Jam AKV 30. 189^*. 



The Weekly Florists' Review, 



347 



showing a balance in the treasun- of 

 three times the amount of last year. 



Officers for the present year were 

 elected as follows: President, \Vm. Keith; 

 vice-president, Robert Mitchell; secre- 

 tary, Peter Murray; treasurer, Chas. 

 AVaite; assistant secretary, T. H. Dahl; 

 executive committee, James Russel, James 

 Garthley, A. J. Fish. 



Remarks were made Ijy the new presi- 

 dent, Wm. Keith, in which he gave some 

 excellent advice regarding the next .show. 

 The executive board held a short meeting 

 in reference to same .subject. 



Business is dull and prospects are very 

 poor, as the city is in the shadow of a long 

 and hard labor strike. C. 



NEW YORK. 



In the Market. 



Last week was a record breaker— for 

 bad business -the worst in the recollec- 

 tion of the "oldest inhabitant" of the 

 street, for the time of year. Wednesday 

 was "Black I'riday" and Saturday, that 

 started in with a drizzling rain which 

 continued the whole day, was even 

 "blacker." The week ending January 15 

 will linger long in the memory of every 

 one as a record breaker for "innocuous 

 desuetude." Violets suffered worse, and 

 towards the evening of Saturday were 

 selling for 25 cents per 100. Brides 

 suffered the next in the rose line and the 

 very finest stock was sacrificed at 

 phenomenally low prices. In fact, 

 all flowers touched rock bottom. Luck- 

 ily, however, stock was not what 

 vou might call plentiful or the result 

 to the grower and wholesaler might 

 alike have been disastrous. Won't you 

 please send us some nice cold weather 

 from the west and we will try to recipro- 

 cate when the summer comes. If this 

 •weather continues I know some of the 

 wholesalers will go into the umbrella and 

 straw hat business; yes, and rubbers, too. 

 Some are selling the last named now, but 

 'pon my honor, I think they would sell 

 anvthing these days. Don't think I am 

 a chronic dyspeptic or a pessimist of the 

 worst kind, and if you don't believe me 

 just try and run the gauntlet of the street 

 your.self. To-day, however, as I write 

 this, it seems as if the turning in the long 

 lane of depression and bad weather had 

 really taken a turn for the better. The 

 air is more bouyant and the hopes of the 

 dealer are inclined to respond, with the 

 aid retailers and the general flower buyer. 



Mr. J. I. Raynor, who handles a 

 specially fine lot of Beauties, Maids, 

 Brides, .Meteors, and violets, also special 

 grades of carnations and some very fine 

 cypripedium insigne, reports a steady in- 

 crease in the shipping trade in spite of 

 the elements and general condition of 

 trade. 



Various Notes. 



Paul de Longpre, who has been aptly 

 termed the Rosa Bonheur of flower 

 painters, is holding his annual exhibition 

 of water color drawings in the city, and 

 all lovers of art in this particular sphere 

 should attend,forwhile nothing is scarceh- 

 harder to portray, yet visitors will find 



some rare gems both from an artistic 

 and botanical view, far different from the 

 usual stereotyped and so-called plant por- 

 traits. 



For mv part I would like to see some of 

 the F'lorist Clubs and Horticultural Socie- 

 ties attend in a body, or do they think 

 thev would be called aesthetics. 



Our Wholesalers' Special Report 



The supply of all varieties of stock has 

 been sufiicient to meet the demand during 

 the past week. Trade was spiritless and 

 prices ruled lower than the previous 

 week. The lower grades of roses were 

 most affected; those of higher quality 

 with the exception of Brides cleaned up 

 fairly well. Quality is good in spite of 

 the dark daj's. Shipments are not heavy. 

 Meteors are selling better owing to a 

 shortening up. Beauties are showing up, 

 somewhat improved in shape and color, 

 but the price is very unsteady. 



Carnations fell away in price during the 

 first half of the week but recovered some 

 of the loss at the finish. Violets are in 

 over supply, quality superb and price al- 

 most anything the buyer will pay. 



Valley is evidently not now in great 

 favor as indicated by the selling price. 

 Tulips are coming in more freely, and all 

 colors are cleared out with the exception 

 of red. Lilies are steady in price but move 

 slowly. Good adiantum finds a ready 

 sale. The prospects for better trade .seem 

 brighter. 



Seed and Bulb Trade. 



There will be a meeting of the Seed 

 Trade Association, January 21, at loa. m., 

 at the Park Avenue Hotel and all mem- 

 bers are invited to be present as questions 

 of vital importance will come before the 

 association. 



William Elliott & Sons are renovating 

 their store, putting up a new set of hard- 

 wood seed drawers and otherwise making 

 improvements. When I tried to get to the 

 office recently it was like passing through 

 Chilcoot Pass. The reception I received 

 was far different, however, than one 

 might expect, and instead of a diet of 

 snowballs and fricasseed icicles, Mr. 

 Elliott extended the right hand of fel- 

 lowship with one hand and one of his 

 choicest perfectos with the other. 



After doing business for sixty years in 

 John street, J. M. Thorburn & Co. will 

 remove to Cortlandt street sometime dur- 

 ing the coming July or August, their pres- 

 ent building having been condemned. Mr. 

 F. W. Bruggerhof, who has been as- 

 sociated with the firm for forty-nine 

 years, feels very reluctant to move from 

 the "old homestead" and the ties that 

 have bound it. The name of Thorburn 

 has been a landmark for nearly a century, 

 for it was in the year 1S02 that Grant 

 Thorburn established and laid the founda- 

 tion of the present firm of which Mr. 

 Bruggerhof is the present active partner. 



The Retailers. 



The business in the retail trade since 

 the holidays is still in a spasmodic, spo- 

 radic, and chaotic condition, though to- 

 day (Monday), with a nice sharp frost and 

 a bright sky, the streets are filled with 

 hustling crowds and lines of carriages, so 



that the transient trade, an all important 

 factor, is helping business considerably. 



Social events, from the sublime to the 

 ridiculous, are in full swing, with an oc- 

 casional funeral order to clean up (that 

 is, the poorer grades of flowers), so 

 that things in general are not quite so 

 bad as tliey might be, which is saying 

 heaps. The Old Guard ball takes place 

 soon, asdoes also the charity ball, and, not 

 the least, the French ball, and so, with 

 these and a few other events, the silver 

 lining is almost an assured reality. 

 Various Notes. 



Mr. Thomas Young, Jr., is without a 

 bookkeeper at present. His man "Fri- 

 day", John Sharkey, is at home at pres- 

 ent keeping company with our natural 

 enemy "La Grippe." 



Mr. F. W. Creighton, who represents 

 W. .\. Manda, "on the road," has just 

 returned from the middle west and re- 

 ports the outlook for the future as good, 

 and general tone of business one of con- 

 fidence. 



Mr. A. Herrmann reports a very heavy 

 shipping trade during Christmas and New 

 Years, also that good cape flowers are ex- 

 ceptionally scarce. I had an interesting 

 trip through his factory and saw the sev- 

 eral processes of manufacturing of "still 

 life" in horticulture. 



MADISON, N.J. 



There was a full attendance of themem- 

 tjers of Morris County Gardeners' and 

 Florists' Club at its regular meeting on 

 Wednesday night, the election of officers 

 for the ensuing year being in order and 

 resulting as follows: President, Wm. 

 Duckham; vice-president, John Jones; 

 secretary, Charles H. Atkins; treasurer, 

 Wm. Charlton. 



The essayist of the evening was Mr. 

 John E. Lager, of Summit, his subject 

 ■ 'Orchid Collecting' ' than which no one is 

 better qualified to speak upon, and treat 

 it so fully in all its varied aspects. On 

 previous occasions we have heard Mr. 

 Lager deliver carefully prepared lectures 

 committed to paper but on this occasion 

 he relied solely upon mental notes indeli- 

 bly imprinted on the memory. With his 

 traveling maps spread upon the wall he 

 took his audience on an imaginary jour- 

 ney up the Rio Magdalena, which is navi- 

 gable by river steamers, 600 miles to 

 HoDga, an important center as receiving 

 the imports for all the vast interior of Co- 

 lombia and exporting the products like- 

 wise of which coffee and cocoa are an im- 

 portant part. So far the journey is easy 

 and involves from ten to fifteen days ac- 

 cording to the state of the river. Leav- 

 ing Honga, however, the collector's trou- 

 bles begins as there confronts him a jour- 

 ney of 300 miles or more on mule back 

 before even the region where Cattleya 

 TrianiE grows is reached. In fact at this 

 present time with the wide spreading 

 tracts annually cleared and devoted to 

 coffee and cocoa, the area of this cattleya 

 distribution is fast diminishing and the 

 nearest point at which it can now be 

 profitably collected is 1,200 miles from the 

 coast. 



On the face of the map he outlined his 

 journeyings down the Magdalena valley 



