April 14, 1904. 



The Weekly Florists' Review. 



no5 



NEW YORK. 



The Market. 



It is hard to realize the contrast be- 

 nveen the past week and Easter week in 

 rhe New York wholesale market. Prices 

 Jiterally tumbled, until by Saturday it 

 was hard to find a word in English ex- 

 pressive enough to cover the conditions 

 that prevailed. Special Beauties ^had 

 fallen to about one-fourth of Easter 

 prices, 10 to 15 cents heins the common 

 i-ate for them. Special Maids retrograd- 

 ♦■d to 6 cents for the finest and medium 

 and inferior stock was cleaned out at 

 any price that was offered. CaUas and 

 Harrissi could seldom touch over 6 cents 

 for the best. Carnations were abundant; 

 3 cents was top. Thousands went at 1 

 and 2 cents and even the novelties were 

 as low as 4 cents. Violets were cut in 

 two, that is, the specials dropped to 50 

 cents and others 25 cents and even 15 

 cents per 100, according to quality. The 

 warm, sunny weather gives promise of a 

 flood of bloom this week and even lower 

 prices. The after Lent weddings, how- 

 ever, are on the increase, society is blos- 

 soming into activity again and there is 

 good promise of a profitable April. But 

 the era of high prices is ' ' closed for the 

 season. " 



Club Meeting. 



The monthly meeting of the Florists' 

 Club took place Monday evening and 

 was well attended. The outing commit- 

 tee reported everything progressing fa- 

 vorably towards the club's annual festi- 

 val in June and placed tickets on sale. 

 Harry Ma}' and A. E. Asmus were 

 elected to membership and A. S. Burns, 

 Jr., of Spring Valley, was nominated. 

 With a view to transportation arrange- 

 ments for the club to the St._ Louis con- 

 vention, Messrs. O 'Mara, Bunyard and 

 Guttman, were appointed a committee. 

 A good!)" attendance from New York is 

 already a certainty. Messrs. Stewart, 

 Butterfield and Weathered were ap- 

 pointed as a committee to draft suit- 

 able resolutions on the death of Mrs. 

 Devoy, of Poughkeepsie, mother of the 

 club's member. P. T. Devoy. 



Wilhelm Miller, now connected with 

 Country Life in America, was present 

 at the club meeting and gave an inter- 

 esting address in the course of which he 

 announced that Prof. Bailey had secured 

 the passage of the bill by both houses 

 at AJbany, appropriating a quarter of a 

 million dollars towards the establish- 

 ment of the new College of Agriculture 

 at Cornell. He paid a generous tribute 

 to the ability and character of Prof. 

 Bailey. Mr. O'Mara spoke of the value 

 of the government experiment stations 

 and of Country Life in America. The 

 reading of the paper on "Easter in New 

 York. ' ' followed and a vote of thanks 

 was tendered the author, the Review's 

 New Y^'ork representative. The commis- 

 sary department added its quota to the 

 enioyment of the evening. 



P. T. Devoy, of Poughkeepsie, was a 

 visitor at the meeting. He had vrith him 

 some fine flowers and a plant of his new 

 geranium. Telegraph, which is a seedling 

 of lann. and of which some 10,000 plants 

 are in stock. At the Dutchess County 

 Society in November, a certificate of 

 merit was awarded and the same honor 

 was conferred by the New York Florists' 

 Club at this session. The flower is of 

 rare size and brilliancy, and was greatly 

 admired. Other exhibits were Nephro- 



lepis Scottii, from John Scott, and the 

 new rose Mine. Norbert Levavasseur. 

 the dwarf Crimson Rambler and a fine 

 thing from Vaughau 's greenhouses. 



The club's May meeting will have an 

 exhibit of bedding plants and William 

 Elliott will read his humorous paper on 

 the "Idiosyncrasies of the Auction 

 Business." At the June meeting the 

 exhibit will include peonies and summer 

 tlowers, and will be made a ladies' night, 

 preparatory to the outing which follows 

 shortly after. There will be no meetings 

 of the club during .July and August. At 

 the September meeting there will be an 

 exhibit of perennials and asters, and 

 other outdoor flowers. Bronx park and 

 the private gardeners are requested to 

 participate. The October meeting will 

 be devoted to an exhibit of cannas and 

 dahlias, and chrysanthemums and violets 

 will entertain the members and their 

 friends in November. The final meeting 

 •f the year, December 12, will be de- 

 voted to the supply houses and exhibits 

 of novelties and designs for Christmas 

 will be encouraged. 



More About Easter. 



Easter still remains a pleasant mem- 

 ory. The returns are all in and there 

 is nothiifg to gainsay the record of the 

 best Easter on record. The sales of vio- 

 lets were phenomenal. On one wholesale 

 sheet the total showed an aggregate of 

 530,600. Of this immense quantity 83,- 

 000 were received from pne shipper, al- 

 most as many as reached the New York 

 market altogether a score of years ago. 

 Another wholesale house sold over 400,- 

 000, another 350,000, another a quarter 

 of a million, and so on down the list, 

 nearly 3,000,000 being distributed from 

 the New York wholesale market. The 

 supply, large as it was, was completely 

 exhausted. 



A violet expert among the wholesalers 

 tells me that sixteen years ago, 130,000 

 violets would cover Easter shipments; 

 that twelve years ago $1 a 100 was con- 

 sidered a very high price, while 75 cents 

 was the average. Last year the quality 

 was poor and the prices high, $1..50 per 

 100. That the atmospheric conditions 

 before Easter decide values and amount 

 of shipments and really control the vio- 

 let market. Fine weather means the sale 

 of all that reach the New York market, 

 while of good stock there never has been 

 an overproduction. Twenty years ago 

 80,000 violets sold by one wholesale hous" 

 was considered remarkable, while now 

 a single grower sometimes sends more 

 than this amount to the market. He 

 predicts for Easter 1905 a small stoc'; 

 and poor quality, owing to the lateness of 

 the festival. He thinks the success of 

 the present year was due largely to the 

 rainy and unseasonable weather, the com- 

 paratively limited supply, the excellent 

 quality of the stock and the reasonable 

 prices. If the weather had been fine thr 

 market would have been flooded. 



The favorite carnation was the Lawson. 

 IMany of the wholesale houses disposed 

 of over 10,000 of this variety. The value 

 of not crossing bridges until one reaches 

 them was again exemplified. The ma- 

 jority approached Easter with fear and 

 trembling. The winter was bad enoucrh 

 to rattle any expert and the veterans 

 had lost their nerve. The weather, up 

 to Good Friday night, was abominable. 

 But the whole face of things was 

 changed by the sunlight of Saturday and 

 Sunday noon victory perched upon every 

 banner. 



The retail stores everywhere shared 

 in the great success. The plants left over 

 in no case, even with the smallest stores, 

 were more than enough to furnish a re- 

 spectable window decoration. The pyra- 

 midal azaleas sold well, as did every nov- 

 elty. The dwarf Crimson Rambler was 

 greatly admired, a plant not over two 

 feet in height, covered with clusters of 

 red flowers and, in fact, not a Rambler 

 at all but the new rose, Mme. Norbert 

 Lmavasseur, whose parentage is Tur- 

 ner 's Crimson Rambler and Gloire des 

 Polyantha. It is a beautiful thing and 

 sure to be very popular. The flowers are 

 of a brighter red and said to be a con- 

 tinuous bloomer throughout the summer. 

 The photos of some of the leading stores, 

 in last week's issue and this, indicate 

 fairly weU the variety of plants sold 

 and the attention paid to artistic and at- 

 tractive groupings. 



Various Items. 

 The seedsmen are overwhelmed with 

 work owing to the lateness of the season 

 and the sudden coming of summer tem- 

 perature. The next few weeks will be 

 the busiest of their lives. This condi- 

 tion is universal. There is enough and 

 to spare for all and not an establishment 

 fails to share in the general prosperity. 

 The auctions are now in full blast, the 

 advent of spring filling the rooms vrith 

 eager buyers. The stock is first-class 

 and prices are now qmte satisfactory. 



The greenhouses of Julius Roehrs, at 

 Carlton Hill, were placed upon the list 

 of the generous by the recording angel 

 on the Sunday before Easter, when by 

 the admission of the public a handsome 

 sum was realized for the Passaic General 

 Hospital. It is an example of thoughtful 

 generosity worthy of emulation. 



H. A. Siebrecht addressed the mem- 

 bers of the Horticultural Society of New 

 York Wednesday evening on "Tree 

 Planting in the City Streets," a subject 

 he is most competent to handle from 

 many years' experience. 



Last week the inventor of John West- 

 cott's punch and A. B. Cartledge, o± 

 Philadelphia, visited James Dean, of 

 Freeport, L. I. As Sam Bernard says in 

 The Girl from Kays: " Suflieiency. " 



Chas. Schenck, of Traendly & Schenck, 

 was the proud recipient and exhibitor of 

 a handsome diamond ring last week, the 

 gift of Arcana Lodge, F. & A. M., of 

 which he has been the honored master 

 during the past two years. 



Ralph Perkins, who was so seriouslv 

 ill. is now on the way to complete^ recov- 

 ery. It was a narrow escape, his case 

 having been given up by all as hope- 

 William Elliott is an original adver- 

 tiser. His latest was a lamb in front 

 of his store on Dey street surrounded 

 bv boxes of his sheep fertilizer with a 

 unique announcement on the cage that 

 can better be imagined than described. 



H. H. Berger & Co. say that orders 

 for fall delivery are coming in rapidly al- 

 ready and that the outlook is very en- 

 couraging. 



Adiantum Croweanum grows in favor 

 and its popular disseminator, Wm. Kast- 

 inff. has a winner as usual. Its fronds 

 are great keepers. John I. Raynor has 

 controlled and popularized it in New 

 York. 



John Scott, of Flatbush, is also m the 

 crest of the wave with his new fern 

 Scotti. a certain and practical success. 



N. Lecakes is again in the city after 

 a visit to his old home in Greece. 



