JAN-IABY ]. l!Mi:!. 



The Weekly Florists' Review* 



225 



taken at $3 per 100. A few gooj ehiys- 

 anthemums, from Vesey's, were seen at 

 Kuehn's, which sold fairly well. BuU> 

 stock, as usual, was quite plentiful a ail 

 more came in than there was demand 

 for. Paper whites sold as low as $2, 

 while Romans went at .$.3. Valley, too, 

 was fine and in good demand. So no 

 complaints were heard from the wliole- 

 saleis in regard to demand and prices. 



Holly and mistletoe sold better than 

 ever before, and holly wreaths were all 

 cleaned up down at the Union market. 

 The usual displays were made of coils 

 of festooning witli countless wreaths, 

 .stars and bells of immortelles, which 

 made a brilliant showing and brought 

 plenty of buyers. 



Xot much can Ije said of New Years 

 trade this early, hut the day is a thing 

 of the pa.st as far as cut flower trade is 

 concerned. The big prices will, no 

 doubt, be kept u]i for some time yet, at 

 least until after New Years day, as 

 stock is not plentiful. 



Notes. 



Wm. Trillow, of Chicago, spent Christ- 

 mas in St. Louis among his many 

 friends. 



Theo. Faller has opened a floral store 

 at one corner of Laclede and Xewstedt 

 avenue. Mrs. Faller is in charge. Their 

 gieenhouses are at Natural Bridge road 

 and King's highway. 



Fred Foster opened his new store at 

 .507 Olive street in time for Christmas 

 trade. Tlie old stand at Tenth and 

 OMve will be closed after Jan. I. 



Club Meeting. 



The first mccling nf tlie club in the 

 new year will be held next Thursday 

 afternoon at 2 p. m. in the Commercial 

 Club rooms at Belleville. Mayor Hal- 

 stedt is having the keys of the city pol- 

 ished up to hand over to President Dun- 

 ford. The meeting is going to be very 

 interesting and President Dxinford ex- 

 pects a large attendance. Three essays 

 will be read: One by A. .lablonsky on 

 "E.xperience with Carnations on Benches 

 and Solid Beds— Best Results." Mr. E. 

 F. Tesson will tell us all about "New 

 Roses," and "Steam Heating"' by F. B. 

 Call. Tlie entertainment committee will 

 make a report in regard to the club's en- 

 tertainment, wliich takes place some time 

 in February in the club's meeting rooms 

 in Odd Fellows' building. 



The entertainment committee wishes 

 to make it known that if any florist or 

 any of his family wish to take part in 

 the entertainment of the club, they 

 "hould make it known to J. J. Beneke, 

 chairman of conunittee, 1220 Olive 

 street. .1. ,J. B. 



CROMWELL, CONN. 



The weather previous to Christmas 

 was not promising but the few days of 

 bright sunny weather did a great deal 

 to help matters out. Business is al- 

 ways good at a holiday and the only 

 trouble .seems to be a lack of stuff. 



Roses were most in demand and the 

 prices were about as usual at this time. 

 First quality, .$10.00. and second from 

 $5.00 to $6".0O. Beauties ranged from 

 •fl.OO to .$9.00 per dozen. Liberty 

 brought as high as .$2.5 per 100. Lily 

 of the valley according to the quality 

 .$:! to $G. Carnations sold at from .$4 

 to $12 and during the first three days 

 of Christmas week about 10,000 were 

 disposed of. Cypripediums were fairly 

 plentiful and readily brought $15 per 



100. Hyacinths and narcissus sold for 

 •$3. As only a moderate supply of vio- 

 lets was available we were obliged to re- 

 fuse orders steadily at $2 per 100. 



It was our intention to have several 

 thousand lilies for Christmas but we 

 succeeded in getting only about .SOO. 

 This failure was due to a great variation 

 in the bulbs. Why should only 800 

 come into flower when all were handled 

 exactly the same? Of the lilies yet to 

 flower in this batch there is still a great 

 variation in development which is per- 

 haps well, for this .will insure a distri- 

 bution of them over the coming few 

 weeks, but why should this be so? We 

 all know that lilies to be grown prop- 

 erly should be grown in a handbarrow 

 and on the move but even so the pro- 

 portion of bulbs which came to matur- 

 ity in this case seems Aery small. To 

 get them right for Easter is compara- 

 tively easy when they can Ije shifted to 

 different houses as required, but with 

 but one forcing house for Christmas a 

 great deal depends on the even quality 

 of the bulbs. These were Harrisii, of 

 course. 



Frank A. Pierson, who is in business 

 for himself and grows pot plants and 

 rooted cuttings of bedding stock for 

 specialties, had a limited number of Be- 

 gonia Gloire de Lorraine which sold 

 well at a very fair price. 



The demand for Asparagus plumosus 

 exceeded the supply owing to the house 

 being heavily seeded. Tliis house, which 

 is exclusively devoted to asparagus, is 

 .5.50 feet in length, and has over 20 feet 

 of head room. How many seed will lie 

 gathered is a matter of conjecture and 

 until it is gathered it cannot be esti- 

 mated very closely. We are counting 

 ou from 500.000 to 750.000 seed. Some 

 of the strings are putting forth bloom, 

 even at this late date, and great care 

 is necessary in cutting so that these will 

 be left to set seed, if they will. 



Stock of the Yellow Eaton is doing 

 well and is rapidly on the increase. 

 Many orders have been booked for spring 

 delivery and it will undoubtedly be a 

 valuable acquisition to the list. It is 

 not confined to this place, however, and 

 it is a matter of interest to see if these 

 various sports will be the same in color 

 wherever they have shown themselves. 



Tlie first of the sweet peas were cut 

 the day before Christmas. These are 

 grown trained to the supports in the 

 violet houses and were cut from plants 

 which were started in pots during Aug- 

 ust. 



Orafting has been commenced and this 

 will keep quite a large force busy for 

 some time. The 125.000 jNIanetti have 

 all been received and will be potted as 

 the work goes on. The quality of Man- 

 etti is very good this year. 



When the express companies raised 

 tlieir rates because cut flowers are per- 

 ishable goods they took advantage of 

 monopoly and used that power for all 

 it was worth, but if the florist must pay 

 this rate they should be insured ser- 

 vice in proportion. These past few 

 weeks have shown that the service is not 

 ii bit better than it was before the in- 

 crease and this is not justice to say the 

 least. If we deliver to the express com- 

 panies on time and it does not arrive 

 on time, when we pay almost double 

 rates to insure the flowers aarainst mis- 

 carriage, they should be made to settle 

 if they fail to deliver promptly. Even 

 if there is no chance of reducing rates 

 the companies should at least fulfill 

 their obligations. W. R. Piekson'. 



dNCINNATL 



The Christmas Trade. 



Every one so far interviewed reports 

 an increase over last year's business and 

 in many cases a very large one. Espe- 

 cially is this true regarding the whole- 

 sale business in this city. On an aver- 

 age. I should judge, that the increase is 

 somewhere between 15 and 30 per cent. 



Roses were right in crop and never 

 before did we have so many of them for 

 a holiday; but even then, there were not 

 enough to fill all orders, especially in 

 the Ijetter qualities. There were a great 

 many short, weak-stemmed ones, but 

 these also sold at a good price. Liber- 

 ties were scarce, and fell far short of 

 orders. Golden Gates held a high place 

 and were never better. Good Maids were 

 scarce. Beauties of medium length were 

 very scarce, the supply of long and short 

 being much better. Tliere was not near- 

 ly as much pickled stock as usual, and 

 this was the cause of general satisfac- 

 tion. 



Carnations were scarce from start to 

 finish, but owing to the increased sup- 

 ply of roses their scarcity was not felt 

 as much as usual. 



Of violets there were almost none, the 

 majority of the orders being left un- 

 filled. There was a good supply of Har- 

 risii lilies and they sold well. Valley 

 also found a ready market, and more 

 could have been used. Other bulbous 

 stock was almost a drug. Friday 

 though, saw a change in this and owing 

 to a scarcity of other stock, all the left- 

 over Romans and narcissus were closed 

 out, and a clean sweep made of every- 

 thing. 



The two days following Christmas 

 there was scarc-ely a flower to be had ; 

 even bulbous stock was short. A snow 

 storm, followed by a big drop in temper- 

 ature Christmas eve, did the business. 



At the present time Christmas prices 

 still prevail and will likely continue un- 

 til after the new year. Stock of all 

 kinds is veiy scarce, and what little 

 comes in is quickly snatched up by eager 

 buyers, who are ever on the lookout. 



The holly and green business was very 

 good, and the stock of very good quality, 

 holly especially l)eing extra fine and well 

 berried. There was considerable trouble 

 caused by the railroad companies being 

 unable to deliver several car-loads of 

 holly on time. These cars were side- 

 tracked somewhere, but luckily were 

 found in time to be delivered before 

 Christmas. Tliere was considerable win- 

 terberry used, but, I am afraid, rather 

 indiscretely in many cases. 



The charity ball which occurred Mon- 

 day evening was one of the events of 

 the season. It proved to be a good thing 

 for the florists who were lucky enough 

 to have good flowers to sell. 



Huntsman & Co. had a narrow escape 

 from fire at their retail store. Elec- 

 trical wires started the blaze, but lucki- 

 ly it was in a well protected part of the 

 store, and died a natural death. 



C. J. Ohmer. 



Sandusky, O. — The stock at the Cen- 

 tral Greenhouses was in fine shape for 

 Christmas trade and an excellent busi- 

 ness was done. Mr. Thouspar. formerly 

 with the Storrs & Harrison Co., is in 

 charge of the range. The store was most 

 elalxirately decorated for the holiday 

 trade and attracted a host of buyers. 

 The store is in charge of Mr. John H. 

 Meyer, formerly of New Brighton, Pa. 



