4J8 



The Weekly Florists^ Review^ 



SEPTEMBER 15. 1S9S. 



ter far than many cities larger tlian 

 Toronto could show. 



The Pic-nic. 



The postponed picnic came off Wed- 

 nesday last week and like many an- 

 other postponed arrangement was but 

 poorly attended, but those who did go 

 report a good time. We were out of 

 town, but many absentees had no ex- 

 cuse. William Kasting traveled al'i 

 the way from Kansas City to be here 

 in time. He looks well and tanned, 

 with the suns and hot winds of the 

 western prairies. He thinks Denver a 

 wonderful city, and admires Salt Lake 

 City. Thinks he would like to have 

 lived there ;!o years ago. He does not 

 say, but we believe he called and 

 tarried a day at Mr. Kellogg's in the 

 State of Missouri. If he did not he 

 was ungallant. 



Visitors. 



I could hardly keep track of our vis- 

 itors the past three weeks. One of 

 the Mr. Murdochs, of Pittsburg, was 

 here, but we failed to connect. So was 

 Mr. J. M. Gasser, of Cleveland, and 

 what a mutual exchange of gas there 

 was on the wide field of commercial 

 horticulture. We are both gassers. One 

 by the name of Mott was also here. 

 You can hardly call him a visitor, he 

 is more of an attendant, for he is so 

 constantly around that if you run 

 short of .")<H> small ferns or a dollar 

 kentia you need not write, Mott will 

 be here in plenty of time. There were 

 others, but I forget. 



Return of the S Idiers. 



Never since Labor Day has been an 

 institution has it been so generally 

 observed as this year. It smelt and 

 felt like a fourth of July, and what 

 made it more of a gala day was the 

 home-coming of Buffalo's gallant iTith 

 Regiment, some l,2(Nt strong. That is, 

 strong in numbers, but not in health. 

 The boys were given a great welcome. 

 They looked as if they had marched 

 across the great Arabian desert in- 

 stead of lying idly in a camp a few 

 miles south of Washington. D. C, 

 nevertheless, they deserve the word of 

 "gallant" for having survived. In 

 many a remote hamlet and lonely 

 farm house, as well as every city in 

 the land, will the famous and much 

 talked of "hard tack" be inspected and 

 tested. We sampled it ourselves re- 

 cently. It may get a little tiresome 

 as a steady diet, especially for fever 

 patients, but it is certainly not bad 

 stuff, and dipped in coffee, as many of 

 our young and old Teutonic friends do 

 their bread, we think it is toothsome 

 and nutritious and much better for 

 flirhting men than woodcock sand- 

 wiches or quail on toast. We had con- 

 founded this hard-tack with ship-bis- 

 cuit, with which we formed an ac- 

 quaintance some .SO years ago on a 

 •">th class ocean steamer, and the sam- 

 ple we sampled must have been manu- 

 factured contemporary with the loaves 

 and fishes of happy memory, for it had 

 the same marvelous expansive quali- 

 ties. A piece the size of a peanut 



would, after ten minutes' industrious 

 mastication, be the size of a base ball, 

 and larger in proportion to the time 

 and energy expended. A ton of this 

 wonderful life sustainer, which, I be- 

 lieve, is laid down by hydraulic pres- 

 sure, put aboard of a steamer at San 

 Francisco, would with the help of -"iW 

 good pair of jaws and molars be in- 

 creased to five tons by the time the 

 ship reached Hong Kong. 



Strange that on this same rather 

 memorable day the news of Sir Her- 

 bert Kitchener's great victory reached 

 the outside world. An item of news 

 connected with this battle away in the 

 heart of Africa, and on the banks of 

 the mighty Nile, which every good 

 child associates with a basket and the 

 papyrus and little Moses, is not gen- 

 erally disseminated and which we got 

 by private wire. Close in the rear of 

 the last of Sir Herbert's commissary 

 wagons followed three wagons belong- 

 ing to our enterprising local florist. J. 

 H. Rebstock, each drawn by six Colo- 

 rado bronchos. The first contained 

 fine samples of palms of the best kinds 

 for boarding house use in useful sizes. 

 The second was loaded with 13 full 

 blooded Americans, whose "intense 

 Americanism" asserted itself at every 

 jolt of the wagon. They were selected 

 as typical representatives of our new- 

 ly acquired states and territories, in- 

 cluding Terra del Fuego. Juan Fer- 

 nandez, Bermuda. Greenland. Central 

 America, Jamaica. Canada. The 

 Azores. Chicago. Mexico, and others. 

 The third contained choice exhibits of 

 how we advertise in the United States, 

 including many demijohns of ice water 

 and fire water. The contents of the 

 rear wagon was greatly relished by 

 the victorious army and one demijohn 

 was sent back as a present to the khe- 

 dive labeled "P^or the Royal Harem, 

 department 11. Sec. .'!:!." W. S. 



NEW YORK. 



The Market. 



The weather has at- last decided to 

 be merciful and life, in consequence, is 

 more enjoyable. On several occasions 

 lately the thermometer was down to 

 45 degrees, and there was in several 

 localities just a suspicion of frost. 



Every New York florist is more or 

 less a "Micawber" at present, with the 

 greatest of great expectations. I visit- 

 ed almost every wholesale florist in 

 New York today, looking for prices, 

 looking for news, but there was nei- 

 ther. Flowers of certain indescribable 

 grades there were in plenty every- 

 where, but buyers were few. Beauties 

 were rather scarce, that is to say, good 

 Beauties, and of course they command- 

 ed good pr,ices. 



At John I. Raynor's I saw some rath- 

 er good asters of the Seniple strain. 

 One of them was of a beautiful 

 delicate lavender color, and was 

 one of the prettiest seen here 

 this season. Thos. Young. W. S. Al- 

 len and MacDonald & Me.Manus are 

 handling orchids, of which Dendro- 



bium formosum. Dendrobium phalaen- 

 opsis and cattleyas form the principal 

 attractions. Koffman has commenced 

 cutting Cypripedium insigne, and all 

 the chrysanthemums we have heard 

 about so far were five blooms sent b.v 

 Schultheis to Horan some weeks ago; 

 what they were we could not learn. 

 Wm. Gunther has been away sizing up 

 the violet crop around New York, and 

 he informs me that he found the plants 

 much smaller than they were this time 

 last year. Marie Louise is the princi- 

 pal stock grown, and so far there is 

 very little disease shown, and though 

 the plants are small the growers prefer 

 them so and are confident there will be 

 a good crop. Mr. Gunther expects his 

 first shipment of violets this week. 



Outdoor flowers are beginning to 

 look tired, and with the advent of cool- 

 er weather both greenhouse stock and 

 business are expected to improve. 



Club Meeting. 



The first meeting of the Florists' 

 Club for the season was held at the 

 rooms, 19 West Twenty-seventh street. 

 Monday e\ening, September 12. There 

 was not a very large attendance, but 

 it was very representative and it was 

 pleasing to note that many of the old- 

 est members were present ready and 

 anxious to render any assistance for 

 the advancement of the club. 



President Wm. Plumb was in the 

 chair, and in a few well chosen words 

 laid the principal business of the meet- 

 ing before the members. Mr. Stewart, 

 as chairman of the essay and enter- 

 tainment committee, desired to im- 

 press upon the members that while the 

 club was in a most flourishing condi- 

 tion, it was desirous to advance in 

 every direction, and in none more than 

 in inducing a better attendance. He 

 therefore, on behalf of his committee, 

 asked that every member present offer 

 some suggestions that would put apa- 

 thetic members into working order. 

 Messrs. Siebrecht. O'Mara. Morris, 

 Henshaw. Weathered. Wallace, Her- 

 rington. Koffman, Manda, Troy, Burns, 

 Miller and Young very ably discussed 

 the subject. Everyone seemed to agree 

 on the following points: Exhibitions 

 of some kind are necessary to the life 

 of the club; an individual interest in 

 the welfare of the club; more social 

 gatherings; a bowling club; a question 

 box; a junior membershi]) at half 

 rates; special nights for exhibits, such 

 as roses, vios, carnations, mums, etc.; 

 ladies' nights; to interest wealthy peo- 

 ple in exhibitions, and many other 

 points. It was finally resolved to refer 

 the whole matter, with the discus- 

 sions, to the Board of Trustees, who 

 are to meet during the next two weeks 

 to decide what is best to be done. 



A vote of thanks was ordered sent to 

 the Nebraska and Iowa Florists' Club 

 for their generous treatment of the 

 New York delegates to the Omaha con- 

 vention. It was also decided to adopt 

 measures looking towards securing 

 the S. A. F. convention for New York 

 city in 1900. Messrs. Wallace and Stew- 

 art addressed the meeting on the beau- 



