870 



The Weekly Florists^ Review. 



APRIL, 2S, 1898. 



Arbor day, last Friday, April 22, 

 was observed liere only in .-in informal 

 way. T. P. L. 



THE FLORISTS' REVIEW 



G. L. (tKAXT, Km ior \m. Ma\.\i.hk. 



PrBLISHED EVERY THUKSDAV HV 



THE FLORISTS' PUBLISHING CO. 



510=535 Caxtun Building. Chicago, 



334 Dearborn Street. 



Eastern Mana^'er: 



Harrv a. Blnvakd, 56 Pierce Building, New York. 



105 Hudson Street. 



Subscription, Ji.ooayear. To Europe, 52,00. Sub- 

 scnptions accepted from those in the trade only. 



Advertising rates: Per inch, 5i,oo; H page, 513.00; 

 full page, 525.00. Discounts: 6 times, 5 per cent; 13 

 limes, 10 per cent; 26 times, 20 per cent; 52 times, 30 

 percent. Discounts allowed only on consecutive inser- 

 tions. Only strictly trade advertising accepted. Adver- 

 tisements must reacli us by Tuesday to insure insertion 

 in the issue of the following Thursday. 



Copyright rSg8. 



BUFFALO. 



Business Somewhat Slow. 



There has been a low pressure of 

 the atmosphere for the past week, and 

 business can be described as precisely 

 the same; no elaborate weddings or 

 parties that demanded anything extra, 

 simply a steady, quiet demand. Yet 

 there does not seem any over-supply. 

 Violets are still coming in in quite 

 good quality and sell freely at the 

 popular price of $1.00 per huiidred. 

 Carnations of good grade all go, and 

 there are not enough. It seems to 

 me the man who has taken care of 

 his carnations, and will for the next 

 three months pick many thousands of 

 fine blooms, has a rich reward to 

 come. Relatively low in price they 

 may be, yet the great demand and 

 prolific crops make them highly prof- 

 itable. The expense of growing them 

 is over, and nothing but watering, fu- 

 migating and the delightful occupa- 

 tion of plucking them remains; so to 

 neglect them now or pull them out to 

 make room for a crop of bedding 

 plants is very short-sighted; your 

 profit is just to come. In another 

 week we will have outside daffies and 

 early tulips to relieve the scarcity of 

 cheap flowers, so welcome for our 

 cemetery trade, which some of us have 

 not yet been able to dispense with. We 

 are not all yet Fifth Avenue florists. 



We expect to have an unusual call 

 for sweet and lasting flowers this 

 week. When our ten regiments of the 

 national guard take the train for the 

 seat of war, poor lads and lassies ere 

 they part will want some little ex- 

 change of tokens. A spray of Myoso- 

 tis palustris will fill the bill. Poor 

 chappies, when wading through the 

 swamps of the Pearl of the Antilles 

 they will doubtless be glad to exchange 

 their withered blossom for a ham- 

 burger sandwich, but we hope patriot- 

 ism and sentiment (even if rations are 



short) will buoy them up under all 

 trials. 



Business Changes. 



There is more than the ordinary 

 amount of moving among the craft. 

 The smudge of fire and smoke quick- 

 ly moved S. A. Anderson, and he is al- 

 ready installed in his new store, 440 

 Main street. It is a most commodious 

 and commanding position and what 

 may be called the very center of the 

 city. With his tact, theological asso- 

 ciations, native shrewdness and unlim- 

 ited resources from Uncle, nothing but 

 success can look this young man in the 

 face. 



W. A. Adams hops across the street 

 to occupy the store so long the down 

 town depot of Wm. Scott, where he 

 is bound to bring all his own friends 

 and we hope many new ones. 



"P. Scott and father" will go up 

 town a few blocks (.546 Main street) 

 to a larger place, where increased rent 

 and much increased facilities are ex- 

 pected to result in sufficient increase 

 in revenue to warrant progi'ess. 



Allow me, Mr. Editor to say that 

 our town is getting sufficiently full of 

 retail florists, almost too full, but no 

 matter where you go or in what block 

 you are every one has their friends and 

 no one man can do all the business. 

 The leading man will be he who keeps 

 the best .Trticle. is most polite and at- 

 tentive to his customers, prompt in de- 

 livery and fully gains the confidence 

 of the public. But in spite of all these 

 desirable essentials there will be lots 

 of business unknown to this leading 

 man, merely from personal reasons, 

 and right it should be so. If it were not 

 so there would be such Napoleons in 

 the trade that all others would be pri- 

 vates and paupers. 



Visitors. 



After a recess of two weeks we had 

 a tidal wave of drummers. Fortunate- 

 ly they all came on one day, so from 

 breezy morn till dewy eve, and even 

 to the still and solitary hour of mid- 

 night, did they invade our quiet pre- 

 cincts. In early morning came a 

 Dutchman of most gentlemanly mien, 

 whose card I lost; then Mr. Fother- 

 ingham, who speaks bis piece for Mr. 

 Pierson, of Tarrytown; then Mr. 

 Blaauw, whom we have to see because 

 he sells good azaleas. Mr. B. is a 

 small man with a smile much larger 

 in proportion than his body, but he 

 means it all right and uses his affa- 

 bility for a laudable purpose — a sort 

 of a torpedo catcher. As he always 

 fills his orders faithfully, we forgive 

 him. 



A complete surprise in the way of a 

 commercial traveler (drummer is not 

 a good enough title) was Mr. P. N. 

 Koster. Marvelous was the manner 

 of this artist. "Mr. S., I did not call 

 on you to receive orders. I merely 

 called to get a few fine carnations for 

 my wife, who is in Rochester." You 

 can guess we sunk to the floor, not 



with fright, but with an overpower- 

 ing sense of something mysterious. 



Then who should come along, aw.iy 

 after dark, but Mr. Ponderosa BurL 

 Eddy. There is nothing exactly like 

 him, certainly not in our trade. We 

 all know him as a comedian. We did 

 not know him as a scrapper, but now 

 know he was. If J. C. Vaughan could 

 divide Burt Eddy into five parts, eacli 

 containing Burt Eddy mentally, what 

 a blessing it would be for J. C. But 

 then, Burt, without his ponderous 

 ponderosity, would not be B. E., and 

 so the problem ends. The enormous 

 but agile conglomeration, the mobile 

 expansive features that mould them- 

 selves readily into any form of grieiT 

 or joy, expectation or despondency, 

 are gifts not bestowed on every man. 

 and God forbid they should be, for 

 then there would be no fun In it. In 

 his subdued conversation he dis- 

 charges at his victim a continuous 

 flow of apt remarks, illustrated and 

 enlightened by genuine Americanisms, 

 the brightest and best wit of the 

 world up to date. W. S. 



BOSTON. 



Trade Conditions. 



The majority of the growers in this 

 vicinity are now heels over head in 

 work, preparing for a heavy spring 

 season, and only show up in the mar- 

 ket about once a week, and as the most 

 of them are obliged to throw out their 

 flowering stock to make room for 

 spring plants, it to a certain extent 

 influences the cut flower mp.rket. 



During the early part of the week 

 the demand and the supply were about 

 equal on such staples as carnations 

 and roses, but when Saturday came so 

 came the growers also. Result was 

 that prices on everything dropped. Car- 

 nations of a strictly first quality 

 brought from ?3 to $5 per hundred, the 

 latter price being paid for Flora H.ll, 

 which are in limited quantity in this. 

 market. 



The spring crops of Mrs. Fisher and 

 Scott are now coming on and will have 

 a tendency to bring down prices to a 

 warm weather basis and v.'ill give the 

 fakirs a chance; they have been out 

 of the carnation market since before 

 Easter. Roses, the common varieties, 

 have taken a decided drop. Beauties 

 are not plentiful, but enough to sup- 

 ply the demand, being helped out by 

 some very fine Brunners. 



Violets have been superseded by the 

 Mayflowers, which are plentiful and 

 of fine quality. There are lots of 

 sweet peas and pansies in the market, 

 selling fairly well. Lilies and bulb 

 stuff is very slow and requires lots of 

 forcing to sell it at all. 



News Items. 



It is rumored that F. W. Fletcher, 

 who has just resigned his position as 

 managing editor of the N. E. Florist, 

 is about to go to the front as war cor- 

 respondent for a local daily. 



