APRIL 10, 1902. 



The Weekly Florists^ Review. 



699 



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THE RETAIL 



FLORIST 



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The Past Easter. 



Easter was good and Easter was bad — 

 far worse than many, tlirough business 

 pride, wish to acknowledge. The weather 

 of -course was somewhat to blame, but 

 there were other graver reasons. It 

 would appear from a careful study of the 

 Easter trade in New York City that while 

 a tremendous amount of stock was dis- 

 posed of there was not quite that annual 

 increase in trade that florists reasonably 

 anticipate. The best flower buyers 

 seemed to have preferred to purchase jew- 

 elry or favors tliat will last forever and 

 a da.y than to selecting flower or plant to 

 last but the hour, and in the most cases 

 the difference in cost was or is very small. 

 A great many good people of standing, 

 and generous people, too, mind j'ou, have 

 learned to look upon the florist as an 

 unreasonable extortionist; and in calm rea- 

 son can you blame them .' Of course 

 these grand palace stores, with all their 

 glitter and trappings, demand larger in- 

 comes tluin tlie ones we used to know, but 

 while the average flower buyer once in 

 a while likes to send his best girl some- 

 thing from the crystal palace, he prefers 

 the plain store for the great bulk of his 

 trade. 



The American people are not inclined 

 to pay the bills for the florist's variety. 

 We have a most remarkable illustration 

 of this here in New York. In a narrow 

 street with most undesirable surroundings 

 there is a small, plain basement store, to 

 which the very best jieople (I mean 

 wealthy flower buyers) go regularly for 

 their flowers. AH the New York florists 

 know that this store does more business 

 than most of the great big ones and they 

 shut their eyes to the reason. The flower 

 business is a most hazardous one; the 

 goods we handle are fleetingly perishable, 

 and while light and cleanliness are abso- 

 lutely necessary, the over-elaborate pom- 

 ponsness is not, and mark j-ou, the time 

 is soon coming when tliis will be made 

 far more apparoit. 



The present holiday prices of plants 

 nnd flowers are too high. There was a 

 time when Bon Silene roses could not be 

 grown for less than 20 cents each, whole- 

 sale; they got down to 20 cents per 100. 

 It was alike with other flowers until now 

 a reaction seems to consume every desire 

 that the people must buy whatever is of- 

 fered and must pay whatever price is 

 asked; th.at is a foolish dream, because 

 flowers are not an actual necessity and 

 that which is not can never be put in 

 an exclusive cycle. The cost of produc- 

 tion is yearly being minimized. 



This year we hear the annual Easter 

 Monday resolve made by the large plant 

 growers that they will neither import nor 

 grow another Easter plant, which is al- 

 most amusing. We would very much like 

 to see them keep this resolve, for at 

 least one year, and not touch any im- 

 port of plant or bulb; it would certainly 

 redound to the benefit of every one in 

 this country and the American people 

 would appreciate it, and furthermore, 



there is enough here to satisfy all de- 

 mands. It is charged that foreign grow- 

 ers ask too much for their stock, particu- 

 larly in the case of Azalea indica and 

 other leaders upon wdiieh foreigners de- 

 pend for a living on the American mar- 

 ket. Well, why not combine to fix a 

 fair, reasonable price or leave them 

 alone? In the case of lilies we know that 

 many a poor American florist has been 

 almost reduced to beggary, not this year 

 but several years, by the almost total 

 failure of his lilies. The remedy lies 

 only in the grower's own hand. Too 

 often he is overanxious to fill up a house 

 or an empty bench with anything in a 

 pot. 



I'retty, inexpensive conceits in plant 

 baskets )iaid best in all the cities. As we 

 have stated before, people shop a good 

 deal and can compare prices on plant or 

 flowers, but you can keep them guessing 

 on the value of your own work. There 

 were lots of absurd stories about novelties 

 and exclusive designs here, but there was 

 nothing new except the twist of a bow- 

 er two and the appearance of one or 



cialize. It is to be hope.d that lessons 

 taught this Easter will be remembered. 



Spring Decorations. 



Weddings, etc., used up a considerable 

 lot of stock left over from Easter and 

 there will be a continuous and steady 

 demand for respectable looKing flowering 

 plants from now on. Spring blossoms 

 will be everywhere in a few weeks and 

 you cannot do better than show and use 

 ,your forced ones. We recently fixed a 

 luncheon table for a party of sixteen 

 3'oung ladies given in honor of one who 

 is soon to be married. We arranged a 

 large Venetian bowl of poach, almond, 

 cherry and apple blossoms for the cen- 

 ter-piece, . having the branches gracefully 

 hanging toward the guests. Delicate 

 sprays of the Bridal wreath (Spiraea pru- 

 nifolia) were tied with Cupicl bows of 

 narrow pink velvet ribbon. These 

 formed an irregular and transparent 

 wreath 18 inches from the edge of the 

 table. Cherokee roses were used for the 

 finger bowls. No heavy greens were used. 

 The vase was shown here and there, and 

 niiture supplied most of the beauty. On 

 another occ;ision we used several hundred 

 .ionquils in a green vase and made a 

 round garland wreath of yellow pansies 

 on a very light fringe of light-colored 

 Farleyense fern. Yellow freesia for 

 finger bowls. Everyone giving large en- 

 tertainments just now seeks spring-like 

 effects in decorations, and the mar- 

 ket is flooded with good material, or at 

 least stock that by intelligent handling 

 can be made to' produce excellent effects. 



Decorations for the Breakfast to Prince Henry in St. Louis, arrange! by Ellison & Tesson 



two plants. We were vastly amused to 

 read about 8o and 8o having old English 

 potato baskets and others having butcher 

 baskets and ot hers nests, all of which, and 

 more, my friends, were in use at 90.5 

 Broadway nigh twenty years ago. We did 

 see some very pretty plants of Erica 

 ventricosa, E. translucens and E. Caven- 

 dishii. E. melanthera, and tlie perso- 

 lutas were not quite up to former seasons, 

 and we missed R. cupressiana. Epaeris 

 were few. Eoses were poor, except a few 

 Crimson Ramblers, and the rest you know 

 about. Azaleas sold well when offered at 

 a reasonable price. One thing, the small 

 semi-retail grower or the store needs have 

 a variety, but the large grower can spe- 



When taking orders for decorative 

 work where you intend to use your own 

 ideas, though as a matter of course yoii 

 must create the opinion that you intend 

 using only the finest, it is not always 

 necessary for you to buy the most ex- 

 pensive. Brains can vei-y often make in- 

 terior stock look the superior of what is 

 now styled "specials" and forty extras. 

 Mine, de Watteville, Cusin, Mrs. Oliver 

 Ames, Sarah Nesbit or liighly colored 

 (ioldeh Gate roses go remarkably well 

 with any kind of fruit blossoms such as 

 we've mentioned above. Spiraeas, deut- 

 zias, mock orange, lilac or any such are 

 specially useful for weddings, but it's 

 useless to put such flowers too high or 



