440 



The Weekly Florists^ Review. 



FEBRUARY 3, 1898. 



continues to place a big pi-emium year 

 by .year on e.xtra long stemmed Beau- 

 ties, our houses for that rose will all 

 have to be very high, or else we must 

 let our Brides and Maids play second 

 fiddle to the Beauties, as they do in 

 Madison. 



The system of staking differs radical- 

 ly. Here we tie each plant to a single 

 wire stake, allowing air by tying each 

 shoot separately. There, the Beauties 

 are trained on strings, a string to each 

 shoot; the strings being fastened to 

 three wires running lengthwise, one 

 above the other, the highest aliout four 

 feet above the bench, while the teas 

 had two wires only. 



Mr. Tilden was. however, an excep- 

 tion to this plan. His Maids and Brides 

 were given two stakes each, the idea 

 being to tie each shoot so as to give 

 plenty of air and light, thus diminish- 

 ing the tendency to make blind wood. 

 The condition of his stock made this 

 plan seem well worth a trial, there be- 

 ing very little or no blind wood in 

 sight, although the propagating had not 

 then commenced. The system of string- 

 ing Beauties seems excellent for thor- 

 ough syringing, but makes cultivation 

 somewhat difficult, 



Madison has not yet adopted Mr. 

 Lonsdale's evaporating pans for de- 

 stroying aphis. In fact, it would be 

 impracti<'able in many cases, as hot 

 water is largely used. Mr. Noe fills his 

 walks with stems, which, though thor- 

 ough, is open to objection, on the 

 ground of cleanliness. Mr. Tilden 

 places tightly tied bunches of stems on 

 his benches between every few rows of 

 Ijlants. changing these bunches as they 

 lose their strength. This method is 

 very neat in appeai-ance, and is said to 

 be a sure preventive of aphis when 

 properly done, 



I went through about fifty rose 

 houses while in Madison and was much 

 surprised to find nearly all planted 

 with three varieties. Beauties, Maids 

 and Brides. A few Perles, Niphetos 

 and Madame C. Testout were also seen, 

 but very few. 



Business Satisfactory. 



Business last week was excellent, and 

 prices firm. Roses are scarce and in 

 brisk demand. Beauties bring from %S 

 to $S per dozen: Brides and Maids. $8 

 to $10 per 100. a few fine ones $12, and 

 small blooms $5 to $6: carnations, $1.50 

 to $2, with fancies $2. .50: California vio- 

 lets. 40 to 75 cents: daffodils, double. $5 

 and $r.. and coming in more freely; tu- 

 lips, $4. 



A visit to the stores in the early part 

 of the week showed signs of spring 

 hardly In keeping with the extremely 

 cold weather since. Freesia was quite 

 plentiful and very well grown. Daffo- 

 dils and tulips were displayed here and 

 there, while in one window was a 

 bunch of myosotis and another of the 

 yellow daisy; Etoile d'Or, I think, is its 

 name, 



A Pretty Floral Feature. 



The vast fortune left by the late An- 

 thony J, Drexel played an important 

 part in the floral world last week. On 



Tuesday one of Mr. Drexel's sons gave 

 a dinner and german at Horticultural 

 Hall to over one hundred guests: on 

 Thursday his daughter was married, 

 and on Friday another son gave a large 

 ball, also in Horticultural Hall, A 

 pretty feature of the dinner was that 

 each gentleman received, in the cloak 

 room, a bouttoniere which matched in 

 color and design the centerpiece of the 

 table, to which he was to escort his 

 partner. As there were fifteen of these 

 tables, quite a variety of flowers were 

 used, and served a double purpose in 

 avoiding confusion as well as adorn- 

 ing the scene. 



Various Items. 



Roman hyacinths are very scarce at 

 present. 



Edward Reid reports shipping busi- 

 ness excellent. 



John Burton has sent otit an attrac- 

 tive sheet describing his new white 

 carnation, "Alba Superba." which is to 

 be disseminated this spring. 



John Westcott is to tell what flower- 

 ing plants are best for Christmas at 

 Tuesday's meeting of the Florists' 

 Club. Much credit is due the club man- 

 agers for their efforts to make the 

 meetings instructive. 



Mr. B. N. Lehman, secretary of the 

 American Jadoo Company, spent the 

 past two weeks in Washington and 

 Baltimore, and found trade quite ac- 

 tive, securing orders for Jadoo fibre 

 and Jadoo liquid from the principal 

 florists in those two cities. J. W. Y. 



BUFFALO. 



Market Resume. 



Business has been fairly good, and 

 flowers in sufficient quantity to fill all 

 orders, except Beauties, which there 

 has been difficulty in obtaining. Car- 

 nations are almost king. There are 

 plenty of violets, both double and sin- 

 gle, and those who don't grow the 

 double pretend the singles are most in 

 demand. "The wish is father to the 

 thought," li'lorist windows are as gay 

 now as at any time during the whole 

 year, and more particularly do they 

 seem so when the ground is covered 

 with snow and the end of your nose is 

 two degrees below zero. There is a 

 great variet.v of plants now, besides 

 cut flowers; azaleas, lilac, liyacinths, 

 primroses, cinerarias, lilies, cattleyas. 

 and coelogyne, besides the gay pans of 

 tulips and other bulbous stuff. Good 

 valley of home growth is more plenti- 

 ful. We were persuaded to invest in 

 so-called French Von Sion. Eveti now, 

 when undue forcing is no longer neces- 

 sary, it has proved itself a humbug and 

 fraud. Tulips bring 75 cents to $1 per 

 dozen, and that, with "ad valorem" 

 added, is much better than they have 

 been for the past few years. If this 

 continues, we shall be persuaded that 

 Mr. Dingley was wise in at least some 

 respects. 



New Bids CaUed for. 



After it was all settled and the con- 

 tract for the big houses at South Park 

 awarded, the whole matter was re- 



opened, and now new bids are wanted. 

 We regret this, for we should like to 

 see those stately houses go up without 

 delay. 



I did not intend to omit mentioning 

 such an important fact as the appear- 

 ance in our midst of Mr. Commissioner 

 Harry Balsley. He takes up consider- 

 able room wherever he is. Clay was 

 discussed, both white and red. and so 

 were parks, politics and potatoes. 



Mr. S. Skidelsky was very recently 

 here, and, would you believe, a florist 

 who has only for the first time in three 

 months worn an ordinary shoe, gave- 

 him a game of St. Louis, I mean bowls. 

 If Mr. S. S, had received 100 as a start- 

 er, he would have been just defeated by 

 one pin, but Mr. Skidelsky is a man of 

 brains rather than gifted with dexter- 

 ity of the hand. He is going home to 

 take lessons from Mr. J. Westcott, 



Two large paper boxes arrived in 

 town last week, one in the shape of the- 

 Corljett-like Mr. Boas of Edwards & 

 Docker, the other the Edw. Booth feat- 

 ures of Mr. Max Beatus, whose name is 

 a misnomer, for we use the product of 

 the Dayton firm, and he does not try to 

 beat us, W. S. 



ST. LOUIS. 



Scarcity in Roses. 



Business is picking up a trifle, but 

 not so good as it should be at this time- 

 of year. The market was agreeably 

 stiff the past week, in fact, there is a 

 marked scarcity in roses. Very few are 

 coming in and the demand seems brisk- 

 er than at any time since the first of 

 the year. Prices ran up on Brides, Me- 

 teors and Maids, and are now from $6 

 to $10, while Perles and Woottons are 

 $4 and $5, The scarcity is owing to a 

 great many of the shippers to this 

 market being off-crop. 



Carnations seem plentiful, with de- 

 mand good. Some commission men 

 claim that more carnations have been 

 sold during the month of January than 

 ever before. Prices range all the way 

 from $2.50 to $4. Daybreaks and Scotts- 

 are in greatest supply. Whites are in 

 good demand. 



Violets are still a glut. Some of our 

 home growers are complaining that the 

 southern stock, which is sold much 

 cheaper, is taking away a great deal 

 of their profit, and say that the com- 

 mission men should try and dispose of 

 the home grown stock first. Prices on 

 violets the past week were; Califor- 

 uias, home grown, 50 cents: southern, 

 25 cents; small single, home grown, 20- 

 cents: southern, 10 cents; good double, 

 40 and 50 cents. 



In bulb stock matters are about the 

 same as last week, Dutch hyacinths 

 are as yet scarce, and sell at $4. Same 

 can be said of Von Sion, Tulips are 

 very short stemmed and sell at $2 per 

 100, Romans, paper whites, valley. 

 Harrisii, callas and freesia are about 

 the same as last week, 



C. Young & Sons decorated the big 

 music hall in the exposition building 

 very tastefully last Friday, the occa- 



