JANUARY 4, 1900. 



The Weekly Florists' Review, 



123 



The Past and the Future. 



Let us c'ongratiil:ite The Review on 

 the fact that it will lie the first flori- 

 cultural trade paper printed and sent 

 flying all over the world in the last 

 year of the century. Let us extend 

 to all in our business — the old and 

 the young, the great and the small — 

 our congratulations and hopes for a 

 bright future. It is au all important 

 matter for contemplation that what- 

 ever we think, say, or do belongs to 

 this end-of-the-century year, and that 

 all of us, we hope, are destined to have 

 the opportunity of assisting in some 

 way to make the new era the bright- 

 est and the happiest, certainly the 

 most wonderfully advanced, of all that 

 has passed. 



We, the retail florists of America, 

 have nothing to be ashamed of in our 

 share of the world's floricultural liis- 

 tory during the past hundred years, for 

 though as a distinctive line of trade 

 ours can only date back to the latter 

 part of it, yet in that brief time we 

 have accomplished more, sold more, 

 perhaps, than the combined florists of 

 the Old World. The American retail 

 florist can only refer back to or study 

 the past fifty years. The struggles of 

 those early days were pathetic — he- 

 roic. Coming from homes across the 

 seas, moneyless, but rich in love of 

 flowers, we find them starting upon 

 nothing with the few insignificant 

 plants and flowers they found here; for 

 one of the first sales we can trace is a 

 pot of ivy, then a geranium, again a 

 rose plant, till bo.xes and hanging bas- 

 kets were filled, and finally it got large 

 enough to open a store and cause 

 competition. 



To the Society of American Florists 

 we would say, when holding your 

 great convention in New York next 

 August: Go in a body to Old Wash- 

 ington Market, where the first flow- 

 ers and plants were sold, and have the 

 venerable Charles Zeller unveil a 

 bronze tablet to the memory of the 

 few who started the business on the 

 glittering road it has traversed, aye, 

 to those who made the trade even 

 wha\* it is to-day, for history and 

 €veiJ~ present events cast a halo 

 'round their names. 



It was only the other day we met 



an old friend, and after summarizing 

 the present Christmas trade, he start- 

 ed anecdotes of thirty years ago; sand 

 was used in place of moss then, and 

 broom corn stalks for sticks, thread 

 instead of wire, yes. often pieces of 

 white cotton were used in wreaths to 

 fill in between flowers. We, ourselves, 

 down to fifteen years ago manufac- 

 tured roses out of fallen petals; the 

 same with camellias. Balsams w^ere 

 the leading flower for "groundwork," 

 and no funeral would be complete 

 without the tuberose, and what car- 

 nations and roses! And then the 

 prices — w-hew! It's delicious to look 

 back on the past for some things. 



The civil war took many of the 

 country's brightest florists away, but 

 the prosperity that followed the strug- 

 gle gave the greatest impetus to flori- 

 culture, and there are many among 

 us to-day who are deserving of as 

 much honor as the greatest men in 

 other lines of art, science, or com- 

 merce. Let us just glance at history. 



What does the world's floricultural 

 history tell us? Oh, yes; our art was 

 recognized at the very start; it has 



decked both the civilized and the un- 

 civilized natures in every corner of 

 the earth; we know there were many 

 lovely designs made in the earliest 

 ages, but the descriptions and prices 

 of floral decorations in almost all 

 ancient history are purely mytholog- 

 ical suppositions. And 'what do we 

 hud in modern history? Well, sev- 

 ei-al affairs where as high as $1,000 or 

 $1,.'J00 were spent by whole nations or 

 rulers to beautify certain celebrations. 

 All Europe thought the French werft 

 crazy — aye, even the French them- 

 selves imagined they were influenced 

 by the highest pinnacles of enthusi- 

 astic grandeur when they paid $2, .000 

 for the floral decorations to crown Na- 

 poleon and Eugenie's glory. Withia 

 the past twenty years, even twelve 

 years, this sumptuousness has been 

 cast into shadow by private citizens of 

 New York. Over $3,000 was paid for 

 the flowers used to decorate one dinner 

 and there have lieen several society 

 balls where the fioral decorations have 

 cost $.-/.000, and we have reason to be- 

 lieve the decorations at one wedding 

 cost $.s,500. Many a belle has had $4';a 

 or $.500 worth of bouquets sent her at 

 the Patriarch's ball, and the combined 

 value of the floral decorations and 

 bouquets seen at those events would 

 often reach $10,000. All honor to 

 those who were and are equal to the 

 occasion. 



The astonishing growth of our bus- 

 iness during the last quarter of the 

 century may be attributed by one au- 

 thority or another to several causes, 

 but history or facts will prove that 

 next to the prosperity of the country 

 the retail florists deserve the greatest 

 credit. It was they who put the value 

 on stock and induced the growers not 

 only to build, but gave them the 

 means of doing it. It was they who, 

 just as they are continuing to do, 

 enhanced the worth of plant or flower 

 by beauty of arrangement, and en- 



■View in Fleischmann's Window. 

 NEW YORK STORES AT CHRISTMAS. 



