446 



The Weekly Florists' Review. 



August 28, 1902. 



Rhode Island. 



A. r. 



To the President .ind Slembers of the S. 

 and O. H.: 



Ti-ade in general has been up to the average, 

 the prevailing feeling being that we have had 

 a prosperous year. Although business was dull 

 during the early fall after Thanksgiving it 

 kept up quite well. Chrysanthemums came in 

 during their season in fine shape but the mar- 

 ket was overstocked with them and consequently 

 the prices were not up as high as they ought to 

 have been. 



After Thanksgiving business took a start and 

 kept up well even through Lent. Christmas 

 trade was very good with a scarcity of finer 

 flowers and an over abundance of bulbous stock 

 The plant trade was an increase over last year 

 and anything with fruit or flowers sold well. 



After the holidays there was not as much of 

 a check in business as in former years and with 

 a steady supply of first-class stock business 

 held up well through Easter. 



The weather conditions before Easter were 

 very fine rnd consequently the market was sup- 

 plied with first-class stock. Lilies, in pots 

 as well as cut blooms, sold very well. Had it 

 not been for a stormy Saturday preceding Easter 

 Sunday, there would have been still more busi- 

 ness done; but thanks for so many orders being 

 taken in advance, stock was pretty well cleaned 

 up during Sunday morning. 



The spring trade started late on account of 

 cold weather, but when the warm weather did 

 come plants sold very well. On Decoration day 

 there were a great amount of bouquets, ready 

 made up, sold in the city of Providence on an 

 advance over the price of former years. This 

 was brought about by the retailers combiniug 

 and arranging a price which was fair and which 

 allowed them to make a creditable bouquet. 



Trade held up well into the summer and our 

 numerous fashionable shore resorts still take 

 care of any good stock to be had. American 

 Beauty and Liberty roses find a better market 

 than in former years and Boston fern is still 

 a great favorite. 



The florist business is on the increase in Little 

 Rhody: there is an abundntit supply for our 

 own state and still enough of first-class stock 

 left to ship into other stati^a. 



Before another year, if material is in reach. 



increase of glass at Raleigh. WilPiington and 

 other points. 



There is an increased demand for roses, ever- 

 greens and shrubbery, showing a healthy growth 

 of the desire on the part of our people for per- 

 manent improvement of their houses. There is 

 also an increased demand for palms, ferns and 

 other stock for house decoration, and a slight 

 decrease in the demand for summer bedding 

 stock. 



The demand for cut flowers shows a healthy 

 and steady increase, especially for funeral work. 

 There is ' call for a better (inality of stock. 

 This branch of the business in North Carolina 

 had a long and slow struggle for existence. 

 With a climate that gives flowers outdoors for 

 about ten months in the year, and every home 

 in city, town and village with more or less 

 pretension to a flower garden, it was hard to 

 mate people believe that flowers had any money 

 value, but some of us have been sowing seed 

 for the last thirty years and the reaping day 

 lias come at last, and others have entered into 

 the harrest and we will all rejoice together. 



The struecle for existence amongst our peo- 

 ple for the past thirty-five years has very 

 largely prevented much being done in landscape 

 gardening, but our people have met with good 

 success in theh business and are now turning 

 their attention to building fine houses and sur- 

 rouuding them with beautiful grounds. The 

 work done at Biltmore. which we will all be 

 privileged to see, has done very much to revive 

 the love for this branch of horticulture. I say 

 revive, because in the old days it was here this 

 work flourished, and we will again take our 

 prcper place in the front in gardening out ot 

 doors. 



The extremely dry spring and summer has, we 

 fear, cut short the prospect for a full crop or 

 bulbs. And just here we would say that the 

 desire to get cheap stock on the part of at 

 least some of the wholesale houses at the North 

 has dene much to demoralize this branch of the 

 business. Giving contracts to farmers having 

 no knowledge of the work has flooded the mar- 

 ket with very inferior stock .md has run prices 

 below what really carefully grown bulbs can be 

 produced for. Be careful, gentlemen, or the 

 gt)Ose may be killed. And now, lest I weary 

 you, I will close by saying; Welcome to North 

 Carolina, the only state in the Union that can 



phenomenal amount of business done; third, for 

 unprecedented demand for first-class stuflf. 



Easter pnd spring business was the best 

 iu the history of the trade. 



GEO. B. WIEGAND. 

 State Vice-President for Indiana. 



Iowa. 



To the President and Members of the S. A. F. 

 and O. H.: 



The reports from a large percentage of the 

 florists, covering nearly all sections of the 

 state, show the past season to have been a 

 prosperous one and averaging better than 1901. 

 the greatest gain being in the cut flower de- 

 partment. The increase in sales, from reports 

 now in, is about 27 per cent., with some ad- 

 vance in prices. There has also been an in- 

 creased demand for palms and ferns, and bed- 

 ding plants show some gains, while miscellan- 

 eous plants, etc., barely hold their ground. 

 Carnations in the field are generally reported in 

 excellent condition with very little loss from 

 the heavy rains of the past three months. Other 

 growing crops are also in good condition gen- 

 erally. 



The losses bv hail so far are very light, 

 but Bro. Esler will know* better about this. 

 The amount of building reported so far is about 

 luO.OuO feet of glass, but this will probably 

 be doubled, besides a considerable amount of re- 

 modeling and repairing done However, the 

 high price of glass and iron wHI prevent some 

 from enlarging their plants for the present. 

 W. A. HARKETT, 

 State Vice-President for Iowa. 



Kentucky. 



To the President and Members of the S. A. I\ 

 and O. H.: 

 I herewith submit to you a brief report of 

 the condition of floriculture in Kentucky. To 

 arrive at a reliable knowledge of the trade con- 

 ditions in our state I mailed a circular letter 

 to every florist establishment in Kentucky 

 \\hose address I could obtain, asking for all 

 Information they could give regarding trade. 

 Fioiu the answers received, and from personal 

 observation, it is again my pleasure to report 

 satisfactory conditions in the florists' business 

 generally. Nearly all the retail florists report 



Juneau Park in Milwaukee, the Convention City Next Year. 



we expect to have some additions as vvir 11 as 

 uew places to report. 



LOUIS REUTER. 

 State Vice-President for Rhode Island. 



North Carolina. 



To the President and Members of the S. A. F. 

 and O. H.: 



Only cne new point has come to our notice, 

 the Abies Arizonica argentia (silver cork fir), 

 introduced by Pinehurst Nurseries. 



The largest increase of glass structures is 

 at Pomona. J. Van Lindley & Co. have added 

 two new houses; one for general stock, 16x84, 

 and one for carnations, 16x210. There is also 



fill every blank sent out by the Department of 

 Agriculture. 



.TAMES M. LAMB. 

 Vice-President for North Carolina. 



Indiana, 



To the President and Members of the S. A. F. 

 and o. H.: 



Amount of glass erected this season is 89,000 

 square feet. 



Horticultural events: Meeting of American 

 Carnation Society, Feb. 17 to 20 last. 



Progress: This season has proved most re- 

 markable in several respects. First, for gen- 

 eral excellence of stock grown; second, for 



satisfactory business, with good returns from 

 both cut flowers and plants. The growers 

 seemod pleased with the returns from cut flow- 

 trs. but think better prices should be obtained 

 for plants, especially blooming stock. As far as 

 T can learn, all the Kentucky members of the 

 S. A. F. have renewed their membership for 

 this year, including oue life membership. There 

 has been a limited Increase in the interest in 

 the state society, but not nearly as much as 

 should be. This fall there w-ill be held in 

 Louisville a chrysanthemum and floral exhibi- 

 tion under the auc-pices of the Louisville Busi- 

 ness Women's League, but under the manage- 

 ment of one of the local florists. While new* 

 glass is going up only in limited quantity, many 



