Decembek »i, iSiiT 



The Weekly Florists^ Review. 



239 



top prices. Smilax we could not give 

 away.'' 



M. A. Hart: 'Business was O. K. 

 All roses sold well; could get most any 

 price for good Beauties. Bridesmaids 

 also sold well, and there was less salted 

 stock than usual." 



FiT/.GER.\r.D & H.-^mmond: "We 

 found trade very good. Cleaned out 

 everything with the exception of violets. 

 All roses sold well, in fact everything ex- 

 cept violets and smilax." 



N. V. Cut Fi.owkr Co.: "Business 

 was good all round and very satisfactory. 

 Good stuff was scarce and rep.lized good 

 prices. Beauties, ;\Iaids and Meteors had 

 the call and carnations were also a good 

 tiling. In fact all fancy stock sold read- 

 ily and realized price? that reminded one 

 of years ago. Cypripediums and smilax 

 were the only things that went slow." 



J.-iMES H.\RT: "Trade fairly good 

 for fancy stock and poor stuff sold poor- 

 ly. Cleaned out well, however, at good 

 average prices. The scarcity of some 

 goods Iiulled the prices, but if there had 

 been the quantities of former years, 

 things would have been different." 



Fr.\nk Mii.L.'VNC: "Am pleased to say 

 trade was all that could be desired; only 

 wish I had had more stuff. Carnations 

 went better than I ever anticipated, and 

 prices realized belter than ihe usual 

 average. Cleaned up everything in good 

 shape." 



But all this has been hashed, and re- 

 hashed in former years. The fault lies, 

 it .seems to me, pre-eminently with the 

 grower. He has the chrysanthenuim to 

 fight every year. Beware, gentlemen, of 

 the "Flowering Plant," it is going to be 

 one of your greatest rivals. It is kicking 

 at your doors and it is coming to stay. 

 From questions asked the wholesalers, 

 however, there seems to have been less 

 salting this year than ever before. The 

 general impression prevailing, however, 

 is that Christmas trade was very satis- 

 factory. The da}' before Christmas there 

 was a perfect famine in flowers of nearly- 

 all kinds, and good prices might have 

 been realized on some goods that had to 

 be shipped that day. Friday morning 

 business started only fair, towards night, 

 however, trade was (juite beyond all 

 expectations and by midnight most 

 everyboily was sold right out clean. 



It was essentially a "rose Lhristmas," 

 the cold snap coming as it did helped 

 things along very u aterially. vSome 

 growers made the mistake of shipping a 

 lot of stuff Saturday, and as late as 

 Saturday afternoon, violets suffering 

 especially on this account. There were 

 several cases of freezing. One grower lost 

 nearly 5,000 carnations this way. 



Roses and carnations had the call and 

 fancy stock was at a premium. There 

 was no special rush of high-priced Beau- 

 ties, but they remained stiff at $1,503 

 piece. Bridesmaids, extra fancy, sold 

 for $30, while Meteors touched the top 

 notch at $40, Brides, Testouts and Car- 

 nots I30. Carnations, extra fancy, 

 brought from $6 to J>io; Valley, fancy, 

 $8; violets, extra selected, I3. Smilax 

 was a drug, and nearly all white flowers 

 went slowly, even Brides are not a "good 

 thing" at Christmas. Cattleyas were 

 very scarce at 50 cents to 60 cents, while 



cypripediums were plentiful a, id Mild at 

 10 cents. Lilium Harrisii sold fairly well 

 at fio to I12.50. All good stuff .sold well 

 and poor stuff did not fetch more than 

 ordinary prices. For prices on regular 

 graded stock and goods not mentioned 

 here, see Xew York market report. 



The cold weather precluded the fakirs 

 and Greeks from handling the lower 

 grades of stock, and so poor and waited 

 stock realized poor prices and in some 

 instances was not sole! at all. 



Seed and Bulb Trade. 



At midday the day before Christmas 

 there was not a crate of holly in the market. 

 It was an unknown cpiantity from the day 

 the finst car was unloaded, and, taken as 

 a whole, was much inferior to former 

 years. ."V storeman was heard to say that 

 it was only fit to tie on "fol de rols and 

 sponge cake.'' Shippers, please take 

 note, and another year only ship the good 

 kind. The demand for mistletoe is but 

 moderate, and though the imported stock 

 arrived in useless condition there was 

 quite enough to go round. 



Mr. L. C. Bobbink, of Rutherford, 

 N. J., started for Holland yesterday (the 

 29th) per steamship St. Paul, and will 

 return about the first of F'ebruary. 



Various Items. 



Visitors: Samuel Goldring, .Albany, 

 N. Y., was a visitor during Christmas 

 week, and as one of the wholesalers said: 

 "Sam is just like Santa Clans; you are 

 bound to see him every Xmas. " 



Thomas M. Ulani, of Elliott & Ulam, 

 Pittsburg, Pa., was also a visitor, and 

 carried a full supply of ".stogies." Both 

 bought heavily for their home trade. 



W. A. Manda's storehouse which he 

 recently erected for the storage of hardy- 

 shrubs, etc., was partially destroyed by 

 fire last week. 



There are rmuors that the firm of 

 Purdy & Blauvelt will dissolve, Mr. 

 Blauvelt withdrawing from the florist 

 trade, and Mr. James Purdy forming a 

 partnership with Chas. Millang, of Mil- 

 lang t^i: Co. 



Mr. Patrick O'Mara has been seriously 

 ill with rheumatism and grippe but hopes 

 to be around in a few days. Please accept 

 our sympathies. 



All retailers report a very large volume 

 of business, almost unprecedented. At 

 six o'clock Friday, one retailer said he 

 was three hours behind with his orders. 

 This does not mean that the florist has 

 made money. The high price of flowers 

 precluded this and a great many persuad- 

 ed their customers to take plants. 



H. A. B. 



CLEVELAND. 



Unfavorable Weather. 



There has not been breathing time to 

 find out the particulars regarding the 

 trade at Christmas, though I hope to be- 

 fore sending in this report. One thing 

 of course we all know about and have 

 had to contend again.st in common. The 

 writer does not recall a more disadvan- 

 tageous spell of weather in many \-ears. 

 Peaches are not common in December 



and ordinarily florists could not afford to 

 partake at this season, but certainly in 

 weather we have had a "peach" forced 

 on us whether we would or no. Such 

 "peaches" ought to be canned and served 

 up in moderation in July and .\ugust. 

 It is very seldom that we have such abso- 

 lutely had weather in Cleveland. It was 

 not onl)' cold, but the wind blew a hurri- 

 cane on Thursday and in addition it 

 snowed hard. The streets had previously 

 been sleeted with ice by rain freezing 

 as it fell so that getting about on 

 foot or with rigs of any kind was not 

 only difiicult, but rather dangerous as 

 w-ell. Hauling wagons through the snow 

 made it very slow work on tlie road. It 

 was not enough to wrap all the plants, 

 but wagons had to be well heated, other- 

 wise many things of a moie ten<ler na- 

 ture must surely have been frozen. Fri- 

 dav night the thermometer got down al- 

 most to zero, but Saturday morning was 

 clear and very sunny, so that things were 

 not so bad. 



Good Demand for Pot Plants. 



It seems that noliody could have failed 

 to notice the increase in the demand for 

 pot plants of every description. Nearly 

 every firm in the city operating a store 

 for the disposal of their product had a 

 greater or less supply of desirable stock 

 in this line and in every instance it .sold 

 without the slightest difficulty. Of 

 course at this sea.son flowering plants 

 stood higher in popular favor than palms 

 or other foliage plants, although the lat- 

 ter sold very well on the whole. In 

 blooming stock azaleas were more gener- 

 ally offered than anything else and were 

 taken readily at good prices. More of 

 these could easily have been sold, were 

 they to have been had. Of course the 

 old white, Deutsche Perle was in greater 

 supph" than other sorts, but there was a 

 sprinkling of light and rose pink with a 

 ver\- few red. Colored sorts sold most 

 readih- though none were left of any 

 sort. Cyclamens, primulas, begonias and 

 poinsettias comprised the bidk of other 

 offerings in potted stock aside from palms 

 and allied plants, with some oranges and 

 ardisias on the side. 



Holly and other green stuff with the in- 

 evitable immortelle truck sold fully as 

 well with those who handled it, although 

 few florists do anything with it except on 

 orders for other goods more directly in 

 their line. No reports have come in yet 

 owing to the short time elapsed at this 

 writing as to how stock stood the test of 

 delivery, but there will probably be quite 

 a crop of complaints in due season. 



Trade in Cut Flowers. 



In comparing cut flower sales with 

 those of other years there would probably 

 be a slight increase shown although the 

 bulk of advance in this line of sales has 

 probabU- come from an increased demand 

 for plants. In cut flowers nearly every- 

 body show-ed a predilection for the carna- 

 tion and everything of the Dianthus tribe 

 was sold out, most florists running short, 

 some of them very early in the day, 

 while only one or two had enough to 

 last out to the bitter end. Roses sold 

 variously. 'With some the>- went very 

 well, with others kicks on the price 



