The Weekly Florists' Review. 



JUNE 1, 1809. 



away, speculators harangue for low 

 prices on job-lots, there is a running 

 tire of witticisms between grower and 

 buyer, a general infectious hilarity 

 which compels the observer to stand, 

 yes and admire — admire the endurance 

 and courage of this poor grower for in- 

 stance. 



A little over two years ago, he, a 

 greenhorn, worked for a slave-driver 

 of a florist for $15 a month, and slept 

 in a shed, tie was a better plantsman 

 than his boss and knew there was 

 money in the business; in a moment of 

 overflowing confidence he starts for 

 himself, rents some grave-yard of an- 

 other man's hopes, or buys an old 

 greenhouse with an ancient boiler, and 

 lives on bread and beer for the first 

 year. He tries chrysanthemums, they 

 are golden in his eye, he sends them 

 to some rascal in the city and gets an 

 insult as pay. Easter plants are a 

 feature, nay a harbor of joy for his 

 ship of despair; his few plants are 

 bought by some thief of a Greek, or 

 some, yes, just for change let us say 

 long credit American retailer. With 

 the first he loses his money, with the 

 second he must wait and starve. He 

 has grown a few geraniums and other 

 plants but they are only indifferently 

 treated, his place is twenty miles 

 away, he has been on the road all the 

 afternoon and night, and yes, here he 

 stands bravely fighting 'gainst advers- 

 ity, scarcely daring to hope, he long- 

 ingly looks at his neighbor's fine 

 stock, and the man "who is buying it 

 at big prices, everybody seems to de- 

 spise his little "collection of rubbish," 

 as they contemptuously call it. Oh, 

 brother, it may be so, but that heap of 

 rubbish is the summit of his last 

 hopes, what wonder we stop to admire 

 him. He has just sold it at a ridicu- 

 lously low price to some hawker, the 

 few dollars he is putting in his pocket 

 is a bank full of money to him. What 

 wonder we stand to watch his momen- 

 tary happy face and to listen to the 

 sad pleasantry of his temporary glee. 

 But he is merely one of many pictures 

 of this little army of heroes. 



Over yonder is an old man grown 

 grey in the business, the almost in- 

 surmountable difficulties, however, 

 that strew the long way between his 

 place and the market render it im- 

 possible for him to derive anything 

 from his labors but the merest pit- 

 tance of a living. Last winter's snow 

 demolished the greater part of his 

 greenhouses and stock, here he is at 

 midnight with a few conifers in pots, 

 a small batch of ivies, some herbace- 

 ous plants, yes, anything that escaped 

 or survived the fury of the gales, and 

 if you ask him about his misfortune 

 he will say, "well I suppose it was the 

 will of God." "Philosopher" some may 

 call him, but there is another name for 

 him. 



Although as we have previously 

 stated, there is a large number of such 

 cases to be found here, yet we do not 

 wish it to be thought that the entire 

 assemblage is composed of such, nor 

 that one nationality occupies any pre- 

 eminence. The majority may be Teu- 



tons but that is all. The German and 

 the Irish, the Scotch, the English and 

 the French are here dissolved into one 

 pot of good-fellowship; each seems 

 more than ready to help the other. 

 Here too you will find the well edu- 

 cated traveled man ready to discuss 

 any topic, able to describe any coun- 

 try, but his pride best illumines his 

 personality when he refers back to his 

 boyhood days in the gardens of Eu- 

 rope, and it is a matter of curiosity to 

 note that almost all the plant growers 

 in New York have served their ap- 

 prenticeships abroad. 



But let us get back to the market. 

 This the only wholesale plant market 

 we have in New York city is situated 

 at the streets mentioned, and incon- 

 veniently located along the shipping 

 docks (only a few blocks from here 

 stands Washington Market, where 

 nigh fifty years ago under very similar 

 circumstances Peter Henderson, Chas. 

 Zeller and a few others, some at rest 

 for ever, others still toiling on, carried 

 in baskets and sold the first plants 

 ever offered in a New York market.) 

 The market opens at 2 and closes at 

 8 a. m. The city charges those who 

 locate 'round the small park 25 cents 

 each morning for 4 ft. of space on the 

 sidewalk immediately behind their 

 wagons. 



Across the street there is an old 

 abandoned butcher market which 

 some of the principal growers have 

 taken possession of, and they have 

 formed an association called the New 

 York Plant Grower's Market Associa- 

 tion. In this market the growers are 

 taxed $1.25 per week for each 10 sq. 

 ft.; this is cheaper than the city 

 charges those who stay outside, and 

 besides it is covered and lighted, 

 which is all important in wet weather, 

 or for early morning trade; however, 

 those outside have obstinately refused 

 to move insiide, and their actions can 

 only be looked upon as one of those 

 insolvable problems that bar the way 

 to greater unity, yes to the individual 

 and collective prosperity of those en- 

 gaged in almost every branch of flori- 

 culture throughout the country. 



Well, for the past few years the 

 plant market here has been wretchedly 

 poor, many and many were the morn- 

 ings when nigh broken-hearted the 

 poor growers carted their plants home 

 again, this year, however, so far the 

 market has been very good, the 

 weather has been fairly favorable, and 

 there seems to be an increased demand 

 for flowering plants. 



Now let it not be thought that the 

 sales of plants here are in any way 

 insignificant, or that the plants or the 

 variety of plants are in any way inferi- 

 or to those offered in London or Pari- 

 sian Markets. You will find them bet- 

 ter in many cases. On this particular 

 morning we write of, there were sev- 

 enty-five thousand pot plants sold at 

 this market, besides the great quanti- 

 ties of herbaceous stock. No cut 

 flowers or dormant stock is offered 

 here; it is all of that class which is 

 considered the best to entice trade 

 from the poorer sections of the city, 



for cemetery adornment or to fill club 

 or hotel vases. Of private trade there 

 is scarcely ever any because the ex- 

 perienced gardener will not buy speci- 

 ally fed plants to put out doors. 



Although we have noticed that pan- 

 sies have been a failure this year in 

 many sections of the country, they 

 have been finer than ever at this mar- 

 ket. Patrick Fay, Jersey City, grew 

 60.000; they are nearly all sold. Pese- 

 necker & Son, from the same place, 

 made a great hit with pansies. One 

 man in Middle Village grew 700 sash 

 of pansies this year, and will add 500 

 more for next year. But these are only 

 items. Dietz, of Jersey City, has been 

 sending in some grand Jaques in pots, 

 and got good prices for them; so did 

 Shaefer with his Magnas. Leach 

 Bros., Jersey City, make a specialty 

 of geraniums, of which they grow 

 about 40,000 yearly; among their 

 plants I noticed a fine batch of the 

 new dwarf heliotrope for which there 

 is a large demand. John Birnie, of West 

 Hoboken, specializes on three things, 

 pelargoniums, of which he has raised 

 some remarkably fine new ones, zonale 

 geraniums and verbenas. He might 

 be justly called king of the market on 

 the latter plants, for he sells 60,000 a 

 year of them. He grows them grandly 

 too, and offers them artistically ar- 

 ranged in small baskets. John Nicol 

 can always be found in a glory of bril- 

 liant geraniums; he devotes several 

 houses to them; he considers "Admi- 

 ral Dewey" the best scarlet geranium 

 of the day, it is brighter and freer 

 than "Grant," he says; but Lehnig & 

 Winnifield, from Hackensack, who 

 have a stand next to John, claims that 

 their new geranium "John P. Cleary" 

 beats all the geraniums in the world 

 for brilliancy and floriferousness. Dave 

 Rose has always a carefully selected 

 group of plants for sale, but one might 

 pick up a directory of Jersey florists 

 and find most of them here. Witt- 

 mann. of Jersey City, grows the finest 

 double white stocks in pots, it has 

 been 'round this market for over 10 

 years, and it travels without a name. 



New and unnamed varieties of 

 flowers are plentiful here, many of 

 them far superior to those we see pic- 

 tured and catalogued all over the 

 world, and as for the variety of plants 

 offered, you can find anything almost, 

 from a phalaenopsis to a Bellis peren- 

 nis. It is a pity a great city like New 

 York has not a plant market suitable 

 to its requirements. When we occa- 

 sionally hear some would be "Jaggs" 

 get up and sputter out contemptuous 

 comparisons between ours and foreign 

 markets, as they do between private 

 places here and the Dukes of this and 

 'tother on 'tether side, we cannot but 

 think how very little they themselves 

 could do to change anything anywhere. 

 The day will come, it must come, when 

 New York will have the finest flower- 

 market in the world! In the meantime 

 all honor to the few stout-hearted men 

 who are struggling under such difficul- 

 ties to supply the people with ever 

 cheerful, always welcome flowers and 

 plants. J. I. Donlan. 



