150 



The Weekly Florists' Review. 



December IS. 1902. 



of our florists. JMr. S. A. Anderson 

 of Linwood avenue, is the victim. It 

 started in the furnace room, and al- 

 thougli the damage to the buildings is 

 slight, and that I hope insured, it de- 

 stroyed a lot of good flowering plants, 

 amon" them a splendid lot of pomset- 

 tias of every useful size. They were 

 an extra fine lot and will be a great 

 loss to ill-. Anderson. Mr. A. has our 

 svmpathv. for at this time of year there 

 is worrv" enough in filling orders without 

 losing "by fire what you felt certain 

 Vou had. 



■ 1 hope all rav friends will have a 

 prosperous as well as a joyous Clirist- 

 mas. 



PHILADELPHIA. 



TheMarket- 



The eut flower market was a little 

 depressed towards the close of last 

 week. Conditions improved on Satur- 

 day and have kept on improving during 

 tlie early part of this week. Indications 

 point to a continuance of favorable con- 

 ditions this week with promise of an 

 enormous increase in business next 

 week. It is diflicult to forecast Clirist- 

 mas prices, but the probability is that 

 thev will be about the same as last sea- 

 son, probably a little higher on some 

 fancy stock and probably a little lower 

 on poorer grades. There is reason to 

 believe the supply will be large and 

 much of it very fine. 



To return to the present. Beauties 

 are quite plentiful and sell well. Tlie 

 better grade of tea roses also sell well, 

 but ihev can not be called plentiful as 

 compared with the poorer grades. White 

 carnations are in brisk demand, also red. 

 which are less plentiful. Pink are used 

 freely, but there are too many of them 

 in proportion to the other colors. Vio- 

 lets are vcrv scarce, so scarce that there 

 seems risk 'of their disaiipearing alto- 

 gether, but perhaps they are saving up 

 for Christmas and will bloom like good 

 fellows then. It is only fair to say, 

 however, that there is much disease 

 among the singles, causing the growers 

 a lot of worrv. Valley is in demand: 

 more could be used. Paper whites sell 

 slowly but Romans go better, thanks to 

 the shortage in white carnations. 



Plants. 



The business in blooming plants is in 

 a very active state. Robert Craig & Son 

 have "virtually sold all their fine cycla- 

 mens and Lorraines. William K. Har- 

 ris has found an excellent demand for 

 his berried plants. Several houses of 

 holly and Aucuba .laponioa are fast 

 emptying. He also has a house of the 

 dwarf Otaheite orange and a lot of aza- 

 leas in small sizes — Simon jMardner. 

 Deutsche Perle and Verva>neana. H. H. 

 Battles has a fine large house filled with 

 Euphorbia Poinsettia in good shape. A 

 crreat many other growers also have 

 blooming plants ready for the holi- 

 davs. . 



Tlie foliage plant business is not en- 

 tirely satisfactory. Probably more fo- 

 liage plants were" sold than last season. 

 If that is true there were a great many 

 more growers. Speaking generally, the 

 lar^e sizes are the best stock to-day. 

 • Some varieties are entirely too numerous 

 for the market in the smaller sizes— say 

 4, 5 and 0-inch. Still the conditions are 

 by no moans discouraging: it is more 

 tiian likely that another month will see 

 an impvnvonient. 



Notes. 

 The Philadelphia Carnation Company 

 is to be the name of a new business en- 

 terprise to be started with the new 

 year. The active partners willbe Harry 

 "Crawford and Horace T. Diimont. Two 

 houses ovei- 200 feet long and 20 feet 

 wide will be built on the country place 

 of Robert Crawford, Jr., at Secane. Car- 

 nations will be the specialty. It is 

 planned to have everything ready for 

 next fall. Harry Crawford is a son of 

 Robert and is a "young man of promise. 

 He is now with the firm of Dumont & 



Co. „ 



Leo Niessen is receiving vciy line 

 Beauties in quantity. 



Eugene Bernhcimer is handling lyco- 

 podium. 



Mark Mills says that the new flower 

 market has made" a wonderful record in 

 its first six weeks of business. 



J A. Peterson, of Cincinnati, was in 

 town this week. He ha.l some nice 

 samples of Lorraine begonias. 



Bingham Jlvers has suceeedeil C. 11. 

 Ori"tr"''at the helm of the new Colonial 

 Flow'er Shop. Jlr. Myers should prove 

 a winner, having served his apprentice- 

 ship in that hustling school, the Cen- 

 turv Flower Shop. 



H. Baversdorfer & Co. have had a 

 sreat run on their Christmas bells— all 



sold. 



Julius Wolff. Jr., IS sending in some 

 fine valley to the flower market. 



It is rumored that Charles P. Pory- 

 zees is planning something pleasant. 



\11 kinds of Christmas greens are ar- 

 riving, most of it in good condition. 

 Holly is very fine. 



The morality play of '"Every ilan" 

 was given in' Horticultural Hall last 

 week. 



The Florists" Club •■Smoker" will be 

 held Tuesday evening. January 0. 



The Pennsylvania Horticultural Soci- 

 ety held its 'annual meeting last Tues- 

 day evening. 



A prosperous Christmas to you all. 



'■ ^ PllIL. 



since as fast as it arrives. All hands 

 are shuddering to think what will hap- 

 pen in case of a prolonged zero season. 



Another chill was added Monday 

 morning by the announcement that J. 

 M. Tuohyof Boston and East Boston 

 iiad been 'crushed by the weight of $1,700 

 worth of creditors and gone to picce.^. 

 Assets are given at about $700. The 

 Boston store is closed, the East Boston 

 store sold out, and Mr. Tuohy is m the 

 emplov of ilr. T. F. Galvin. 



The" Park street church is practically 

 sold for $1,250,000. about $1-50 per 

 square foot for land occupied. No changes 

 will be made for eighteen months, but 

 the daily congrejiation that meets m the 

 basement is'" working hard for new 



quarters. , .,, . ,. 



I saw a flower box lined with patent 

 carpet lining— the kind that consists of 

 two sheets of paper and a filling of cot- 

 ton batting, and believe it is a schcui'^ 

 worth trving. A little "supplementary 

 readinc matter" nuiv be necessary, too. 

 ° ' J. S. Maxteb. 



CHICAGO. 



BOSTON. 



Various Items. 



Quiet lines for the florist last week. 

 Guess the public was too busy watch- 

 ing the empty coal hod to stop to look 

 at a flower! 



Everj'thing has been running a bit 

 shv, too, except roses, so the situation 

 averages up veiy weill. Business is 

 never "good either a few days before or 

 just after a holiday, so what can be 

 expected when it is just after one holi- 

 day and just before another? But we 

 will attract more or less attention soon. 

 Tlie cold snap was a good stilT piece 

 of work. Jlonday night was a record- 

 breaker for sixteen years, and the cold- 

 est December night' for nineteen years. 

 A dozen or more" frozen greenhouses, as 

 many frozen boxes of cut flowers, the 

 same number of frozen ears and a few 

 frozen retail stores were among the re- 

 sults. As the few growers who came 

 into the market that morning arrived 

 and reported thermometer figures, from 6 

 to 20 below was given, the latter coming 

 from Xeedham l>v way of Denys Zirn- 

 n-iebel. Later Mr. Elliott rejiorted IS 

 below at his New Hampshire rose 

 houses, which stood the test nobly. 

 \bout all the coal in the state was 

 burned and it has been lapped up ever 



TheMarket- 



\t time of writing business is rather 

 quiet and the moderate supply is sulb- 

 cient to meet most demands. By the 

 time this reaches our readers Christmas 

 prices will be practically in effect, and 

 the principal matter of interest will be 

 the supplv for Christmas. 



The weather has been very unfavor- 

 able and the chances for an adequate 

 supplv of first-class stock have grown 

 dimm'er. Wo have had an unpleasant 

 alternation of cold and then sloppy 

 weather and with practically no sun- 

 shine, and it is now too late to have any 

 appreciable effect should the weather 

 change for the letter. A large per- 

 centa'ce of the stock now received is sott 

 and tiabbv. with weak stems and the 

 usual sav'ing up for a holiday will cer- 

 tainly badlv aggravate the situation. VI 

 course there is good stock to be had, 

 but it is a small proportion of the stock 

 rewivcd and the average in quality is 

 much below what is usual at the season. 

 The chances are that of the receipts 

 for Christmas trade not over one-third 

 will be of first-class shipping grade, and 

 those who must have good stock would 

 be wise to get their orders in early. 

 There will probably be plenty of sott 

 undergrade stock and those who can 

 use this grade can afford to wait until 

 the market is loaded with it. as it prob- 

 ablv will be at the last by the niis- 

 .nii'ded individuals who every year hold 

 back their consignments until too late 

 to market them "to advantage. 



But roses and carnations will not be 

 the whole thins. Encouraging reports 

 come from the poinsettia growers. Iven- 

 nicott Bros. Co., E. II. Hunt and Me- 

 Kellar &. Winterson all have promises 

 of hca\-v consignments of poinsettias, 

 the last" named firm saying they will 

 have 3..100. And by the way '"Flame 

 flower" is a good popular name for these 

 showA- Christmas flowers. Ml". Scott 

 would remind us that it is the colored 

 bracts and not the flowers that are 

 showv. But the head of bloom, with its 

 surrounding bracts can be called a flower 

 for coinmercial purposes. 



Of other flowers, esjecially bulbous 

 there will undoubtedly be the usual 

 Christina'^ supplv. But on first-class 

 roses and carnations only those who or- 



