DKi'IOMBKH 2R, 1SS9, 



The Weekly Florists' Review* 



99 



Greens. 



Christmas eve among the florists o£ 

 New York is an occasion to be remem- 

 1>ered; tlie enormous amount of work 

 (lone, the vast quantities of stock dis- 

 posed of, are, to say the least, won- 

 derful. 



Saturday we were down in the 

 wholesale greenery district trying to 

 get you a few statistics and wo find 

 that there were about four thousand 

 eases of holly disposed of in this mar- 

 ket; lots of it was not worth 20 cents 

 a case; this was particularly the mat- 

 ter with southern holly this year — it 

 was dirty yellow and much of it berry- 

 less. The Delaware stock was good 

 and consequently went with a rush. 

 We saw some of the best bought for 

 $3.00 a case, but the average price was 

 $4.00 and $5.00. There were several 

 hundred cases of mistletoe, but most 

 of it was not fit to use. The Ameri- 

 can was damaged they say by frost, 

 the English was either badly packed 

 or smashed up in transit, the French 

 was about the best. There were hunt- 

 ing parties out for this line of goods, 

 but none to be had. 



Seventy-two carloads of Christmas 

 trees, with an average of fifteen hun- 

 dred trees to each car, came in from 

 New York state, and then remember 

 the largest part of our supply came 

 by boats from Maine, New Jersey and 

 Connecticut; they were almost entire- 

 ly white spruce or balsams and sold 

 for 25 cents up to $15 for 20-foot trees. 

 The number of trees sold will exceed 

 the quarter million mark. The best 

 part of the trade was supplied with 

 specimen Norway spruces from the 

 local nurseries. Princess pine sold 

 well. In fact, to sum up the green 

 market, it was very good, and fine ma- 

 terial went early and high. 



We tramped the entire city looking 

 for news and novelties, and many 

 amusing and pathetic sights and sto- 

 ries were seen and heard in this great- 

 est of Bohemias — this magnificent 

 market where sentiment influences the 

 petrified hearts of many. Down in 

 the poorest parts of the city we saw 

 the Jew and the Gentile, aye, even 

 the Chinese, carrying home bunches 

 of greenery, or sprays of flowers, and 

 who shall fathom it? 



We find this year, and it is a good 

 sign, that the poorer and middle class 

 trade was e.xtremely good. There was 

 not near so much artificial stuff either 

 shown or sold. The small retailers 

 sold a vast quantity of roping and 

 wreaths such as was bought whole- 

 sale; holly wreaths, in fact any kind 

 of good wreaths, were scarce in the 

 wholesale market. Up in the first 

 class stores the wreaths were made 

 by contract at from 10 to 12% cents 

 each wreath, by experts who are em- 

 ployed for this every year. 



This year's Christmas decorations 

 were more general than ever. Muny 

 thousands of houses, clubs and hotels 

 displayed wreaths and garlands and 

 whilst there were quite a lot of mixed 

 and pine wreaths, the great majority 

 were of holly; we are pleased to no- 

 tice that there was more refinement 

 shown than ever before in these deco- 

 rations, and we are afraid that many 

 retailers are not responsible for this, 

 because many who pay high rents of- 

 fered numerous loud things in the way 

 of solid immortelle wreaths, etc., 

 which still hang in their stores. The 

 people are not slow in appreciation, 

 and fine work like fine stock goes 

 quickly. 



Most of the green wreaths were tied 

 with red ribbon, and let us remark 

 that though in many cases, particular- 

 ly in wall or balcony decoration, it is 

 best to tie the bow at the bottom, in 

 the case of windows where fine cur- 

 tains are hung and all is expected to 

 be neat and trim it is best to tie the 

 ribbon on the top and have the loops 

 leach half or three-quarters down; this 

 makes a more compact effect. If some 

 wish to be different, short bows on the 

 right don't look bad, especially if the 

 wreath has a few sprays there; this 

 can be alternated to the left side. Most 

 of the retailers cleared out of Christ- 

 mas greens and are very well satisfied 

 with trade in that line. 



Plants. 



As we predicted in previous notes, 

 this year broke the record for the sale 

 of plants. The quantity disposed of 

 was something enormous; thousands 

 upon thousands of them were sold, not 

 alone of flowering plants but all man- 



ner of ferns and foliage stock; they 

 were mostly made up in all sorts of 

 baskets. Each florist endeavored to 

 have something different from his 

 brother, and In consequence some 

 beautiful and many funny things were 

 seen. Gauze ribbons were used very 

 profusely. One party introduced lace 

 handkerchiefs among his gauze. One 

 thing we noticed, and we considered 

 bad judgment, was the great jireva- 

 lence of sickly colors, such as whites, 

 washed out blue and yellow and faded 

 lavenders; we think these colors re- 

 tarded or spoiled many a sale. We 

 should make a difference between 

 Christmas and Easter colors. 



Of course there was an oversupply 

 of white stock, especially white heath- 

 er (in fact this plant caused a monot- 

 ony almost everywhere, and if any- 

 thing remains it does), and no doubt 

 the boys were anxious to match col- 

 ors; combinations sell better some- 

 times. The weather was verj' mild 

 and a great amount of tender ferns 

 were used in baskets with good effect. 

 Low poinsettias in pans went with a 

 rush, so did ardisias. We saw lots of 

 azaleas with one or two flowers on; it 

 was hard to sell such. Every florist 

 made a specialty of plants and these 

 were disposed of before the cut flower 

 section was seriously considered. 



One point is worthy of note and of 

 commendation: that most of the 

 plants were sold in neat baskets, that 

 though lots of crepe paper was used 

 — and used with a vengeance^the pub- 

 lic seemed to dislike it and preferred 

 the plant to its dressing. Begonia 

 Glory of Lorraine was a pretty feature 

 and sold well where it was appreciated 

 and offered reasonably. We haven't 

 time to enumerate all the leading 

 items in plants, but everybody did a 

 big trade and it is safe to say there 

 will be more grown next year. 



Cut Flowers. 



It is diflicult to say what this Christ- 

 mas was in a cut flower way. Prices 

 for top grades were about as we quot- 

 ed, but the greatest volume of trade 

 was very much cheaper. First class 

 fresh roses sold well, violets became 

 a drug, bulbous stock was over-plenti- 

 ful, white stuff in general moved slow- 

 ly or not at all. As we said before, 

 we traversed all sections to study the 

 situation. We saw fairly good roses 

 retailed for 75 cents and $1.00 per doz- 

 en; violets, $1.50 and $2.00 per 100; 

 valley, 15 cents per dozen; Romans, 10 

 cents per dozen; and so on, and this 

 in the streets on Christmas day. But 

 on the other hand we saw as big prices 

 as were gotten the past eight years. 

 There was a tremendous quantity of 

 flowers disposed of. 



The following is a fair estimate of 

 what was on the market in New York 

 for Christmas, and it almost all dis- 

 appeared somewhere somehow: Vio- 

 lets, 500,000; roses, 200,000; carna- 

 tions, 200,000; lily of the valley, 100,- 

 000; Roman hyacinths, 100.000; poin- 

 settias. 20,000; cypripediums, 25,000; 

 miscellaneous flowers, 250,000; vines. 



