242 



The Weekly Florists^ Review, 



UECEMBf:K 30. 1897. 



worried but said nothing, and after all 

 Init few instances are known where plants 

 have sutTered from that source, showing 

 that our florists know exactly how to 

 protect their goods in zero weather; but 

 of course they had to work for it. 

 Delivery was slower for this reason, the 

 packages more bulky and people who ex- 

 pected their goods to be delivered before 

 i'> p. m. were lucky to get them by mid- 

 night or even later, but every liody seemed 

 to have sense enough to excuse the delay 

 under such extraordinary circum.stances 

 when it was explained to them in a few 

 words. 



Holly was decidedly scarce in the 

 beginning of the week; the bulk of the 

 shi]>raents for this city had been delayed 

 on the road for some reason. Owing to 

 this unfortunate state of affairs there was 

 no time to work up all of it when it 

 finally did arrive, consequently quite a 

 lot of good holly is left over, most of it in 

 the hands of the commission man. Had 

 it arrived on time none of it would have 

 gone to waste. 



Funeral Work. 



The beginning of this week some large 

 orders for funeral work helped to do awav 

 with the surplus of white carnations and 

 white roses left over from Christmas, and 

 as there are .several large receptions yet 

 ahead prospects for the remainder of the 

 week are quite encouraging to our 

 florists. K. 



TORONTO^ 



The Christmas Trade. 



The mean temperature here for the 24th 

 of December was 5°, the lowest being 5° 

 below zero, so it can be easily understood 

 that the plant busine.ss was not so good 

 as it might have been on that day. The 

 cut flower trade, however, was every- 

 thing that could -be desired, except for 

 the shortness of some lines of stock; had 

 it not been for that serious drawback the 

 \ohnne of trade done would have been sim- 

 ply enormous. As it was the retail trade in 

 the city probably beat the record, but the 

 big rose growers were forced to refuse or 

 cut down a great number of the outside 

 orders, the greatest being on Bridesmaid. 

 There was a good supply of Meteor, but 

 they were soon all cleaned otT. 



To-day (Monday) I hear that the plant 

 trade was fair, but in spite of everv care 

 being taken, complaints are coming in of 

 frozen stock. There were some azaleas of- 

 fered, more than usual at this .season per- 

 haps, but they were nuistly all ordered be- 

 forehand. The quality of most of the stock 

 was high class, and the prices were also 

 of a high class pretty well all round. I 

 heard that the down-town stores were 

 asking Jtio a dozen for Beauties, an un- 

 precedented price for this city. It looks 

 as if we were going to have some sunny 

 weather now, .so that supplies may be a 

 little more plentiful for Xew Vear'.s. 



Meeting of Gardeners' and Florists' Associa- 

 tion, 



At the annual meeting of the Garden- 

 ers' and Florists' Association for the 

 election of officers for the ensuing year 



last Tuesday the attendance was not 

 quite so large as usual on such occasions. 

 Everything passed off very pleasantly, 

 there being very little opposition in any 

 of the offices. 1 he following is the list 

 for 189S: President, Alonzo Watkins; 

 first vice president, Charles Tidy; second 

 vice president, Harry Dale; secretary, 

 E. H. Carter; assistant .secretary, E. G 

 Collins; treasurer, A. H. Ewing; e.xecu- 

 tive committee. Messrs. T. Manton, 

 Chambers, Mustou, Jay, Mills, Vair and 

 Graham. 



The treasurer paid seventy-five per 

 cent of the prizes taken at the late chrys- 

 anthenmm show and reported a small 

 balance still left in the treasury. The 

 secretary reported eighty-eight members 

 in good standing, a .slight falling off from 

 last year. The annual banquet was 

 brought up and a committee appointed 

 for considering the necessary arrange- 

 ments. The outgoing and incoming 

 presidents made suitable speeches and 

 various votes of thanks were unanimously 

 carrie<l. 



A Question. 



Why does not some flori.st take to 

 growing poinsettias? I am confident 

 they would be paying stock to offer at 

 this season, especially now times are get- 

 ting good and lietter prices can be ob- 

 tained. I have been asked several times 

 this t hri-stmas where thev could be ob- 

 tained and have been compelled to saj' 

 that nobody grew them. Thev are not 

 diflficult to grow. With a little more atten- 

 tion and a little more heal than isusuallv 

 given to common stock, nice plants can 

 be grown that would, I am sure, go off like 

 hot cakes. 



A happy and prosperous new year to 

 the Florists' Rf:vif.\v and all its readers 

 and manv of them. E. 



WASHINGTON. 



Trade for the Holiday Satisfactory. 



My predictions as to trade in my last 

 letter were more than realized as cyclonic 

 in character. Without doubt this has 

 been the best Chri.stmas for trade in 

 years, exceptiouably good prices pre- 

 vailing. The people seemed plant crazy 

 and plants in bloom went first and fast, 

 next ferns in pans were the favorite 

 though palms, rubbers and araucarias 

 were in demand. 



The marketmen were heavy losers of 

 plants owing to a sudden fall in tenqiera- 

 ture. A moderate blizzard slipped in 

 Chri.stmas eve unannounced and raised 

 the mischief with the plants sent there 

 for the Christmas trade. 



Prices. 



If the northern men realized the prices 

 quoted on their price lists sent here I 

 should think they might comfortably re- 

 tire, their wholesale prices exceeding by 

 far the retail prices here. The average 

 retail prices w'ere, Beauties |i2 to |lK and 

 all otlier roses from I3 to J9 per doz. 

 Carnations $4 to J,s per hundred. Violets 

 j;2 to $2.50. 



For ten days preceding Christmas the 

 weather was heavv, dark and moist and 



the outlook for stuff was gloom\', so that 

 when Christmas came there was not an 

 abundance by an\' means. To send 

 north with such quotations as they sent, 

 was out of the question. The great de- 

 mand for plants relieved the shortage on 

 cut flowers. 



Again the Swindler. 



One of our local florists was the victim 

 of a clever swindle a week ago by a man 

 who introduced himself as a salesman for 

 a firm in Memphis, Tenn. He had busi- 

 ness cards of the firm with his name 

 printed in the lower left hand corner as 

 representing that firm. He chose Satur- 

 day afternoon to order a funeral piece of 

 gates ajar, the price agreed upon being 

 f 1 2.50, which he ordered to be sent to a 

 certain address, the name the same as 

 his. He wanted the piece sent Sunday 

 afternoon and presented a check for 

 J27.50 on the State National Bank of 

 Memphis, Tenn., payable to himself, C. 

 D. Hart, which he claimed was his week's 

 wages and being Saturday afternoon 

 could not cash it. The local firm investi- 

 gated the address given which was 

 straight, also the name of person living 

 there, and accepted the check paying the 

 balance to him. The card accompanj-ing 

 the floral piece read: "From Uncle 

 Charlie." The check came back N. G., 

 and Mr. Hart, to whose house the design 

 was sent, came down for an explanation. 

 This fellow is evidently a clever swindler 

 and perhaps is in conjunction with the -, 

 one mentioned in Buffalo letter. Look 

 out for him. W. H. K. 



The FLORISTS' Review 



ti. L. GllANT, Editor AND Man.^okk. 



PUBLlSnKD EVERT THVHSnAV BY 



THE FLORISTS' PUBLISHING CO. 



.'iUU-.nlJo CaXTUN BLDG., ClUCAGO. 



334 Dearborn St. 



Eastern Manager: 



Uarp.v a. CiNYAHD. Sti Plerce Buildlnj;. Xew York. 



1().T Hudson St. 



SuljseriptloD. $1.00 a year. To Europe. $2.0<t. Sut)- 

 ei iptions accepted from tliose in the trade only. 



.\dvertlsiag rates; Per Inch. 81.00; >^ page. $1.3. mt; 

 full page. J-io.uo. Discounts; 6 times, 5 per cent: 13 

 times, 10 per cent; 26 times, 20 per cent; 52 times, 30 

 per cent. Discounts allowed only on consecutive iu- 

 sertiuus. Only strictly trade fldvertlsiug accepted. 

 .\dvertls emenls nmstfeacli us by Tuesday to assure 

 Insertlfjn in the issue of the following Thursday. 



Copyright 1897. 



We are sorry to have to say that Mr. 

 Williani Scott, of Buffalo, N. Y., has been 

 confined to his bed since Saturdav' by a 

 .severe cold contracted during the rush of 

 Christmas trade, and that he was there- 

 fore unable to supply Buffalo notes or 

 Miscellaneous Sea.sonable Hints for this 

 week's issue. A ho.st of friends will join 

 us in wishing him a speed}- recover}' of 

 his usual good health. 



Send us items of news about new 

 greenhouses, new florists, business 

 changes or anything you think may be 

 of interest to others in the trade. We 

 want all the news of all the trade. 



