Janimey it, 1902. 



The Weekly Florists^ Review* 



223 



a dozen fine American Beauties. And 

 the card attached read: "I guess you 

 .ire worth $24, old man." It must have 

 been liis own wife. Who else could have 

 such an exalted opinion? The installa- 

 tion of our new niaj-or, the Hon. Eras- 

 tus C. Knight, comptroller of this great 

 state, wifs a great event fiorally. His 

 room was a bower of pretty plants and 

 beautiful flowers. A wonderful wave of 

 reform has struck our city. I don't 

 speak of it in any light or sarcastic 

 vein. Boodlers, gangsters, grafters, heel- 

 ers of every kind, will have to hide their 

 heads. Some of the very wealthiest and 

 leading business men of our city are 

 sitting in our board of aldermen and 

 councilmen. They will probe things to 

 the bottom. They aren't there for boodle, 

 they have enough legitimately earned. 

 They are there for good municipal gov- 

 ernment, and when we have that we will 

 have paradise. 



Holly. 



We noticed that there was just about 

 Tiolly enough and none to spare. I scarce- 

 ly thiid< the use of -it was as general 

 as for the past few years and there was 

 by no means as much came to town. 

 Perhaps it's a case of slightly overdoing 

 the thing and getting tired of it. As a 

 people we crowd almost all fashions and 

 then comes revei sion. 



It was very amusing to read in the 

 ■Christmas issue of one of our best papers 

 an article on "The Holly." "Christmas 

 would not be Christmas without the 

 holly bough. It had been used for 200 

 years by the New Englanders. It was 

 more essential than tuikey to commemo- 

 rate the season. Our mothers and grand- 

 mothers of fifty years ago sat up nights 

 weaving the glossy leaves and scarlet 

 berries into wreaths," etc., and a lot 

 more such stuft'. 



Of course it was written by a dear 

 woman, and very well written, but it 

 would have been more interesting if there 

 Jiad been a single grain of truth in it. 

 Just as well say that the bootblacks of 

 Boston 100 years ago always wore an 

 18-ineh poinsettia for a buttonhole bou- 

 •quet on Cihristmas day. Except, perhaps, 

 among the descendants of the Cavaliers 

 in Virginia and the south the use of 

 holly was not dreamed of. Our northern 

 •cities knew nothing of it. Thirty years 

 ago and less tliere was not a sprig of 

 holly came to this city. I well remember 

 a beautiful woman sending me a holly 

 wreath about twenty-four years ago, 

 Tvhich she had brought from New York. 

 It carried me back with joy to the land 

 where holly and mistletoe have been 

 used for a thousand years, and perhaps 

 many more. W. S. 



GRAND RAPIDS, MICH. 



Christmas Trade. 



Monday of Clirisbnas week the weather 

 moderated, causing a sigh of relief to go 

 around, for it gave rise to the hope that 

 the coal famine might be broken and 

 that after all there was a chance tor a 

 good holiday trade, with mild weather 

 for the handling of plants. 



Trade came with a rush and was equal 

 to and better than last year. There was 

 enough stock to meet the heavy demand, 

 save in carnations, which gave out. Red, 

 both in roses and carnations, was in 

 greatest demand and sold out early, calls 

 for this color having to be supplied with 

 .anything the customer could be per- 



suaded to take as a substitute. As a 

 rule, the qualit}' of flowers was good, 

 there being less pickled and poor stock 

 on the market than has been the case in 

 some former seasons. A noticeable fact 

 was the ease, compared to former ex- 

 periences, with which customers paid .$1 

 to $1.25 per dozen for carnations. It 

 has been hard, arduous work educating 

 the people to these prices, but the price 

 is paid as readily this year as 50 cents 

 per dozen was paid out a few years 

 since. 



Prices: Poses, $2 to $3 per dozen. 

 Beauties were of medium quality and in 

 limited quantity; shorts, 25 cents, to 

 long, $1 each. Valley, paper whites, Ro- 

 mans, 50 to 75 cents; violets, 35 to 50 

 cents per dozen. Harrisii and callas, 

 $3 per dozen. 



In plants, azaleas sold out first; many 

 more could have been sold had the sup- 

 ply not been limited. The Floral Co. 

 were heavily stocked with poinsettias, 

 which sold well. Palms were in least 

 demand of any plant, while the Boston 

 fern was a favorite, more of it being 

 sold than any other variety of plant. 



Holly wreaths sold the freest of any- 

 thing. A. J. Brown monopolizes that 

 trade. Thcra was a very lighc demand 

 for green wreathing. The florists wisely 

 did not stock up very heavy in green 

 goods, as every corner grocer in town 

 liandled them, besides the seed stores. 



For about ten days previous to Christ- 

 mas a terrible blizzard was experienced 

 and it caught the florists with a low 

 supply of coal on hand. The dealers 

 could not get enough to supply even a 

 jiart of their customers, and a coal fam- 

 ine ensued that gave several florists a 

 close call and has induced tlicm to lay 

 in a quantity ahead with which to 

 weather the next blizzard. 



December George Schols met with a 

 serious affliction, the death of his oldest 

 son occurring on that day. The parents 

 are heart-broken and have the sincere 

 sympathy of the craft. G. F. C. 



CHICAGO. 



The Market. 



The supply has very materially in- 

 creased during the past week and prices 

 are much lower than at last report, es- 

 pecially on carnations, of which there is 

 evidently a remarkably large cut for the 

 season. We have had much more sun- 

 shine than usual in early January, which 

 is no doubt the cause of the large sup- 

 ply- 



On roses the price is now $8, with only 

 a few extra fancy Maids bringing as 

 much as $10. The great bulk of Brides 

 and Maids sell at $5 to $0 and the lower 

 grades go at .$2 to $3. Meteor classes 

 with the best Maids, and it is only in 

 red roses that the supply is not more 

 than ample to meet demands. Liberty 

 holds its own well, the best long stemmed 

 blooms selling at $20 to $25, with me- 

 dium lengths at $10 to $12, and shorts 

 as low as $4. On the extra long Beau- 

 ties the price ranges from $4 to $0 a 

 dozen, but the very longest do not go 

 nearly so well at the prices as do the 

 medium lengths at $1.50 to $3. Shorts 

 are sold at as low as $4 a hundred. 



In carnations the greatest relapse in 

 prices is noticeable. On good ordinaries 

 $1 to $2 is the price asked and very 

 good fancy stock can be had for $3. The 

 dealers are having numerous complaints 



about carnations arriving in a sleepy 

 condition, no matter how fresh they 

 seemed when packed. The only explana- 

 tion that is olTered is that the plants 

 may have been somewhat exhausted by 

 holiday forcing and that the sleepy ten- 

 dency of the flowers now produced is 

 the result. 



Thougli prices have dropped so materi- 

 ally the general demand is very fair, and 

 reall3' very good for the season. We al- 

 ways get a sag in prices and demand 

 just after the holidays and it seems less 

 serious this year than usual. Some of 

 the dealers look for a sharp upturn in 

 prices within a week, especially if weath- 

 er conditions change, as they are very 

 likely to. 



Various Items. 



Walter HeflTron, manager of McKellar 

 & Winterson's cut flower department, has 

 been confined to his home bj' illness since 

 last Saturday, and it has proved to be an 

 attack of pneumonia. A speedy recovery 

 is hoped for by his many friends. 



Last Monday afternoon a dozen local 

 florists made a pilgrimage to Mt. Green- 

 wood to see what W. N. Rudd had been 

 doing of late. After a trip through the 

 houses and an examination of the nu- 

 merous seedling carnations the party en- 

 joyed a spread embellished by various 

 liquid trimmings, provided by their host, 

 and had a good time generally. 



John Muno has returned from West 

 Baden, Ind., much improved in health. 



Most of the local retailers report busi- 

 ness very good for the time of year, and 

 we hear of many entertainments to come 

 at which flowers will be a feature. 



Club Meeting. 



There was a large attendance at the 

 meeting of the Florists' Club Wednesday 

 evening. The principal feature was the 

 paper on exhibitions by Mr. John 

 Thorpe, which appears elsewhere in this 

 issue, and wliich was well received. A 

 program of exhibitions and subjects for 

 discussion for the remainder of the win- 

 ter was arranged, and other detail busi- 

 ness transacted. 



Bowling. 



Last Tuesday evening the bowling games 

 were resumed. The Wholesalers won two games 

 from the Retailers and the latter won one from 

 the former, while the Miscellaneous won three 

 games from the Growers. Following are the 

 scores: 



WHOL^SAL,E5RS. 

 Jos. Foerster 143 jjg 139 



B. Winterson 205 139 118 



K. Benthey 175 553 jgj 



Jno. Sterrett 142 135 133 



F. Benthey 133 143 553 



798 739 724 

 RETAILERS. 



P. J. Hauswirth 1S6 164 163 



E. Enders 129 91 143 



J. Lambros ','. 126 128 178 



E. Hauswirth 13s 98 155 



Geo. Asmus 140 170 136 



719 651 780 

 MISCELLANEOUS. 



C- Balluff 163 189 166 



C. Pruner 124 124 154 



Jno. Degnan 147 154 173 



C. A. Hunt 127 174 143 



G. L. Grant 170 162 168 



731 803 804 

 GROWERS. 



G. Stollery 157 ]2s 157 



P- Matti 141 143 164 



J. P. Sinner 145 155 131 



Jno. Paulus 121 158 135 



F. Stollery 137 J97 154 



701 781 751 



Results to date; Won. Lost. 



Wholesalers 21 12 



Growers 20 13 



Retailers ] 14 jg 



Miscellaneous n 22 



