366 



The Weekly Florists' Review* 



January 29, 1903. 



PHILADELPHIA. 



Tiie Market. 



Business brisk. More flowers are 

 needed. Beauties are extremely scarce. 

 Tea roses are a little more plentiful 

 than a week ago, but there are not 

 enough good ones to go around. Car- 

 nations are coming in more freely and 

 sell pretty well. Valley is plentiful. 

 Tulips are increasing in variety and im- 

 proving in quality. The flower market 

 handles a good many. 



Doylestown. 



It is often said that a small party is 

 often pleasanter than a large one. This 

 depends a good deal on circumstances 

 and may or may not be generally true. 

 At any rate, it was a small party and a 

 very pleasant one that went out over the 

 P. & R. one day last week to Doyles- 

 town. There were Treasurer Palmer 

 and Manager Meehan, of the flower mar- 

 ket, and Phil. They passed Graham's 

 place on one side at Logan, and Thomas 

 Foulds on the other at Gwynedd, and 

 then made a most wonderful connection 

 at Lansdale, stepped across the platform 

 into anotlicr train and off' over some fine 

 countr}', past the Farm School to 

 Doylestown, after a run of something 

 over an hour. Dinner followed, when 

 the party was joined by Jlr. Collins, who 

 is associated with Mr. Palmer, and on 

 the appearance of a horse and carriage 

 started for .John F. Andre's. 



Mr. Andre was at home, and after a 

 cordial greeting led the way through his 

 rose houses. He has 20,000 feel of glass 

 <levoted to ilaids, Brides and Beauties, 

 growTi both in benches and in solid beds. 

 The tea roses were in tlie pink of con- 

 dition. Tlicy had evidently produced a 

 heavy crop in December and were mak- 

 ing strong shoots which should come in 

 during February. The pre.sent cut was 

 light, but tlie flowers were of very fine 

 quality, not generally the case between 

 crops. Tlie Beauties were strong plants 

 that had produced freely during the late 

 summer and fall. Mr. Andre believes 

 in early planting and early cutting. His 

 results show that he is right. A finer 

 lot of Brides and Maids would be hard 

 to find anywhere. It is an old saying 

 that "W^iat is one man's meat is another 

 man's poison." That we can all cut 

 hea-i-ily from September 1 and get pay- 

 ing crops in the winter, as Mr. Andre 

 does, I don't in the least believe. 



The arrangements for water are most 

 interesting. The rain that falls on the 

 roof of the houses is carried into a cis- 

 tern under ont; of the houses and from 

 there it is pumped into the pipes by a 

 steam pump worked by a small upright 

 boiler in the shed. When rain water is 

 not to be had another pump fills the 

 cistern from a deep well near by. The 

 natural grade of the ground is unusually 

 favorable, sloping gently towards the 

 south. The houses run rather more 

 east of south than is usvially seen. 



Leaving Mr. Andre's, Mr. Palmer 

 drove his friends through the town, past 

 some fine public buildings and pretty 

 houses to his own place. Here Mr. 

 Palmer stopped before entering. "My 

 stuflf is not as fine as John's," he mod- 

 estly said. Possibly not. but a great 

 deal finer than the stuff of a great many 

 Johns it certainly proved to be. There 

 were four houses about 125x16 feet, 

 filled chiefly with Brides and Maids, 

 rather between crops, like everybody 



else's who has cut heavily for the holi- 

 days, but producing a lot of fine gi-ound 

 shoots, marked "H. H. B. brand," that 

 promised well. Tliere was one bench of 

 the old favorite Perle des Jardins that 

 has done extremely well. The plants 

 are all on benches. A little house across 

 the ends of two other houses was filled 

 with paper white narcissus. A small 

 propagating house was busily at work 

 earning its keep. 



Carnations. 



Robert Craig was earning the title 

 given him in the Review last fall the 

 other day. James Cole, a neighboring 

 grower, was being helped over a crisis 

 with four tons of black diamonds to be 

 returned when a missing car appeared. 

 Tlie danger was so near that I must 

 leave the natural pun to someone else. 

 The thought that a man's all may so 

 easily be swept away in these coal 

 famine times is appalling. Mr. Craig 

 chatted a few moments about carnations. 

 It is wonderful that the orders for root- 

 ed cuttings of two varieties. Enchantress 

 and Adonis, should together already ex- 

 ceed 500,000. Both are grand sorts and 

 the florists realize that they must have 

 the best. 



Prosperity is a variety that has come 

 up well this season. In this section it 

 is flowering much earlier than in the 

 past, making it a profitable sort for the 

 grower, as well as for the retailer. 



Notes. 



Paul M. Pierson, of Scarborough, was 

 in town last week. He visited the great 

 rose places at Wyncote, Hillside and 

 Wyndmoor. 



Fowler & Co.. of Silverside, Del., are 

 sending some nice Brides and Maids to 

 the flower market. 



Eugene Bernheinier is receiving some 

 fine mignonette. 



Henry F. Michell report,s that flor- 

 ists are buying spring bulbs, such as 

 gladioli, tuberoses, etc., to start inside 

 to insure early blooming outside. 



Phil. 



BOSTON. 



Various Items. 



Business, retail and wholesale, fairly 

 good. Of course this horrible coal phan- 

 tom sits hard on the producing end of 

 the florist trade and general calamities 

 have been narrowly averted. 



Roses are more scarce than anything 

 else just now, especially good red ones 

 and small ones of all other kinds. Mr. 

 Elliott's N. H. houses are producing a 

 large amount of smaller sizes of Beau- 

 ties and a limited number of fine large 

 ones. A queer fact in connection with 

 the small rose scarcity is that in for- 

 mer years even with roses plentiful many 

 buyers preferred white tulips for funeral 

 work to a large extent. These are quite 

 plentiful now and sell hard indeed at low 

 prices. 



Tlie carnation market is in a bit of a 

 bad way. Tliere are not enough good 

 ones and no one wants any but the best 

 except in connection with funeral work, 

 and this limits the color. Our best 

 growers have taught the customers to 

 demand something pretty good. The 

 worst feature is that their own instincts 

 (and the trusts) have taught them they 

 must have it at a low figure generally. 



■V^iolets are coining in more freely and 

 of better quality. 



Yellow bulb goods are selling surpris- 



ingly well. W. W. Tailby informs me 

 he sold in one day 2,900 blooms, and con- 

 siders 1,000 a fair morning's work. Sev- 

 eral have them on sale in the early min- 

 utes of Park street business, but late 

 calls rarely get filled. 



H. X. Eaton has usually had a monop- 

 oly of the lily business at this date, but 

 has sharp competition this year from 

 several points of the compass. There 

 are consequently quite a few coming in, 

 but all of them seem to find a way out 

 again. 



H. A. Stevens of stall 116, who has 

 been bringing in a. good supply of best 

 grade violets and Lawsons and Gov. Wol- 

 cott carnations, was showing all hands 

 an interesting freak of the latter a few 

 days since. Two stems firmly united by 

 a sort of vegetable membrane for nearly 

 a foot and a half when they divided and 

 each threw a matchless interpretation 

 of that flower! 



Calendars are not so plentiful as usual 

 but of better grade. I have seen but 

 few indeed from the florists, but Jack 

 Delay and Mr. Fahey gave me little gems 

 of ones, and Henry Penn followed the 

 good example set \\'ith a beauty of a 

 larger type. Penn is up to date indeed 

 and in order to keep his customers there, 

 too. he also supplies each with a most 

 elegant little diary. J. S. Mantek. 



ST. LOUIS. 



The Market. 



Tliere has been a remarkable change 

 in the market since the last report and 

 stock of all kinds has shortened up con- 

 siderably. The weather clerk worked off 

 two kinds of weather on us the past 

 we<'k. Half of the week was cold, with 

 snow, and the other half was quite 

 warm. Notwithstanding all this the re- 

 tailers were kept quite busy the entire 

 week with midwinter school graduations, 

 funeral work and wedding decorations, 

 and this is as it should be in the mid- 

 winter season. The wholesalers say that 

 never before at this time of the year 

 was stock so scarce and the demand so 

 gieat. 



In roses. Brides and Maids were about 

 the only varieties that were obtainable. 

 Meteors, Perles and Gates were very 

 scarce and only very few Beauties were 

 to be had. It seems that all of our 

 growers and shippers are off crop at 

 the same time. 



During the past week any old thing 

 in the way of colored carnations was 

 gobbled up at not lower than 3 and as 

 high as 5 cents. The general quality 

 was very poor. Only a few of the fan- 

 cies could be called flne. 



Violets again went up in price and 

 not enough came in to supply tlie de- 

 mand. Bulb stock sold well, owing to 

 the scarcity of other stock and the sup- 

 ply was fairly good. Owing to the de- 

 mand the price went up a cent on such 

 stock as Romans, paper whites, valley 

 and freesias. Callas, and a few Har- 

 risii. sold at sight. 



Notes. 



The committee in charge of the club 

 entertainment has prepared a fine pro- 

 graninio, everything is in readiness, and 

 the younger folks are looking forward 

 to a great time. This is a departure 

 for the club and President Dunford says 

 these entertainments will be given from 

 time to time. Should anyone be over- 

 looked in sending out the invitations 

 make it known to one of the committee. 



