238 



The Weekly Florists* Review. 



Decembek 30, 1897. 



decoration at Riverside, was unfortunate 

 eno;igh to fall from a ladder and break 

 his leg. He is now in the county hos- 

 pital. His many friends will wish him a 

 speedy recovery. 



Among recent visitors was Mr, F. J. 

 Foster, of the Krebs Floral Co., St. Louis. 



Don't forget the next meeting of the 

 Florists' Club January 13. This will be 

 ladies' night, and from hints we have re- 

 ceived of the program being prepared we 

 can assure all of a very enjoyable even- 

 ing. 



Mr. H. P. Gerhardt, the "Limits 

 Florist," reports an excellent trade at his 

 stand, 1317 North Clark St. Last Au- 

 gust he built a greenhouse 22 x 100 on his 

 place in Waterloo Court, not far from his 

 stand at the " Limits," 



NEW YORK. 



Around Town. 



I do not know if it is a good omen or 

 not, anywaj- it is a fact that every Christ- 

 mas you see more and more flowering 

 plants. It used to be that Easter was the 

 time when plants in flower ruled, now 

 they are playing an imjiortant part at 

 this season of the year, A large retailer 

 told ine that he buys more every year, 

 "as an act of self defense simply," said 

 he. "My customers get more fractious 

 every }ear. Of course I have to bu}' 

 flowers to fill orders, but the great ad- 

 vance in prices precludes me laying in a 

 large stock, and then having to fight and 

 take chances with my customers." 



"Another growing evil is the lavish 

 use of ribljon in all made up work and 

 even on plants," said one man. "Our 

 bill for this luxury alone is near ;{;i,ooo 

 since November the ist." 



Snap Shots, 



.^t Thorley's I noted several pretty 

 things in the way of novelties; shallow, 

 square hampers of plants tied with brill- 

 iant plaited plaid ribbon, very showy; 

 gilt hampers of pots of violets in full 

 flower, with ribbon to match, and splen- 

 did heaths dressed with ribbon, also aza- 

 leas and other plants. 



At Stumpp's there was a tremendous 

 variety of Ijasketed plants, some with 

 handles upon which were tied bunches of 

 orchids, violets, etc, with a wealth of 

 ribbon, always harmonizing with the 

 whole. One gilt basket on pedestal con- 

 tained a large Otaheite orange, "dressed" 

 with orange shaded ribbon. A large 

 bunch of Cypripedium insigne and leu- 

 cothoe sprays, were on the basket and 

 on the tripod of the stand. 



At Sniall's I saw large wreaths of 

 "box" (Bnxus ovalifoHum) tied with 

 masses of red "bird berries" and stream- 

 ers of red ribbon, broad and narrow. 



At David's there were many hand- 

 somely filled baskets of plants, Otaheite 

 oranges, ericas and cyclamen trimmed 

 with ribbon, all handsomely gotten up 

 and very exquisite. 



At McConnell's handsomely filled bas- 

 kets were the specialty also, deep crimson 

 ribbon on the handles; one .specially fine, 

 white celluloid basket, red handles, con- 

 taining Erica fragrans, Drac;ena termi- 

 nals and Ardisia crenulata, all prettily ar- 



ranged. Heathers, tied with different 

 colored tartan ribbons, were very effective. 



At Hodgson's I noted a novel altar 

 decoration which consisted of a large 

 Otaheite orange about four feet high, in- 

 terspersed with Lilium Harrisii blooms, 

 finished with smilax and tied with ma- 

 roon ribbon. 



At Siebrecht's " filled " baskets were 

 again in evidence. Some were filled with 

 heathers and ardisias, others Farleyense, 

 cj'clamens, oranges, azaleas, etc., taste- 

 fully trimmed and gotten up to sell. A 

 basket of Farleyense, bunch of violets 

 tied on handle, looked very rich. 



At "The Rosary" I saw the only gar- 

 denias in town. There were some pretty 

 baskets here also, and some fiat, round 

 and oval baskets of holly and bird-berry, 

 Adiantum Farleyense and poinsettias for 

 a dinner Christmas night — all verj' 

 pretty. 



At Fleishmann's there were shallow 

 diamond shaped baskets trimmed w'ith 

 crepe paper and ribbon, filled with A. 

 Farle\ense and A. cuneatuni and 

 bunches of orchids or violets tied on the 

 pyramidal shaped handles, with bows of 

 mauve or violet ribbon. 



At Bridgeman's a basket of azaleas and 

 holly festooned and tied with light 

 green "nun's veiling," was quite unique 

 and attractive. 



At Scallen's, baskets were prominent. 

 Those with heather and holly were very 

 pretty. I saw some ribbon with the 

 ends hand painted with flowers; some- 

 thing new I believe. 



Bulls and Bears, 



Christinas has come anrt gone since I 

 wrote yon last week. Each succeeding 

 year holds out the same expectations, has 

 the same disappointment for grower, 

 wholesaler and retailer. Each one is re- 

 sponsible to the other, each one blames 

 the other. It is hard to tell how to make 

 the balance of justice fall evenly on their 

 respective shoulders. The question is, "is 

 the game worth the candle?" is the 

 paucity and slump in business before holi- 

 daj'S and after made up at those times ? 

 On Thursday there was literally a famine 

 ill some stocks, held back by the grower 

 for better prices next day, and in some 

 cases "salted" so long, that as one whole- 

 saler said of some stock I saw, he could 

 not sell it to the "Greeks" at any price. 

 Some consignments were actualh- shipped 

 back. Is not this killing the goose with 

 the golden eggs? 



The week ending December 26, com- 

 monly called Christmas week, might be 

 described briefly as follows: 



Monday — Expectation. 



Tiiesda}' — Promulgation. 



Wednesday— Emulation. 



Thursday — Anticipation. 



Friday — Realization. 



Saturday — Computation. 



Sunday — Adulation. 



What the Wholesalers Say, 



W. S. Allen: "So far as I can learn, 

 business has surpassed anything approach- 

 ing former years, even the palmiest days 

 such success was not known. Very little 

 pickling and all stuff sold well with few 

 exceptions." 



Walter F. Sherid.\n: "Business was 

 good. All grades of flowers sold rapidlj' 

 at good figures; all inferior goods took 

 chances, but not at as low figures as a 

 year ago. All stock arrived in good condi- 

 tion and there was less salted stock." 



Thom.\s VofN'G, Jr.: "Trade was 

 much better than labt year for 'fine 

 flowers; the lower grades sold cheap. 

 Taken as a whole it was a good Christ- 

 mas. American Beauties, Maids and 

 Meteors were the leaders; also fancy and 

 red carnations." 



John I. R.wnor: "Trade very good. 

 All first class flowers sold well, specially 

 Beauties, Maids and Meteors. Brides 

 went slow. There was a lot of stuff 

 salted that might have realized good 

 prices the days previous to Christmas." 



John Yoing: "Business was better 

 than for many years, and volume of trade 

 much larger. Not so much salted stock 

 as formerly and there were not enough 

 Beauties, .Maids, and Meteors. Fancy 

 carnations sold extremely well; smilax 

 was a drug." 



J. B. Ezechel: "I could have handled 

 twice the amount of rlowers. Good stuff 

 brought good prices, and poor stock 

 about the same as ordinary- days." 



Traendly & Schexck: "Never 

 cleaned out so well before and prices 

 ruled a great deal better than formerly." 



W. H. Gunther: "The general run 

 of trade was good, a big improvement 

 over former years. All good stock sold 

 well. Romans hung a little. There was 

 not so much poor and salted stock as here- 

 tofore." 



E. C. Horan: "Business was a big 

 rush. It was a "rose Christmas" from the 

 word go. Hyacinths and narcissus went 

 slowly. Carnations sold well. Cleaned 

 out everything except violets." 



H. A. Hoffman: "Trade was very 

 passable. Beauties sold well, and carna- 

 tions and • other stock in proportion. 

 Prices ruled higher than last year and it 

 seemed as if we were getting back to the 

 old prices again." 



MiLLANG & Co.: "Trade was tip top 

 — everything sold out clean except smi- 

 lax. Roses and carnations hardly enough 

 to go round." 



J. W. King: "Trade was .\i. Cleaned 

 out in good shape. Carnations realized 

 phenomenal prices. I had a good deal of 

 stuff frozen, however, but there was less 

 salted stock than formerly." 



MacDonald ^: McM-^'nu.s: "As this 

 was our first Christmas we cannot com- 

 pare. We sold out everything, however, 

 except violets. One large consignment 

 of orchids was frozen. We are well sat- 

 isfied with our initial efforts." 



JvLiu.s Lang: "Business in general 

 good and good stuff sold well. Cleaned 

 up everything except smilax. Violets 

 went slow and Harrisii well.'' 



PiRDY & Blaivelt: "We had a 

 ready sale for all the stuff we had. Roses 

 were scarce, Beauties specially so. We 

 had a lot of sweet peas, however, which 

 we sold from f 3 to J4 per dozen bunches. 

 The variety was Blanche Ferry." 



Ford Bros.: "Trade was very fair. 

 All roses sold well and everything was 

 cleaned out. Violets were a drug, how- 

 ever, by the end of the day. High grade 

 stock of all kinds sold well and brought 



