226 



The Weekly Florists' Review, 



Decembek 24. 1003. 



Susan being run over and killed by a 

 train. 



Desebrock & Co., the originators of the 

 Russian jardinieres, baskets and novel- 

 ties, have entirely sold out their manu- 

 factured stock for the Christinas trade. 

 Their work is a detailed novelty and has 

 been in great demand. Mr. Desebrock 

 \\-ill shorth' visit the large cities with 

 samples of his handiwork. He has been 

 a resident of New York for four years. 

 His father, Gustav, of Hamburg, is the 

 owner of two fine florist stores there 

 and the oldest florist in that city. 



Henry Hentz, Jr., of Madison, the 

 grower of special Beauties, has wisely 

 entered the ranks of tbe Benedicts and 

 added an " American Beauty ' ' to his 

 collection last week, on aceou'nt^of which 

 his brother florists extend coiS^ratula- 

 tions. * 



C. W. Eberman, manager of the conj-. 

 servatories of Siegel Cooper Co.,. has 

 built up a great business there .during 

 the past year and in a way that has an- 

 tagonized none of the florists .of New 

 York. Prices are maintained "at "regu- 

 lar rates' and only the best of stock is 

 haiidled. Mr. Eberman managed th^'.' 

 business i for , Dressel & Smutz for six' 

 years, when they had charge of these 

 cciisorvatories. 



Eowehl & Granz, of Hicksville, L. 1., 

 I'.ave just sold their entire stock of 100,-. 

 000 dahlia roots to Clueas & Boddington, 

 who will in the future handle their entire 

 output of dahlias and gladioli. Mr. 

 Schepke, formerly with Bobbink & At- 

 kins, is now one of the traveling sales- 

 men for tliis house. 



Geo. Lorenz, of Astoria, is very ill 

 with t.-s-phoid pneumonia. 



John Young handled some grand im- 

 ported holly trees for Christmas. Many 

 of the wholesalers indulged in a "plant 

 flyer" this season and disposed of large 

 quantities of ferns, also, as well as 

 blooming stock and holly. Kurzmau- 

 Dacre Co., Young & Nugent, Thos. 

 Young, Jr., Bradshaw & Hartman, Rie- 

 del & Spicer, Alex Guttmau, James Ham- 

 mond and Chas. Millang were all active 

 in this respect and made fine displays 

 in their windows. Mr. Millang predicts 

 that plantsmen will ultimately consign 

 their stock to the wholesale men for 

 sale!, in the same way the cut flower 

 growers have adopted. His new con- 

 servatory just completed covers the en- 

 tire yard back of his wholesale store and 

 he has handled an immense lot of plants 

 for Christmas. 



There were shoals of violet growers 

 from up the Hudson in town on Monday. 

 They came to feel the market and get a 

 line on its capacity. Some predict an 

 avalanche of violets for Christmas. Prices 

 for specials in 100 lots and selected will 

 rarely touch $2.50 unless all signs fail. 

 Last year cut flowers of all kinds were 

 liigher on the corresponding days before 

 Christmas. The past week was just 

 about as predicted — exceedingly dull and 

 depressed, the improvement being hardly 

 noticeable on Monday. 



Langjahr has received some fine cyp- 

 ripediums from Zeller, of Flatbush. that 

 readily sold at 15 cents, which is top 

 price for many a day. He thinks the 

 new led carnation he is haodling ought 

 to go above $25 per Iiundred before the 

 week is over. 



The Long Island florists are suffering 

 from thieving visitations, Louis Dupuy, 

 of Whitcstone, being the latest sufferer. 

 It would seem wise for the Long Is- | 



landers to add to their assets a good dog, 

 a bear trap and a seven-shooter as pre- 

 liminary precautions before Christmas. 

 J. Austin Shaw. 



A VISIT TO UTICA. 



The writer was invited to go down 

 to Utica and talk a little on carnations. 

 Ilow presumptuous to accept! Yet he 

 did and if he told them nothing new 

 he created a laugh and that 's a mutual 

 pleasure. Utica has about 00,000 people, 

 mostly florists; at least when you ar)^ 

 riding around the city you would think 

 so. It has more florists' establishments 

 to the square mile than any section of 

 the country I know of, twice as many as 

 our city, w'ith a population at least six 

 times as large. It is not Utica or its 

 many surrounding small towns that use 

 the product of these many establish- 

 ments. Its roses, carnations and adian- 

 tum go to our big cities east and west. 

 To see all or a third of these places 

 was impossible and as it was 2 degrees 

 below zero and eighteen inches of snow 

 during my stay it was not so delightful 

 ■M^P S*^' around. 



.Utica will soon be known as a carna- 

 tion center. There is Dr. W. A. Row- 

 lands, with four up-to-date houses with 

 nothing but carnations and among t'-om 

 one grand houss of Lawson, fine Pros- 

 perity, a most well grown lot of Joost, 

 and many of the newer sorts in smaller 

 quantities. The Doctor has fairly got 

 the fever and will continue to grow and 

 expand. 



W. P. Pfiefer has doubled his area 

 of glass since I last saw him and the 

 leading article is the divine flower, most- 

 ly well done. Wm. Mathews, besides his 

 pets, the orchids, has five or six houses 

 of carnations and here as elsewhere you 

 see the incomparable Lawson superior 

 to everything. At Frank Baker's all 

 was hustle and bustle and I was glad to 

 see the energetic young alderman doing 

 such a fine business and having such a 

 fine stock to do it with. He also has 

 converted one of his places almost en- 

 tirely into carnations. 



Mr. Spencer, of Oneida street, has a 

 house or two of carnations looking well, 

 but what interested me mostly was a 

 scarlet seedling of great promise now 

 in its third year. It is of identical pa- 

 rentage with Flamingo and, I believe, 

 with the expert handling of a Daille- 

 douze, or Ward, or Hartsliorne, suscepti- 

 ble of producing a prize-winning variety. 

 If all the city places have enlarged and 

 improved their carnation culture as the 

 few I saw, then the "pent up" city will 

 soon be a center. 



Y'ou all know Peter Crowe and his now 

 famous Adiantum Croweanum. Happy, 

 rotund man, he has no care now but a 

 dozen houses of this splendid fern, num- 

 bering, big: and little, hundreds of thou- 

 ands, and if the cut was ten times what 

 it is, he could dispose of it. The variety 

 or form of the fern is one thing, but how 

 to grow it is another. If I could grow it 

 with such freedom and luxuriance I 

 would Crowe, too. The fifteen large 

 modern rose houses are lease<l to. Brant 

 Bros., of New Jersey, and some great 

 stuff is being produced. Bridesmaids 

 w-ith three and four-foot stems and 

 flowers the size of a small Early York 

 cabbage are plentiful. 



And now I come to a delightful trip. 

 C. A. Nicholson, one of Utica 's most 

 active business men, has a lovely home 



in the village of Trenton, some thirteen 

 miles northwest of Utiea. Here the sur 

 face of the earth begins to roll in pleas- 

 ant hill and vale. And I suppose as 

 you go north the more and more abrupt 

 and higher the elevations become till you 

 find yourself in the Adirondack moun- 

 tains or the north woods of New York, 

 where multi-millionaires have already 

 gobbled up vast areas. No law against 

 that and if they will preserve the forest 

 and native game we should be thankful, 

 for vandalism in the shape of the lum- 

 berman has laid desolate many a faii 

 spot. How many beautiful spots are 

 there in this region? Thousands, and 

 only waiting for the crowded dweller of 

 the city to take advantage of their nat- 

 ural beauty and make them an earthly 

 paradise. When our state is as crowded 

 as China, or Belgium, or England, we 

 shall appreciate better the picturesque 

 state we have. 



Well, now, this Mr. Nicholson is a 

 mighty fine gentleman and like all real, 

 refined gentlemen from Adam down, or 

 up, to McKinley, he loves a flower anrt 

 so does one of his good sons and sure 

 his daughters, too, and so he built in 

 this beautiful rural retreat three houses 

 each 20x200 and installed tnem with 

 steam heat and every modern appliance 

 and utility. Turn a button ind every 

 house is illuminated with electricit.y. A 

 ram from a living spring sends water 

 to a reservoir on top of a neighboring 

 hill 200 feet above the greenhouses, sa 

 there is 100 pounds pressure. Every 

 modern appliance is used and the vitmosc 

 order and cleanliness prevail and a sight 

 of the houses and their contents and 

 their genial proprietor is worth a long 

 journey, frozen noses and damp toesies. 

 " 'Tis the sunset of life gives me 

 mystical lore, and coming events cast 

 their shadows before." Y'ct it takes but 

 a small portion of prophetic lore to see 

 in the very near future a great carnation 

 growing establishment at Trenton and 

 the firm will be as it is now : ' ' Wa-no- 

 Ka Greenhouses, H. H. Nicholson & Co., 

 Aug. Grassel, Manager." 



Gus, as he is familiarly known to many 

 carnationists, has only been at Wa-no- 

 Ka since last April. For years he was 

 with Mr. Marquisee, of Syracuse, and 

 watched with parental care the birth, 

 early childhood traits and mature devel- 

 opment of The Marquis, Flamingo and 

 Albatross. 



From end to end the place is a pic- 

 ture of care and good culture. Many 

 varieties are grown, but some in only 

 small quantites. A house of Lawson for 

 evenness, quantity and quality is the best 

 at this time of year I ever gazed on. 

 Among whites The Queen outclassed 

 them all, and that included the very 

 latest aspirants. Cressbrook, after be- 

 ing thrown out by most of us, is here a 

 magnificent thing, with stems like Law- 

 son. Harry Fenn is a great crimson 

 and the wonderful Enchantress is grown 

 to perfection. Gus swears by Flamingo, 

 and who knows it better than he? And 

 Albatross he says is great. He knows 

 because it has the blood of Wm. Scott. 

 If you go to Utica go out to Wa-no-Ka 

 and then go to Syracuse and see Fla- 

 mingo in all its glory, as I did, and of 

 which, Mr. Editor, I would like to say 

 something about a week later. W. S. 



Fairburt, III. — Kring Bros, have an 

 orange tree five feet high in their green- 

 house bearing a crop of very large fruits. 



