8 



The Weekly Florists' Review. 



JUNE 1. 1S99. 



plants no check that month. I clean 

 off all runners the first week of Sep- 

 tember previous to planting in their 

 winter quarters. I prefer a heavy 

 loam well enriched, similar to a gooJ 

 rose soil. In lifting the plants I am 

 very careful to lift a large ball of soil 

 with them. I plant into solid benches, 

 being careful not to bury the crowns, 

 giving them a thorough good water- 

 ing immediately after planting, slight- 

 ly shading the glass for the first 

 month. Keep the house as cool as 

 possible, with full ventilation night 

 and day, until the weather gets chilly; 

 then we gradually reduce the tem- 

 perature. The temperature I find best 

 for them is 40 degrees by night, with 

 10 degrees of a rise during the day. I 

 may here state that I never close the 

 top ventilators entirely, thus avoiding 

 condensation. With regard to water- 

 ing, I like a bright morning, and do 

 it 'overhead, always attempting to 

 have the foliage dry before night. I 

 don't believe in allowing the surface of 

 the bed to become very dry, as the 

 violet is very susceptible to the rav- 

 ages of red spider. All bad leaves are 

 picked off; also the leaf stalks. I feed 

 with chicken manure once a week. I 

 like to do this on a bright morning, so 

 that I can give an overhead watering 

 directly after. I use a half bushel of 

 manure to forty-five gallons of water. 

 As to varieties, I confine myself to 

 the "California" for a single and 

 "Marie Louise" for a double. There 

 are many advantages in growing them 

 in a house. For instance, you can 

 ventilate them properly; in fact, you 

 can always give the plants the requi- 

 site attention independent of the ele- 

 ments. For frame culture the main 

 points are: To pay strict attention to 

 ventilation on all favorable occasions, 

 keep clear of condensation as much 

 as possible, watering when required 

 and all bad leaves picked off, covering 

 and uncovering at tne proper times. 

 Keep frost outside if possible. 



NEW YORK. 



Japanese Plants. 

 There was another hatch of Japan- 

 ese plants auctioned off at the Amer- 

 ican Art Galleries, New York, May 23 

 and 24, by Messrs. Kushibiki & Arai, 

 of Tokio, and proprietors of the Jap- 

 anese Tea Gardens and Nurseries at 

 Atlantic City, N. J. Enormous prices 

 were obtained for much of the stock. 

 Dwarf pines and retinosporas brought 

 from $15 to $65 and many of the 

 miniature gardens fetched very high 

 figures. The Japs know how to fool 

 with legendary "taffy;" still, it must 

 be admitted there is in a way quite a 

 lot of art in their arrangements. The 

 largest Retinospora obtusa nana in the 

 collection, and safely the finest speci- 

 men ever seen here, was sold to a Mr. 

 George Pope for the pretty sum of 

 $1,200. It was a fine specimen, about 

 eight feet high, and evenly trained. 

 The Japs said it was 850 years old, 

 but— well, they realized between $7,000 



and $S,000 from the two days' sale. We 

 saw several local plant growers there 

 and a few of the retailers' windows 

 show evidences of investments. Sooner 

 or later New York will have its Japan- 

 ese nurseries. We would like to see 

 a Japanese florists' store opened here; 

 it would be a big success. 



Decoration Day. 



Decoration day, 1899, was a record 

 breaker in small flowering plants. 

 Very good prices have prevailed at 

 the auction rooms and the market. 

 Scarlet geraniums in bloom have been 

 scarce and the demand for them has 

 been very great. The public schools 

 took a more active part in the event 

 and thousands of plants were given by 

 scholars to G. A. R. posts. Cut flow- 

 ers were very plentiful; the growers 

 shipped in everything they had and 

 the commission houses looked as if it 

 were a small Easter or Christmas. 

 Carnations sold very well; so did 

 paeonies and Harrisii. Roses, the ma- 

 jority of them disfigured by mildew, 

 were abundant and slow to go, and so 

 were valley and narcissus. Newport 

 lilac was a feature in the market and 

 sold fairly well, considering that the 

 people have been smothered in it here. 

 Good Jacques and Meteors were in de- 

 mand and the Greek peddlers have 

 fallen in love with American Beauties. 

 Many of the florists have been busy 

 with' either weddings, funerals, or 

 steamers. 



There was quite a lot of flowers 

 shipped for Decoration day by our 

 wholesalers to out-of-town florists, 

 particularly to those in the northeast; 

 this would seem as if business was 

 good in that direction. A full report 

 of Decoration day will be sent you for 

 next issue. IVERA. 



BOSTON. 



Review of the Market. 



As usual, the week before Decoration 

 day has been rather a peculiar week 

 for the cut flower business. Among 

 the retailers the volume of trade has 

 not been above the average for this 

 time of the year; while the growers 

 have to a great extent been holding 

 back, causing a big decline in receipts, 

 and then trying to increase the prices 

 to holiday figures. The result is a big 

 kick, and while the growers get the 

 best of it now, they will get their pay 

 later on. Stock of all kinds has there- 

 fore run rather light, with considerable 

 of an increase over last week's figures. 



Brides and Maids are running small 

 in size and have been the only staples 

 in quantity in the market. Prices 

 ranged from $2 to $12.50 per 100; Kais- 

 erins about the same as for best 

 Brides; Beauties hold at about last 

 week's prices. Carnations sold from 

 $1.50 to $3 per 100, probably $2 is a 

 fair average for good stock; some nice 

 blooms brought as high as $4; valley, 

 from outside, about $1.50 per 100; 

 stocks $3 and $4 per 100: sweet peas 

 from 75 cents to $1 per 100; lilies and 



callas, $1 per dozen; bulb stock about 

 done for the season. Odds and ends of 

 seasonable flowers sell- well, running 

 from $3 to $4 per 100. 



The Plant Trade. 



The past week has always been con- 

 sidered the banner week among plant 

 growers; but this year so much cold 

 weather has made buyers rather shy 

 about planting out, so that the busi- 

 ness did not come up to expectations. 

 Among the trade at the market most 

 all of them report an increase over a 

 year ago, and with plenty of orders 

 depending on the weather. At the 

 auctions a fair crowd is in evidence at 

 the sales, and lively bidding is done 

 when any really nice plants are of- 

 fered. Prices are about the average 

 for the season. 



The News. 



All the store men have been very 

 busy preparing for Decoration day and 

 windows are filled up with dried work, 

 which is quite a feature at this time. 



Having had trouble with unruly 

 fakirs, the management of the mar- 

 ket had Mr. Walsh deputized as a spe- 

 cial policeman, which will have a ten- 

 dency to curb some of those who are 

 always looking for trouble. P. 



BUFFALO. 



The Season. 



We are at least ten days behind the 

 large eastern cities and the hot cities 

 of the Mississippi valley in our ben- 

 ding-out time; so we are only now in 

 the midst of it. Very fine, -Wni-n 

 weather has again made flowery very 

 plentiful and the two stap's articles, 

 roses and carnations, are very fine. 

 Never before have the florists of this 

 neighborhood grown so many Japan 

 longiflorum; they are here by the 

 thousand and of fine quality; in a batch 

 of 1.500 plants I fail to detect a case 

 of yellow fever or any other southern 

 disease. The demand for plants and 

 vases for the different cemeteries is as 

 good as ever and for every young 

 widow who dries her tears and neg- 

 lects to decorate her lot in Forest 

 Lawn a half dozen new bereavements 

 occur that demand the services of the 

 stony hearted florist. 



A Storm. 



About 3 o'clock this Monday after- 

 noon a storm came up, or rather down, 

 which has hurt business sadly. If not 

 sales, it has sadly hampered the work 

 of filling vases, a great proportion of 

 which is done this day before Memo- 

 rial day. Hail of a harmless size (the 

 kind that Esler likes to read about) 

 fell in blinding sheets, followed by a 

 baby cyclone of water, which rushed 

 up the streets and across the fields. I 

 have heard about the flood gates of 

 Heaven being open, but that's too am- 

 biguous for me, because they don't 

 have floods there, but the clouds that 

 we happened to be under opened wide 



