APRIL l!l, ISIJO. 



The Weekly Florists' Review. 



635 



Humfeld Floral Co. had a splendid 

 lot of uzaloas and white lilac. 



liaker Bros, made a specialt.v of cine- 

 lai-las and think the.v sold enough to 

 l>a.v their transportation to the Klon- 

 dike next month. 



Samuel Murray monopolized the 

 market on hydrangeas, which were 

 perfect plants; in fact, it may be said 

 the finest ever seen in Kansas City. 



The great rush is over and everyone 

 seems pleased with the voUime of Ijus- 

 iness done. Now let's get down to the 

 regular routine. ORPH.\N. 



NEW YORK. 



It should lie always a pleasure to 

 write of prosperity, and yet our busi- 

 ness and the people in it are so para- 

 doxical, either from habit or experi- 

 ence, that they are always ready to 

 deny or dispute anything, especially re- 

 ports in the trade papers. There may 

 be many ways to look at the business 

 done this Easter, but those best able 

 to judge must admit that it was a rec- 

 ord breaker tor quantity of plants and 

 flowers sold. 



The weather was a friend to the 

 florist. Saturday was fair, but Sun- 

 day was a gloriously beautiful day. 

 Never in the history of New York was 

 there such an Easter parade on Fifth 

 avenue. The sight could not be dupli- 

 cated in any European city. More 

 gaudy costumes might be shown in 

 gay Paris, the military swagger of 

 Rotten Row was not there, but the 

 New York girl and her beau care not 

 for these, and need none. The Cherry 

 Hill and the Murray Hill belles walked 

 side by side, the rich and the poor — 

 yes, the girl able to buy any part of 

 royalty in Europe could here be seen 

 to smile and move aside to let her 

 own servant pass in all the splendor 

 of a new Easter gown. 



But — and here we must speak of that 

 which concerns business — never were 

 there so many flowers seen. The 

 quantity of violets worn even on Fifth 

 avenue Easter Sunday was a revela- 

 tion. It would seem as if there were 

 over a million violets in New Y'ork 

 city that day; though they were the 

 most popular flower for street wear, 

 there was an abundance of roses, car- 

 nations, valley, and other flowers 

 proudly worn by swain and damsel. 

 The violets were tinfoiled, ribboned 

 and tasseled — whew! the colors of 

 those "violet" ribbons, 'twas awful on 

 sensitive nerves — a humiliation to the 

 poor flowers, for we saw many — aye, 

 very many — of them hang their wear- 

 ied heads as if in shame. 



It may not be right to be comparing 

 one annual festival after another with 

 its predecessors of the past, for many 

 reasons, and here are some: The world 

 moves and people cannot stay be- 

 hind, floriculture is not controlled by 

 either trusts or patents — it never can 

 be. The recent national rose show 

 forcibly demonstrated the fact that 

 posies are grown in quantities in al- 

 most every village and town in the 

 United States. There is an oversup- 



I)ly— not too many flowers for the 

 number of pi ople. but too many flow- 

 ers to demand liigh prices for. Take 

 violets, for instance. They .seemed to 

 have been stored up for a consider- 

 able time; the only thing about most 

 of them was the color; others were 

 vilely repugnant, though some we saw 

 were a credit to the country; they 

 were well packed and were sweet. 

 When you stop to think of the quan- 

 tity on the market, tliough, and that 

 it is necessary to dispose of them 

 quickly at the best price you can get, 

 you will be forced to admit that a vast 

 amount of credit, I mean praise, is 

 due those who succeed in selling out 

 at a fair price. 



What are fair prices will always be 

 disputable and the question must al- 

 ways be settled by the public. Thou- 

 sands of violets were sold by the ped- 

 dlers and Greeks on the New Y^ork 

 streets on Sunday for 25 cents a bunch 

 of 50. What they paid tor them and 

 what the grower may get we know 

 not; on the other hand, first-class 

 storekeepers paid from 75 cents to $1 

 for choice stock, and they were sold 

 to the people at double or more than 

 double that price. 



As regards roses, enormous quanti- 

 ties were shipped in. Small roses were 

 not even in the "number" or "Guin- 

 ness' triple extra" class. Numberless 

 boxes of Brides and Maids had that 

 bruised and sodden look about them 

 that forbade purchase at any price, 

 but Jacqueminots, Brunners and other 

 hybrids were fine. There was no scar- 

 city in any line of soft or bulbous 

 stock, and as for lilies — well. New 

 York was staggered. They came by 

 the thousands from all sides and in 

 all shapes. Many a grower who held 

 out for big prices before Easter will 

 have to be content with half what he 

 asked. The people of New York will 

 not pay as much for buds in embryo 

 as they will for open blooms, and it's 

 pure madness to imagine you can com- 

 pel them to. 



Now, to sum up the cut flower busi- 

 ness: We have every reason to be- 

 lieve that it was good, very good, con- 

 sidering that every energy was devot- 

 ed to pushing plants. The prices may 

 not be as high as those of other years; 

 we fear they never will be again, for 

 the indications are that more plants 

 will be grown and there is more money 

 in them for the retailer, so if any fair 

 price can be got for poor or medium 

 cut flowers under these circumstances, 

 it's useless to audibly comment on 

 them. 



In the matter of flowering plants, 

 such displays were never seen before 

 anywhere. Every store was packed, 

 much of the plants were fine and the 

 growers got good prices, very high 

 prices, in fact, for anything that was 

 half way decent. The quantity sold 

 was marvelous. The tidal waves of 

 prosperity surging in this country at 

 present seemed to have pushed the 

 general public into the florists' stores, 

 and the ebb tide took away the best 

 from all, leaving but the w-reckage be- 



hind. Quite a few of the florists have 

 many plants left, and there are rea- 

 sons for it. They were either too high 

 priced, or their stores are located in 

 places from which the best trade has 

 moved, or to which it has yet to 

 come. 



The azaleas were countless and the 

 few that are left will be all right for 

 another year. Many were glutted with 

 lilies — green lilies, not white ones — 

 and you know the man w'ho will ship 

 such stock in, and is sure the gulli- 

 bility of the people is a blinding or 

 imbecilic and epidemical disease, sure- 

 ly needs something himself. If the 

 lilies sent into this city were of good 

 quality and were put up right, few, 

 very few, would be left unsold. In 

 addition to their being green, they 

 were too paltry in appearance. The 

 New Y'orker is not stingy, and hates 

 to appear so. You couldn't ask him 

 to send a pot of one lily with one flow- 

 er and three buds to a lady— such a 

 thing would be ridiculously childish; 

 but have a dozen or more flowers in 

 a pot and it's all right; if the grow- 

 ers or retailers hadn't sense enough 

 after all their experiences to do this, 

 they deserve to have them left on 

 their hands. Whatever the effect in 

 isolated quarters, the general sum- 

 ming up must be that it was a glori- 

 ous Easter in every way, and it's good 

 to be satisfled. 



Oh! we forgot— just another word. 

 The men you got your Harrisii bulbs 

 from in Bermuda sent five thousand 

 boxes of cut lilies from that island to 

 New York on Saturday, April 7. An- 

 other cargo was expected on April 

 14. We suppose they were merely 

 sent to help cover the demand for Har- 

 risiis; you know you bought so many 

 from them and they did so well. How- 

 ever, these Bermuda cut lilies were 

 offered for sale in several large dry 

 goods houses throughout the country. 

 One would like to know if they can 

 be grown there and shipped here for 

 almost nothing what's the use of 

 bothering with growing them In glass 

 palaces here? 



But let's get to the allers. There 

 were only a few of the boys there, and 

 the scores were: 



Tl-^i/ndly 127 ^„ j-^ 



"*f"^'',; 152 158 172 



M»''':''all 191 150 181- 



^°°''y 145 m le;. 



t;^"f 207 179 157 



Donlan ; 7;- 



J. I.D. 

 PHILADELPHIA. 



Easter Trade. 



The retail florists report the past 

 Easter as surpassing all others, both 

 in the quality of the stock furnished 

 them by the grower and the prices 

 realized. From the growers' stand- 

 point everything sold well. The weath- 

 er was all that could be desired A 

 great many of the retailers sold' out 

 entirely and were obliged to lav in a 

 general stock Monday morning "while 

 the supply of lilies was sufficient to 



