236 



The Weekly Florists^ Review. 



Dl-.CKMBEU 3(1. l.S'JT. 



CHICAGO. 



Amon§ the Retailers. 



All the ret ilcrs rt'iiort a very satisfac- 

 tory Christmas traile, many noting a con- 

 siderable increase over last year. With 

 quite a number there was a much larger 

 call for blooming plants in preference to 

 cut flowers, customers feeling that they 

 were getting better value in a few plants 

 that would remain attractive for several 

 weeks, while the cut flowers would last 

 only a few days. And plants attractively 

 dressed with crepe paper and ribbon 

 seemed to quickly catch and hold the 

 attention of transient buyers. At the 

 same time the sales of cut flowers were 

 very large. The .sales of greens were 

 good but woidd have been much larger 

 hail the weather been less severe, enabling 

 the retailers to display these goods in 

 front of their stores and keep a salesman 

 there. The supply of flowers was for- 

 tunately much larger than had been an- 

 ticipated in view of the stretch of dark 

 days that preceded Christmas, and the 

 (juality was better than the dealers had 

 (tared to hope for. The few ilays of sun- 

 shine just before Christmas, and which 

 all feared would be too late to be of value, 

 nuist have done some good after all. 

 Many growers cut more flowers at the 

 right time for Christmas sales than they 

 had cut any week for a month. Of course 

 there was some pickled stock, but there 

 seemed to have been less pickling this 

 year than for some seasons past It 

 was remarkable that the Beauties and 

 Meteors held their color so well after hav- 

 ing experienced so many weeks of I'ark, 

 gloomy weather. In view of the indica- 

 tions the early part of the week of a 

 short supply the large Christmas trade 

 was peculiarly gratifying. 



Mr. E. Wienhoeber did a big business 

 in both plants and cut flowers. A full 

 description of his Christmas trade will 

 be found under the heading: "Christ- 

 mas eve with a retail florist." 



Chas. A. Samuelson noted a marked 

 increase in the call for blooming plants, 

 the largest demand being for azaleas, 

 cyclamens, tulips in boxes, etc. He sold 

 large numbers of inside window boxes 

 planted with blooming cyclamens and 

 tulips. Some planted with Begonia in- 

 carnata did not sell so well. Did not 

 seen to be bright enough in color to 

 catch the popular fancy. The pans for 

 these window boxes are filled at the 

 greenhouses, and when placed in an 

 olive green wicker work cover, and tied 

 with ribbon of the same shade, make 

 very attractive Christmas gifts. Azaleas, 

 al.so, sold well, none in good bloom being 

 left over. These had their pots dressed 

 with crepe paper and tied with ribbon of 

 suitable shade. Cut flowers and greens 

 sold as well as usual. It was noted 

 though that customers seemed later than 

 usual in placing their orders. The day 

 before Christmas trade was lighter than 

 for the same day last 3'ear, but on Christ- 

 mas morning the trade came with a rush. 

 In cut flowers Mr. Simuelson found the 

 violet hampers described in the notes re- 

 garding Mr. Wieuhoeber's busine.ss 

 splendid sellers. He sold about seventy- 

 five of these for Christmas. A few ar- 



ranged and placed in the window at- 

 tracted the attention of passersby and 

 made many sales to transients. 



W. J. Smyth found Christmas trade con- 

 siderably better than last year, and 

 believes that if the weather had been 

 more moderate the total sales would have 

 been still larger. He noted a decided in- 

 crease in the call for all plants. Bloom- 

 ing plants, dressed with crepe paper and 

 ribbon, sold especially well. .Many of his 

 customers selected plants in advance of 

 Christmas and had them held until time 

 for delivery. Of course, there were the 

 usual latge sales of cut flowers. Mr. 

 Smvth don't like the "wall paper" 

 covered boxes, but he has to have them. 

 Manv people like these rather glaringly 

 decorated boxes and their taste must be 

 pleased even if not in harmony with that 

 of the florist. He also noted a good call 

 for the \iobt hampers and could have 

 sold many more had he had timetoarrange 

 them ami place them where they could be 

 sten But he has h.id all he could do as it 

 was and is much gratified with the Christ- 

 mis trade of 1^97. 



The Art Moral Co. report a very .satis- 

 factory Christmas trade in all lines. Thev 

 grow many blooming ])lants for their 

 store trade, and all .sold well. Their 

 crops of cut flowers were large and good 

 and all found ready sale at satisfactory 

 prices. 



The .Artistic Floral Co. opened a store 

 last week at ,^903 Cottage Grove avenue 

 and report a good Christmas business. 



George Wittbold did a big Christmas 

 trade at both the North Clark street .store 

 anil the greenhouses. He noted a largely 

 increased demand for plants of all kinds 

 and the usual call for cut flowers. In one 

 of the windows of the store have recently 

 appeared some novel window attractions. 

 The latest is life-size and very lifedike 

 figures of a voung man and a young 

 ladv, the latter holding a guitar. There 

 was a naturalness about the poses not 

 seen in ordinary figures, and it was 

 amazing to find on close inspection that 

 the figures were made of such material 

 as corn husks, leaves, dried grasses, seeds, 

 etc. The faces were all of corn husks, 

 and were remarkably life-like. They 

 are made by someone in Wisconsin. 

 Mr. Wittbold has quite a number of the 

 figures stored in a rear room. One of an 

 old darkey playing a banjo is exceedingly 

 natural and will surely attract crowds of 

 spectators when it is placed in the win- 

 dow. 



Mr. Wittbold has a new pteris, a chance 

 seedling discovered two years ago, that 

 promises to be very useful. He has 

 named it I'teris tremula crispum. The 

 fronds are short, rounded and full, and 

 the plant is quite dwarf in habit. He 

 reports heavy sales of palms at wholesale 

 prior to the holidays and will have to sort 

 up his stock before again pushing sales, 

 though able to care for the usual run of 

 orders. 



1*. J. Hauswirth is much pleased with 

 his Christmas trade. He had a large 

 quantity of pot plants of the white Scotch 

 heather (Erica pcrsoluta alba) shipped 

 him from the east, and they sold like the 

 proverbial "hot cakes" at good prices. 

 He also noted a brisk demand for potted 

 azaleas and could have sold manv more 



had they been procurable. The supply 

 of flowers was better than anticipated 

 and all sold at good pi ices. 



' H. F. Halle reports his Christmas 

 trade as fully one-third larger thaii_ last 

 year, and he noted a marked increase in 

 the call for plants. He is much pleased 

 over the outlook. Sales of greens were 

 not up to expectations, but this was 

 probably due to the severitv" of the 

 weather which prevented the usual dis- 

 play in front of the store 



VValter Kreitling is well pleased with 

 his Christinas trade and the only fault he 

 has to find is that a good deal of th^ cut 

 flower stock had been pickled and was 

 prone to go to pieces verj' soon. 



John C. Schutiert & Co.'s Christmas 

 trade was very large. They noted a de- 

 cided increase in the call for extra 

 Beauties, showing that the Beauty is 

 still growing in popular favor in spite of 

 the high prices. They also found the 

 violet liamper very popular, and sold an 

 unusually large quantity of prettily ar- 

 ranged cajie flower wreaths which caught 

 the popular fancy where a change from 

 the usual holly wreath was desired. 



Among the Wholesalers. 



The reports from the wholesalers about 

 the Christmas trade are fully as gratifying 

 as tho.se from the retailers. All report 

 trade as fully equal to that of last year 

 and in many cases far in excess. Though 

 stock was none tco plenty and prices 

 high the supply that turned up in time 

 for Christmas was unexpectedly large, 

 and of course everything of good quality 

 sold readily. And the quafit)-, too, was 

 much better than had been anticipated in 

 view of the dark weather that had pre- 

 ceded Christmas. The few bright days 

 toward the middle of the week helped 

 more than expected. The demand has 

 held up remarkably w'ell since Christmas, 

 and, be.st of all, the bright weather has 

 continued and there is stock with which 

 to fill the host of orders received. All 

 are feeling greatly encouraged over the 

 outlook and feel that the present season 

 will prove the best in many years. Prices 

 are holding up well and New Year's 

 prices will be but a trifle lower than the 

 Christmas list. 



Kennicott Bros. Co. report an increase 

 of fully one-third over last year. Last 

 Thursday they did the biggest day's busi- 

 ness in the history of the firm, exceeding 

 by I400 the previous largest day's busi- 

 ne.ss, which was an Easter, and they had 

 less complaint from customers than for- 

 merly at holiday seasons. Stock seemed 

 to average better and give better satisfac- 

 tion; but it was not all lovelv. A ship- 

 ment of S, 500 valley from the east arrived 

 frosted so that about 2,500 were lost. 

 This was particularly aggravating as all 

 could have been sold at a good price. 

 This loss was due entirely to negligence 

 on the part of the express companv, as 

 the packing of the flowers was beyond 

 criticism. A still more aggravating ca.se, 

 because inexcusable, was the arrival of a 

 lot of 2,000 violets frozen solid. These 

 came from some nearby growers and the 

 packing consisted of merel}- a single 

 thickness of newspaper inside of the 

 case. These flowers were alreadj' sold at 

 I2.25 per 100 and the flowers were as 



