. Weld obtained first for 25 vases 

 of tropaeo'ums, James A. Little, sec- 

 ond. 



For 50 flowers zinnias, 12 varieties, 

 first went to Dr. C. G. Weld, second 

 to James Comley. For uative plants, 

 first was awarded to the Misses Doran, 

 second to Mrs. D. P. Richards, third 

 to Mrs. W. S. Eager. Gratuities were 

 awarded to James Comley for asters; 

 J. 0. Little, for bedding begonias; J. 

 W. Clark, for gladioli; J. W. Howard, 

 for cannas; R. & J. Farquhar & Co., 

 for cannas; Rea Bros., for perennials, 

 and Dr. C. G. Weld, for asters. 



On plants, for a collection of green- 

 house plants, not to exceed 40 plants, 

 in pots. J. O. Bailey received first, J. 

 L. Gardner, second. For plants ar- 

 ranged for table decoration, first to 

 Mrs. E. M. Gill, second to E. A. Wheel- 

 er, third to E. D. Converse, fourth to 

 W. H. Lincoln. For specimen flower- 

 ipe greenhouse plant, first to N. T. 

 Kidder, who also received first for a 



