The Weekly Florists' Review* 



73 



\V. Sargent, and Caiactacus, bright and 

 deep scarlet; James Bateman and E. S. 

 Rand, scarlet; Sefton, maroon; Charles 

 Bagley, cherry red; purpureum grandi- 

 florum, purplish rose; Old Port, plum 

 purple; Everestianum, lilac rose, a gem 

 for outdoor culture; Hannibal and Alex- 

 ander Dancer, bright rose; roseum ele- 

 gans, rose, and Miss Owen and Minnie, 

 blush. P. A. 



PHILADELPHIA. 



Business. 



Business has fallen off a little since 

 one week ago. There are some days of 

 brisk demand and some days of hardly 

 any demand at all. Both prices and 

 quality are declining. Beauties and 

 sweet peas are good stock and sell well 

 on most days; La France and Kaiserins 

 of fair quality are also desirable; Brides 

 and Maids are not so popular, chiefly 

 because they are getting poor. Carna- 

 tions are only in fair demand ; paonies 

 are now very plentiful and have fallen 

 in price, $3 to $5 per 100 is about the 

 rate. 



While Bridesmaids of ordinary type 

 won't do, really good blooms have been 

 eagerly sought at $5 and even $6 per 

 100. Thomas Foulds grows them on 

 benches Jietter even than the solid beds 

 have them, curiously enough. Carnot 

 is selling well at about same rate as 

 Maid; it is a good summer sort. La 

 France is not altogether satisfactory for 

 first-class work, being often light. A 

 good summer pink of deep color would 

 be an acquisition; outdoor Jacques 

 are bringing .$2 and $3 per hundred. A 

 goodly number are moved at these fig- 

 ures. Pjeonies are so much over done 

 at times that one grower said he had 

 thousands of them that it did not pay 

 him to cut and market at prevailing 

 prices. It seems that the early sorts 

 and a few selected varieties are the prof- 

 itable ones. 



Outdoor roses are in full supply this 

 week; thanks to the cool nights they are 

 unusually fine. Rhododendrous are also 

 in bloom and when obtainable make 

 showy decorative material. Sweet peas 

 are very late; only those started under 

 glass have yet bloomed to any extent. 



liest of All and the Mont Blanc at their 

 best. 



Various Notes. 



The weather continues to excite. 

 After an extraordinary storm, which 

 fortunately did little damage, though it 

 brought heavy hail, came some very 

 warm days, then another atmospheric 

 disturbance and this week two nights 

 saw the mercury in the lower fifties. 

 Just think, nearly 50 degi-ees on June 

 10, the very day selected by so con- 

 servative a plantsman as George Huster 

 as a safe time for planting out crotons! 



The plants for beds and boxes are 

 cleared up pretty well; small vines are 

 scarce. Some nice geraniums and other 

 things can be had that would have sold 

 on the 30th of May had they been 

 brightened by a blossom. Crotons have 

 sold well. Robert Craig & Sou found it 

 necessary to rope off a lot of these plants 

 in order to keep some for growing on 

 into specimens for fall sales. 



The demand for cannas, 4. fl, and 6- 

 inch, has kept pace with, at times, even 

 exceeded the supply. The varieties pre- 

 ferred are the novelties of two to five 

 years ago and one or two old standbys. 



There is some seashore demand for 



bedding plants, which should be culti- 

 vated by those having surplus stock. 



The Andorra Nurseries have helped 

 many a commencement and wedding 

 decoration with their pa;onies. 



Joseph Heacock is hard at work clean- 

 ing and refilling his rose houses. Sev- 

 eral are already planted with young 

 stock. 



The June Florists' Club meeting 

 showed an encouraging increase in the 

 attendance. It was good to see the pres- 

 ident again in his accustomed place. 

 Few men are more respected and es- 

 teemed in our profession than William 

 K. Harris. 



Charles H. Fox reopened his hotel, 

 LaBelle Inn, at Atlantic City, on the 8th 

 of June for the summer months. 



A wager was made last fall between a 

 girl and a man as to who could produce 

 and present the other one sweet pea 

 bloom first this season. Both got seed 

 of Burpee's "Earliest of All." The man 

 sowed his seed in his garden early in 

 March. The girl, who unexpectedly 

 moved into the city during the winter, 

 started her seed in April in pots on the 

 window, transferring them to a tiny 

 back yard known as "the prairie" and 

 watering them with nitric acid. On 

 Friday, June 7th, the man telephoned 

 to his fair adversary that his sweet 

 peas were in bloom. She said she had 

 none, but until he presented his the 

 wager was not won. The next morning 

 the girl got up early and to her sur- 

 prise found one little pea blossom open 

 on "the prairie!" She put it in a box, 

 rushed to her opponent's oflice and left 

 it with many instructions to the oflice 

 boy to present it promptly to his em- 

 ployer. Two hours later she received the 

 man's box of sweet peas. She had tri- 

 umphed despite tall chimneys, cats and 

 fences ! 



The Germantown Horticultural Socie- 

 ty held its banner meeting of the season 

 on Monday evening, June 10th. Edwin 

 Lonsdale gave an interesting address on 

 "Begonias" in general and Gloire de 

 Lorraine in particular, illustrated by 

 some specimens of this variety. N. Du- 

 bois Miller, who was wonderfully suc- 

 cessful in cultivating plants at home 

 in his few leisure hours, told of an 

 "Amateur's Garden." Both speakers 

 were listened to with much interest and 

 received a vote of thanks. >f. Dubois 

 .Miller's address was an inspiration to 

 his hearers, telling them what they 

 might do with their own hands and the 

 pleasure of doing it. His advice to buy 

 only seeds, not florists' plants, and es- 

 pecially to avoid those plants forced into 

 full bloom to i?ell and consequently some- 

 what exhausted, was a little hard on 

 some of his audience, but food for 

 thought, nevertheless. 



There was an exhibition of outdoor 

 io?es, gloxinias and tuberous begonias. 

 The audience was large and appreciative. 

 Joseph Towell of Hillside has found a 

 very good demand for Centaurea impe- 

 riaiis; in fact he has not been able to 

 cut enough of them. 



The I'ose meeting of the Pennsylvania 

 Horticultural Society will be held on 

 Tiiefdav, June 18th. Pmi,. 



The Market. 



The market is very quiet at this writ- 

 ing with the supply greatly exceeding 

 the demand and very little can be said 

 of the local trade the past week. Tlie 



wholesale houses have been greatly over- 

 stocked with cut flowers of all kinds and 

 the demand slow. The retail trade is 

 rather slow though some of the West 

 End florists have been busy as there 

 is quite a crop of June weddings. The 

 lounter trade has dropped down to the 

 summer basis. Mildew seems to be a 

 rule on roses but at times a lot of well- 

 gruwn flowers are noted. 



Prices have remained nearly station- 

 ary. American Beauties still lead in 

 demand but first-class stock is out of 

 tlie question, though our wholesalers 

 are still handling a few good blooms. 

 Two dollars and $3 per dozen is the 

 price for the best and from that down 

 to $2 per 100. Meteors have a good 

 call but are off color and there are 

 pknty of buiiueads among them; the 

 best have rather short stems; price, Sfii 

 to $4 per 100. Maids, Brides, Gates, 

 Pcrles and Jacques are from $1 to $4 

 per 100 with plenty of them on hand 

 for all demands. 



Carnations have kept up wonderfully 

 well but are getting small; the supply 

 is larger than ever. All varieties and 

 colors°are selling at $1 per 100 in 100 

 lots. Saturday about 20,000 were sold 

 at $2.50 per 1,000. This really is cheap- 

 er than they ever have been sold for 

 before and the growers are not feeling so 

 good just now as they did a month ago. 

 Sweet peas are also badly over stocked 

 at present and are cheaper than ever; 

 15 cents per 100 or $1 per 1000. Light 

 colors have the call ; darker shades go to 

 the waste pile. Paeonies, it was feared 

 a week ago, would be badly over stocked, 

 yet, though plenty of them are in, 

 they are selling well. The best bring .$3 

 per 100 ; poorer grades go for much less. 

 Cape Jasmines are very plentiful at 50 

 cents per 100. Gladioli spikes are sell- 

 ing at 5 cents, but sale is slow. Greens 

 of all kinds are in good demand. 



Various Items. 



Only one or two of our late street fak- 

 irs remain in the city. Those who had 

 money left town and went to Chicago and 

 Buffalo, where they can have full sway. 

 Some of our downtown florists are about 

 as bad as the fakirs were, judging from 

 the price they have displayed in their 

 windows— carnations 15 cents per dozen 

 and roses at 25 cents and really first- 

 class stock at that. 



Martin Reukauf, representing H. Bay- 

 er.sdorfer & Co., of Philadelphia, was in 

 town the past week. 



Frank Ellis not to be outdone by his 

 friend Kuehn as a poet has dedicated 

 the following poem to the Review: 



•■In order to seU your stock out quick 

 The Review is the paper to do the trick. 

 It's a paper that's second to none — 



The Eggeling Floral Co. furnished the 

 decorations for the Anheuser wedding 

 the past week, which was one of the larg- 

 est of the season. 



Mr. Anderson has retired from the 

 firm of Thompson, Anderson & Kennedy, 

 horticultural builders. 



Weber, Walbart and Ayers, out in the 

 West End, report business good for this 

 time of the year with wedding, scTiool 

 and funeral work. 



Wm. Kaliseh & Sons, on Delmar, re- 

 port that they have been very busy dur- 

 ing the planting out season. They had 

 the contract for the flower beds at Mayoi'; 

 Wells' residence. Mr. E. Kaliseh will 

 make a trip East next month, returning 

 by the way of Chicago. 



