394 



The Weekly Florists^ Review. 



130-' 



For many j'ears. if this store man 

 wanted extra flowers, he had to send to 

 the greenhouses for them, often scat- 

 tered long distances apart, and a sorry 

 job he found it hunting for his supplies. 

 Presently the grower employed a carrier, 

 ■who hegan to make the rounds of the 

 stores W'ith baskets or wagons peddling 

 the flowers ne had to sell. Stems of the 

 flowers in early days were no object; the 

 bouquet maker made his own stems so 

 the grower or his agent could carry quite 

 a supply in a pretty small package and 

 make the round of the retail stores with 

 such flowers eis he had to sell. 



In the course of time some growers be- 

 gan to be noted for choice stock. On the 

 way to the market the retail men began 

 to meet the grower at a half-way house 

 and lighten his load. This, it seems, 

 was notably so with John Henderson's 

 stock at Flushmg. N. T., and "Jem" 

 Johnson, Mr, Henderson's carrier, be- 

 came a noted person. Other carriers fol- 

 lowed Johnson's method of lightening 

 their loads, and the Thirty-fourth street 

 market, in New Tork. became a regular 

 rendezvous and ultimately a co-oper- 

 ative concern of many growers. In Bos- 

 ton a similar condition of things led to 

 similar results. 



But I am anticipating. The increased 

 use of flowers grows apace, and growei's 

 make great efforts to meet the demand. 

 The short stemmed flowers give place to 

 the long stemmed; they require better 

 handling and are more burdensome to 

 carry around, to say nothing of the great 

 expense and inconvenience of this sys- 

 tem and its peddling nature. Some 

 shrewd men buy outright of these grow- 

 ers and sell to the retailer. Then others 

 hold unsold stock and sell on a commis- 

 sion, but this proves unsatisfactory, and 

 it is not long before the advent of the 

 wholesale florist, dealer or commission 

 man finds his opening. He opens a 

 store, solicits consignments and sells on 

 a commission basis of 15 per cent of 

 what he sells, and we come to the latest 

 factor, into which the word florist is 

 now divided, which, however, at this 

 day, has assumed many forms, as may 

 appear as we get farther along. 



Modest as this wholesale man was in 

 the first inception as an entity, he is by 

 no means so now. In the flower trade 

 the grower may be likened to the farm- 

 er; the wholesale florist to the board of 

 trade, or counting house, that sets up 

 the machinery to move the crops. The 

 middleman, if you will, and like all mid- 

 dlemen, whether they deser\'e it or not, 

 sometimes, as the old saying goes, "get 

 more kicks than ha-pence." But you 

 cannot now dispense with his services 

 if you would. The busy wholesale cen- 

 ters, like New York and Chicago par- 

 ticularly, would convince any man of 

 this fact. The wholesaler has two dis- 

 tinct classes to deal with, the local or 

 home buyer, who sees, or may see, the 

 flowers he purchases, and the out-of- 

 town buyer, who depends upon his ship- 

 per for the quality of the flowers he or- 

 ders. 



This shipping trade, brought to the 

 system it is now by shrewd business 

 men, cuts a very important figure in the 

 florist industry, and that never could 

 have been handled or worked up in the 

 way it is now without the aid of the 

 middleman. To make a lively wholesale 

 market, it needs abundant growers to 

 draw supplies from, and retail florists 

 doing business within easy distance to 

 look to it for their supplies. Second, 

 a contributory region for shipping pur- 

 poses, and the less this region is inter- 

 fered with by other large cities or cen- 

 ters (where other wholesalers will start 

 if they can), the better and faster the 

 trade will grow. In this respect Chicago, 

 as a center now- and for years to come, 

 stands "without a peer, not excepting New 

 Tork and its vast contiguous population, 

 that has Boston on its east, and Phila- 

 delphia south, almost within the distance 

 that Chicago draws its supplies from. 

 The east looks populous and is so. but 

 is a narrow strip of land on the Atlantic 

 slope compared to the country that Chi- 

 cago represents, which is actually four- 

 fifths of the people of the United States. 

 Is it any wonder of its phenomenal 

 growth in the flower industry? 



What the Wholesaler Stands For. 

 The wholesale florists, as a body, 

 l1 though numbermg all told in all the 

 i^^^hief cities of the country at the present 

 time under 100 firms, to be exact, just 

 eighty firms, from the very conditions 



of that business are more in evidence and 

 make a greater noise in the florists' 

 world, vise more strenuous means to find 

 customers and a sale for flowers grown 

 in the country, than all other florists or 

 means combined. In 1S96 there were 

 9. .528 firms in divisions as shown by the 

 Florists' Directory of that year in all 

 classes. There are at least 12.000 at the 

 present day and in large cities an army 

 of fakirs or street peddlers and the like, 

 that, in case of gluts, dispose of a large 

 proportion of the cut flowers sent to 

 the market. Many of these, however, 

 are not listed in either city or' florists' 

 directory. 



How many millions of dollars is the 

 cut flower product of this country? Who 

 knows? Do you? It might be answered 

 tliat the census report for the year 1900 

 tells us the total cut flower sales then 

 were $14,175,328.01, figuring it down to a 

 very fine point, surely. 



But ten years later, according to the 

 next census, as given us by Dr. B. T. 

 G.iUoway in the yearbook of agriculture 

 for 1S99, and at the New York convention 

 in i900, the estimate was but $12,500,- 

 000. Are these figures estimated on the 

 same basis, representing first cost of 

 the flowers, say, returned to the grower 

 only, or does one represent the profits 

 added of the wholesaler and retailer to 

 the end. Ordinarily, there is a wide dis- 

 crepancy, in the very nature of the busi- 

 ness, between what the grower gets in 

 cold cash for his flowers and what the 

 consumer pays in the final round-up. I 

 will further say. from first to last — there 

 is now an army of people engaged in 

 making profit in sefling flowers alone — 

 that they will continue to increase as 

 long as the country gi-ows. and that there 

 is money in it for those who keep abreast 

 of the times. Every country and every 

 city has its own ways of doing business, 

 differing more or less from each other. It 

 is so in the wholesale flow-er trade. There 

 is but one Covent Garden, coster and his 

 cart, but one Paris flower market, but 

 one New York and one Chicago. 



The Wholesale Florist's Birth. 



The wholesale florist is but a little 

 more than a quarter of a century old. 

 New York having the honor of starting 

 about the year 1S75. Boston and Chicago 

 followed suit three years after, in 1878 

 or 1879. Farther back than a quarter 

 of a century we have no good data to go 

 by. It was ten years before the S. A. F. 

 this now prosperous society, was organ- 

 ized. The first trade paper was estab- 

 lished at the same time, and the Ameri- 

 can Florists' Directory came three years 

 after that in ISSS. From this on we 

 have some tangible records to go by as 

 to the growth of each of the divisions 

 of the florist's calling. 



In the year 1890, or twelve years ago. 

 New York was credited with fifteen 

 wholesale florists — Boston with four, Chi- 

 cago and Philadelphia with three each, 

 Brooklyn, St. Louis, New York. New Jer- 

 sey, Cincinnati and Milwaukee one each, 

 a total of thirty-one firms. In 1S96 the 

 total had increased to half a hundred, 

 while the present showing is eighty firms 

 occupying bona fide stores, and exclud- 

 ing individual growers who have stands 

 and sell their own flowers wholesale with 

 others or who rent the stores as co- 

 opeiative bodies. In the last decade New 

 ■York has doubled its number from fifteen 

 to thirty, Chicago has risen from three 

 to sixteen, Philadelphia to nine. Boston 

 seems to have settled down to four; other 

 cities, like Denver. Detroit. Minneapolis. 

 Buffalo. Cincinnati, Pittsburg and Provi- 

 dence, all going through the early stages 

 of established wholesale, or co-operative, 

 stores. 



The ratio of city population to whole- 

 sale llow'er stores is. in New York, one 

 to 114.573; Chicago 106.161; Boston, 112.- 

 172; St. Louis. 119,746; Baltimore, ■with 

 its population of 508.957. gets along with 

 one. and that co-operative. Pitt.sburg 

 with 352.387 has one. Then comes Min- 

 neapolis, with 101.354. and Detroit, with 

 285.704. this, by the way, being co-oper- 

 ative also. The cities of Philadelphia 

 and Baltimore have the credit of con- 

 tinuing in the old order of things later 

 than any of the larger cities, in that a 

 large part of the best growers are still 

 selling direct by wagon and their own 

 carrier. But there are signs of a change 

 in Philadelphia. I understand, to a new 

 order of things, either in the form of a 

 market, or, perhaps, co-operative, or 

 both. 



Each City's Stofy. 



In what I will say on this, let it be 

 understood, I claim no originality, hence 

 expect no suits for plagiarism as was 

 the case of S. E. Gross, of my city, 

 against the doughty French author 

 of "Cyrano." I am no millionaire 

 and could not stand the riffle, so that 

 if sundry persons in different parts of 

 the country find what follows has a sort 

 of familiar sound, it is explainable in 

 my inability to clothe the Information In 

 better words than I received it. I make 

 this acknowledgement in place of giving 

 the names of my informants, so he that 

 runs may read. 



Greater New York, now Manhattan, the 

 Empire City, then, let me begin with. 

 As I before stated, the year 1875 seems to 

 be settled on as the year when the actual 

 wholesale commission man first made his 

 appearance in New York, or the country, 

 but prior to that, one Wflliam Russell, of 

 Jersey City, bought up large quantities 

 of cut flowers from several growers, also 

 receiving consignments from Connecticut, 

 and held the stock for orders in Wilson's 

 flower store, on Fourteenth street, selling 

 directly to the retailer. A year or two 

 later Jas. Hart, still in the businss, be- 

 gan selling camellias for Gabriel Marc of 

 Woodside, D. I., on a 25 per cent commis- 

 sion, afterwards being employed by the 

 largest rose growers in the vicinitj' to 

 dispose of their stock in a similar man- 

 ner, thus showing in an unmistakable 

 manner the need of the middleman, who 

 was about to appear. As the next step, 

 it seems, the late Jas. S. Allen started 

 in selling the flowers raised by his father, 

 C. A. Allen, and those of Wm. C. Wilson 

 and others, and who is considered to be 

 the first man to reduce the cut flower 

 commission business in New York city 

 to a systematic basis. 



In 1890 we find the following firms des- 

 ignated in the wholesale florist class as 

 soliciting custom; J. K". Allen. 106 W, 

 24th street; W. S. Allen. 36 E. 23rd 

 street; A. A. Copin, 11 W. 14th street; 

 Copin Bros., S4th avenue and 35th street; 

 Hammond & Hunter 51 W, 30th street; 

 Jas. Hart. Ill W. 30th street; Edw. C, 

 Horan, 36 W. 29th street; John Muller, 

 113 W. 30th street; John B. Nugent, Jr., 

 59 W. 24th street; J. J. Perkins & Co., 

 43rd street and 6th avenue; Jas. Purdy, 

 109 W. 41st street; Theo. Roehrs, 153 

 W. 31st street; Ross & Millang, 1168 

 Broadwav; W. F. Sheridan, 50 W. 30th 

 street, and Thos. Young, Jr., 20 W. 24th 

 street 



Of these names, both the Aliens and 

 Messrs. Copin, Hammond, Hart, Horan, 

 Perkins, Purdy, Sheridan and Young are 

 among the thirty firms still doing busi- 

 ness on the same lines at the present 

 day. In the early days, when old Bon 

 Silene, or "Boston birds." were known 

 from one end of the country to the other, 

 a thousand roses in the market were 

 more thought of than a hundred thousand 

 now, and New York wholesale florists 

 are supposed to turn over stock to the 

 amount of between two and three mil- 

 lion dollars, as against $400,000 in 1867. 



The center of New York city's whole- 

 sale cut flower trade to-day is between 

 Twenty-seventh and Thirty-fourth streets, 

 inclusive, between Broadway and Sixth 

 and Eighth avenues. Of the thirty firms, 

 eleven are now on Twenty-eighth street, 

 eight on Thirtieth, four each on Twenty- 

 sixth and Twenty-ninth, two now as 

 high up as Thirty-fourth and one as 

 low as Twenty-seventh street, a wide 

 distribution when compared with Chica- 

 go, with its concentrated wholesale cen- 

 ter. 



The Co-Operative Plan. 

 The wholesale florists' business of New 

 York seems mainly done on the consign- 

 ment or commission basis, and the regu- 

 lation 15 per cent commission basis, ex- 

 cept the co-operative Cut-Flower Ex- 

 change that grew out of the restaurant 

 headquarters near the Thirty-fourth 

 street ferry, where the growers' carriers 

 congregated until the year 1892, when a 

 corporation was formed and a building 

 secured in the same locality, stands be- 

 ing rented at the rate of 65 cents per 

 lineal foot to members, 75 cents to 

 others. The average sales are near $100,- 

 000, the sales over mostly by eight o'clock 

 in the morning. There are 150 members 

 of the exchange, fifty others who rent 

 stands only, with a number of commis- 

 sion men who do business here in the 

 early hours of the morning. These pay 



