232 



The Weekly Florists' Review. 



January 1, 1903. 



T 



he Philadelphia Wholesale Cut Flower Market. 



THE FINEST CUT FLOWERS, PLANTS, SEEDS AND FLORISTS' SUPPLIES. 



To Ihe Growers--Weekly Settlements. To the Buyers--Everything Here. 

 CHARLES MEEHAN, Manager, 1228 CHERRY STREET, PHILADELPHIA. 



Seed Trade News. 



Messrs. F. Boddt & Soxs^ Belle- 

 vue, Wash., wish to know where thej- 

 can buy Boston Market Cucumber seed. 



An Indianapolis daily paper states 

 that the four seed houses of that city 

 did a business amounting to about one 

 million dollars during the past year. 



West Beukeley, Cal. — E. Gill no 

 longer does anything in the .seed line, 

 being now exclusively in the nursery 

 business, making a specialty of roses. 

 He reports the sale of roses as very sat- 

 isfactory this season. 



MxLWAt'KEE. Wis. — Tlieo. Koss has 

 outgrown his cpiarters on Reed street and 

 is now located at 283 and 28.5 Grove 

 street, occujiying the entire building. 

 He reports the i)ast season as a record 

 breaker and anticipates a tremendous 

 business in 190.S. 



Clevela.xd. — A. C Kendel says the 

 trade in Christmas greens has been very 

 good in this city, all the dealers being 

 practically sold out. Though he notes 

 that much has been said about poor 

 holly in other places his stock was as 

 fine as he ever had in large enough quan- 

 tity to supply the entire demand. The 

 mistletoe was better than usual with 

 sufficient to go around. 



New Yobk. — Charles F. Aleyer, for- 

 merly of Hagemann & Meyer, has start- 

 ed in business at 19 Barclay street, as 

 a wholesale importer of bulbs, plants 

 and nursery stock. The Ad. d'Haene Co.. 

 Ltd., Ghent. Belgium, have appointed 

 him their sole re])resentative for the 

 V. S. and Canada for the sale of their 

 azaleas, jialnis- and miscellaneous plants. 

 Mr. Jfeyer has issued an exceedingly 

 attractive announcement with cover in 

 colors. 



Mr. a. N. Jones, Newark, X. J., has 

 been cross breeding beans for some years 

 and has .secured a numlx?r of white seed- 

 ed string beans that he believes will be of 

 special value to market gardeners in tliat 

 when the crop of string beans cannot 

 be all marketetl to advantage the remain- 

 der may be allowed to ripen and will 

 then make very rich dry white beans. 

 S<ime of these beans are almost absolute- 

 ly stringless. He has nearly a thousand 

 cross bred beans and nearly all are white 

 seeded. Tlie pods are of all shapes, 

 from perfectly round to the large me- 

 dium flat. 



GoVER.NiiE.NT SEEDS. — Tlie Peoria. 111.. 

 Transcript, in its issue of Dec. 23. tells 

 its readers how to get their govern- 

 ment seeds as follows: "This is the 

 time for the governmental distribution 

 of garden seeds, and Congressman GrafT 

 is preparing to send the seeds to those 

 in his district who will appreciate them, 

 and plant them for their own use. He 

 is anxious that those who want seeds 

 should get them. His sup]dy is limited. 



of course, and he is quite anxious that 

 they be distribtited judiciously. Often- 

 times, when there is an indiscriminate 

 di.slribution, those who want seeds fail 

 to secure a package, and others who 

 have no use for seeds get more than 

 their share. Those desiring seeds must 

 speak to the postmasters in the to«Tis 

 where there are postmasters, and where 

 there are no jK)stniasters, sj)eak to the 

 rural carriers, and they in turn will 

 notify the postmasters of the towns out 

 of which the route runs." It is certain- 

 ly hard lines when the seedsman has to 

 meet this sort of competition. 



MILWAUKEE. 



Christmas Trade. 



Another Cluistmas gone into history, 

 but the records from the florist's stand- 

 point hardly show much improvement 

 over last year in amount of business 

 done. The weather conditions were ex- 

 tremely unfavorable for the growers and 

 much more stock could have been sold 

 could it have been produced. Roses were 

 most alTectcd by the continued dark 

 weather, and the supply of them was 

 away below the demand. Carnations 

 were somewhat off crop, and while there 

 were aljout enough to go around, they 

 maintained top tigures. Good Crane and 

 Lawson brought .$S per 100. while other 

 good varieties went for .$0 and over, and 

 few went l)elow .$4 per 100. In roses, 

 Afaids and Meteors in fancy stock 

 brought $1."> to $18, wJiile white was 

 weak. (iood Brides brought .$12 per 

 100. Second grade roses sold all the 

 way from $4 to .$10 per 100. Beauties 

 were cleaned up at good figures. Fancy 

 stock brought $10 to $12 per dozen. 

 \'iolets were very scarce, and choice 

 stock went up to $3 per 100, and good 

 average stock to $2 per 100. Stevias, 

 paper whites and Romans helped fill 

 o\it many a Christmas box and the mar- 

 ket was pretty well cleaned up on them. 

 Few mums were in the market and those 

 mostly of inferior grade. 



There was plenty of green material 

 to go around. Tlie market was flooded 

 with holly and green, and at the Com- 

 mission House Row. where much of the 

 late picked green was consigned, it could 

 be bought at your own price. Some green 

 was sold as low as $1..50 per crate, and 

 these same pickers who ccmsigned it re- 

 fused $3 per 100 several weeks ago. 



In blooming plants most dealers dis- 

 played azaleas, poinsettias. cyclamens, 

 begonias and primroses trimmed up with 

 ribbon or crepe paper and planted in 

 fancy baskets, and everything in good 

 salable shape found a ready market. 



One of the leading dailies published 

 both wholesale and retail prices under 

 the bold heading "Flowers will be high 

 for Christmas." Imagine a prospective 

 buyer reading "Beauties. $12 per dozen; 

 carnations. .$0 to .$8 per 100" in one 

 column, and "Beauties. _$2.5 per dozen; 

 carnations. $1..50 to .$2 per dozen" in 

 another column. It is not known how 

 and when they came into possession of a 



wholesale list, as no newspaper repre- 

 sentative called on any of the whole- 

 salers. The article created considerable 

 comment among the trade and many 

 counteracted by advertising flowers cheap 

 for Xmas. Cold weather has set in and 

 stock will remain scarce, and Cliristmas 

 prices will probably be maintained up 

 to New Years. " C. C. P. 



TORONTO. 



Christmas business in Toronto, and I 

 might very correctly say in Canada gen- 

 erally, was much ahead of previous 

 years; some of the large wholesale and 

 retail men made 25 per cent advance 

 over previous years. It had been im- 

 agined that the high price of coal and 

 the heavy losses sustained by a number 

 of the different financial men on the 

 stock exchange would atfeet the sale of 

 flowers considerably, but it apparently 

 had no effect and the general pros- 

 perity of the country made itself felt. 



A great run was made this year on 

 Xmas bells and holly wreaths, one city 

 firm handling nearly fifteen hundred 

 wreaths, while another man disposed 

 of about one hundred and fifty bells of 

 different sizes. Tlie wholesale men 

 were pretty well cleared out of red im- 

 mortelles, and some importations from 

 Hiiffalo and other American points were 

 made to supply the demand. 



S. Tidy & Son had a very attractive 

 window with a chime of bells with a 

 back-ground of holly wreaths. Dunlop 

 used poinsettias, white lilacs, red roses 

 and carnations. J. S. Simmons had a 

 very neat window of azaleas and cycla- 

 men decorated with holly ribbon with 

 Merry Chiistmas in gold letters. 



Considerable activity has been no- 

 ticed this year in baskets and other 

 decorative material of that kind, and 

 many of the retail florists, who have 

 not hitherto handled any, handled quite 

 a number to good advantage this year. 

 This is due considerably to the new and 

 up-to-date styles of baskets that are be- 

 ing imported by the wholesale men 

 here. 



The Gardeners' and Florists' Associa- 

 tion held its annual election of oflScers 

 last week and the following officers 

 were elected : President. W. W. W cod ; 

 vice-president, D. Robertson; second 

 vice-president, Wra. Ford; seeretapi', K. 

 Collins; assistant secretaiy, Arthur 

 Twiner; treasurer, Geo. Mills; execu- 

 tive committee, J. H. Dunlop. Thos. 

 JIanton. Wm. Jav. A. Watkins, Gteo. 

 Douglas, D. J. Sinclair and H. G. Dil- 

 lemuth. 



I am sorry that I was unable, through 

 the rush of business, to get my last 

 week's notes out, but wish the readers 

 of the Review, its editor and staff a 

 happy and prosperous New Year. 



D. J. 



I LIKE the Revie\v very much and 

 would not he without it. — GcsT W. 

 Grdss.\rt. Belleville. III. 



