634 



The Weekly Florists' Review. 



APRIL 19, 1900. 



Of Bougainvillea were much in evi- 

 dence this year, occupying a broad 

 space in the windows, lighting up 

 handsomely under the electric light 

 and harmonizing effectively with other 

 varieties used for the decorative 

 scheme in each particular case. 



The retailers emphasize the larger 

 quantity of growing plants Easter sales 

 demand. Asked which were the most 

 popular, one firm said Crimson Ram- 

 blers and genistas, and that Bougain- 

 villeas of moderate size would sell 

 well. Another pointed to acacias and 

 azaleas as the great favorites, and a 

 bright young woman in a third store 

 declared that any plant would sell now 

 if in good shape and flower. Lilies, 

 azaleas and hydrangeas went out by 

 the thousands of course, and. although 

 we hear of Dutch stuff being a drug, 

 the supply seemed inexhaustible and 

 the demand to keep pace with It. 



The truth is the great bulk of the 

 buyers want plants that do not cost 

 much money, and this material fills 

 the place. The lily disease was er- 

 ratic, some growers reporting as great 

 a loss as 40 per cent; but two large 

 growers, S. Feast & Sons and Wm, J. 

 Halliday, agree that their loss was so 

 small as hardly to be appreciable. 



All kinds of cut flowers were well 

 taken up. If any were over-abundant 

 it was violets: roses were in good de- 

 mand; many more carnations, it in 

 good shape, could have found a mar- 

 ket. Towards evening on Saturday 

 shipments of mignonette, smilax and 

 asparagus coming in found the buy- 

 ers supplied and were laid over. 



The Florists' Exchange seemed to 

 have had about all it could do; in fact, 

 its capacity for handling the cut flower 

 business seems to have been about 

 reached, and it is not unlikely that be- 

 fore long more commodious quarters 

 will become a necessity of the situa- 

 tion, its present location being palpa- 

 'bly too constricted and ill-arranged fo'r 

 its increasing traffic. 



Notes. 



Wm. J. Halliday displayed in his 

 window last week some of the best 

 Golden Gate roses yet seen here, with 

 fine large blooms of rich tints and 

 stout stems quite thirty inches long. 

 The delicious fragrance of this rose 

 contributes to its popularity and its 

 only poor quality is the paucity of foli- 

 age. If anyone can give the history of 

 this rose it would be of public interest. 

 It is evidently of the blood of the 

 Niphetos, but what is the other par- 

 ent? As we learned the story, it was 

 originated by Robert Neely, of New 

 Orleans, a florist who wont from Bal- 

 timore, and who sold it, with several 

 other hybridized varieties raised by 

 him, to the Dingee and Conard Co. of 

 Pennsylvania, by whom it was named 

 and sent out. 



The old established firm of Samuel 

 Feast & Sons has secured a ten years' 

 lease at a large rental of the building 

 on the southeast corner of Charles and 

 Pleasant streets, now occupied by the 

 Woman's Exchange. This Js a com- 



modious stand, peculiarly auapfe' to 

 the florists' trade, with fine show win- 

 dows and ample bays, with northern 

 exposure, whilst the offices and studios 

 into which the upper floors are divided 

 will be a source of large revenue. The 

 old stand of the Feasts gives way to 

 the march of building improvements, 

 and the new one is one block further 

 north. It adjoins the store of the Hal- 

 liday Bros., formerly Mrs. Mary J. 

 Thomas', and is across the street and 

 within a stone's throw of Wm. J. Hal- 

 liday. John Cook and James Pent- 

 land's establishments. 



Smith & Hamilton, of Mount Wash- 

 ington, are about to erect a new rose 

 house 100 feet long. They have al- 

 ready one carnation and one violet 

 house. RIX. 



BOSTON. 



Bumps. 



There are some rather strange 

 phrenological bumps on the head of 

 the situation here. To begin with, the 

 weather bureau made a slight clerical 

 error whereby a heavy two days' rain 

 intended for Chicago got switched off 

 into Boston for Thursday and Friday 

 and nearly spoiled the whole thing. In 

 spite of this, however, I claim it was 

 the best Easter the Hub florists ever 

 experienced. A perfect hurricane of 

 trade struck the city at 1 p. m. Friday 

 and raged supreme till late on Satur- 

 day eve and blew nearly everything 

 out of the stores except the contents of 

 the money drawers. 



One bump consists of the fact that 

 nothing white sold well but lilies, and 

 white roses are left in larger quanti- 

 ties than anything else. Growers made 

 their same old mistake of holding car- 

 nations too long and prices ran a 

 sliade lower on Saturday than at any 

 time previously for a couple of weeks. 

 Another rotund protuberance bears 

 the smell of violets. This may perhaps 

 be illustrated by the remark of one of 

 our most philosophical retailers, "Two 

 years ago we bought 15,000 violets and 

 threw away half of them; last year we 

 bought 15,000 and had one bunch left; 

 this year we bought 15,000 and bought 

 5,000 more Saturday to keep up with 

 the demand." They were more plenti- 

 ful than expected and customers much 

 more so. 



Lilies got scarce in places, but re- 

 tailers averaged things up very nicely 

 by patronizing wholesalers and buy- 

 ing of each other, so that the supply 

 just about equaled the demand. There 

 were not enough good red roses; or- 

 ders for smaller grades were all filled 

 at good prices. B. T. 



■WASHINGTON. 



Easter Trade. 



Business was the finest on record 

 with every one. Plants of every de- 

 scription taking the lead, ranging from 

 50 cents to J3, although some of the 

 boys overloaded themselves with high 



priced azaleas. D. Z. Blackstone says: 

 "Best we ever had; everything sold 

 out except a few straggling plants " 

 Washington Floral Co., Mr, Otto Baur 

 says: "Could have sold more; best we 

 ever had." F. W. Bolgiano says: "This 

 is the only Easter we ever sold c.ira- 

 pletely out. " From the looks of J. H. 

 Small & Sons. Gude & Bro. and J. R. 

 Freeman's stores they looked as 

 though a cyclone had struck them the 

 next morning, and to see the proprie- 

 tors, you would see a weary batch of 

 played-out boys, but their pockets 

 were fat, which caused them to still 

 keep a smile on their tired-out counte- 

 nances. 



Every one thought lilies would be a 

 glut, but before evening they had ad- 

 vanced 25 per cent, and there were not 

 enough to go around. Bulbous stock 

 such as tulips and jonquils did not go 

 at all at any price. The trade here -e- 

 mands fine roses and carnations and 

 Dutch stock is not wanted by them at 

 any price. 



Notes. 



We learn, with regret, of the death 

 of Mr. Field, the most popular florist 

 of this city and the introducer of our 

 grand American Beauty rose. Mr. 

 Field was buried on Easter Sunday. 

 Will give particulars in next issue. 



F. H. KRAMER. 



KANSAS QTY, MO. 



Easter Notes. 



The writer visited the down-town 

 florists Tuesday morning and each one 

 agreed that Easter trade was 25 per 

 cent better than last year. 



The weather was perfect until Sun- 

 day noon, when we had a heavy rain- 

 storm, which spoiled trade for the rest 

 of the day. 



The florists commenced early in the 

 week to decorate their windows with 

 plants and bulbous stock and an im- 

 provement over former years was very 

 noticeable. W. L. Rock made a spe- 

 cial effort to attract the public, and 

 his artistic display would do credit to 

 any city. Sales were about equally di- 

 vided between cut flowers and potted 

 plants, and supply equal to demand. 



Maids, Brides. Perles and Meteors 

 retailed ' from $1,50 to $3 per dozen; 

 Beauties brought from ?2 to $S. The 

 carnation was the favorite flower and 

 fancy varieties sold at $1-50 per dozen, 

 Violets were few in number and infe- 

 rior. 



Potted plants were of a higher grade 

 than last year, and grown more exten- 

 sively. The past three weeks of spring- 

 like weather brought Harrisii out in 

 flne shape, and they were of much bet- 

 ter quality than was expected. Every- 

 one sold and many more could have 

 been disposed of. 



A few pans and boxes of finely grown 

 tulips trimmed with crepe paper and 

 ribbon found ready sales. Daffodils 

 and Romans suffered from that "tired 

 feeling " and could not be used unsup- 

 ported. 



