732 



The Weekly Florists' Review, 



March 26, 1903. 



BALTIMORE. 



Eain, rain, rain has filled the pro- 

 gramme and the water courses for 

 nearly an entire week; trees are burst- 

 ing into leaf and blossom; shrubs are 

 coming into flower, and every indication 

 points to a phenomenally early spring, 

 with the tolerably sure sequel of frosts 

 and destruction of fruits and blooms. 



Trade begins the week today (March 

 23) with apathy, due, perhaps, to the 

 dull and weeping skies. Tlie supply of 

 all cut flowers is more than adequate 

 to the demand. This is especially true 

 of carnations. Good roses are not in 

 over supply. Dutch stock is abundant, 

 and it would seem that the great quan- 

 tity offering now will diminish the 

 Easter supplies. 



Gardeners' Club Carnation Show. 



The carnation show of the Gardeners' 

 Club is being held this afternoon and 

 evening. The rain affects this display 

 also. What it lacks in quantity is 

 made up in quality. Halliday Bros, 

 have decorated the hall with some fine 

 statured palms, etc., and show hand- 

 some vases of Estelle, Queen Louise, 

 Joost and two seedlings ( white ) of their 

 own raising. One of these is of espe- 

 cially fine shape and substance, with 

 good stem. VVeljer & Sons send down 

 good samples of Gov. Lowndes. Gene- 

 vieve T^rd and Bradt. John G. Rider 

 has extra good I^awsons. Joosts and 

 Bradts; Lehr Bros., White Cloud and 

 Lawson ; F. C. Bauer. Prosperity and 

 his unnamed orange and scarlet. W. 

 Ilannigan, gardener to Gen. Garey, has 

 vases of carnations and roses; John 

 Cook, a number of choice seedling roses 

 and carnations; Chas. M. Wagner, 

 cinerarias and carnations; Philip B. 

 Welsh. tuli])s and narcissus. 



.V numl)or of the boys go over to- 

 nicirrow to the rose show at Philadel- 

 phia, and incidentally for a bowling 

 inalch with the Quakers. 



The shamrock cut quite a figure in 

 the trade here on St. Patrick's day. and 

 was more in evidence than ever before 

 in our recollection. A number of store 

 windows were decorated with baskets 

 and pots of tlie i)lnnt. mostly guaran- 

 teed "imported from the old sod." 



R. 



MILWAUKEE. 



The robins arrived and have been with 

 us now for nearly two weeks, indicating 

 an unusually early spring. Crocuses 

 are in bloom in southern exposures, and 

 tulips and hyacinths are up several 

 inches. The warm weather the past 

 week, coupled with copious rains, started 

 the grass into growth. 



Roses and carnations are coming in 

 more plentifully, but the demand keeps 

 pace witli the supply. There is also 

 enough bulb stock to go around, except 

 daffodils, which have shortened up con- 

 siderably. Violets have dropped off 

 somewhat in quantity, owing to the 

 warm weather. Retarded Easter lilies 

 are now making rapid headway, al- 

 though indications are for a short sup- 

 ply. Sweet peas are quite plentiful. 



The Executive Committee of the S. A. 

 F. and 0. H. spent two days with our 

 local club last week. Considerable busi- 

 ness of importance was transacted, and 

 a valuable programme to interest the 

 craft for the coming convention in 

 .\ugust was laid out. Tuesday evening 

 the club tendered the visitors a banquet 

 at tlio Pfister hotel. Aside from the 



business sessions the committee was 

 shown our bowling alleys, which are well 

 adapted for a large gathering of the bowl- 

 ing fraternity of the S. A. F. Also many 

 other places of interest were visited 

 before the committee, all the members 

 of which we expect to see again in 

 August, departed for home. Among the 

 delegates were John Burton and Geo. 

 C. Watson, of Philadelphia; Robt. Tes- 

 son, of St. Louis; Secretary Wm. J. 

 Stewart, of Boston; J. C. Vaughan 

 and Phil Hauswirth. of Chicago; E. 

 Buettner, of Park Ridge, 111., and Alex. 

 Wallace, of New York. 



The army of Dutchmen have come and 

 gone. The last ones to force sales were 

 100 per cent cheaper than the early 

 callers. 



C. C. Pollworth has been confined to 

 his bed the past week, and is not yet 

 able to be around. 



J. J. McHutchison spent Sunday in 

 the city. C. C. P. 



GRAND RAPIDS, MICH. 



Summer has had an inning the past 

 ten days— 70 to 80 degrees. It brought 

 flowers out fast, easing the shipping 

 market considerably, but there are no 

 more than enough carnations to meet 

 the demand. Roses are plentiful today, 

 scarce tomorrow. Easter lilies are be- 

 ginning to pop out, and pot plants for 

 Easter" are beginning to flower. There 

 will be lots of pot plants for Easter. 

 Prices remain about the same as at my 

 last report, with supply about equal to 

 demand. 



A tragedy occurred Monday morning 

 that has ca"st a gloom over the florists. 

 Ifenry Smith's greenhouses burned out. 

 The "fire was supposed to have been 

 caused by an explosion of the lantern 

 of the night fireman. Diinicl McQueen. 

 As the fireman was burned to death, the 

 exact particulars will never be known. 

 Oliver Baily was badly burned and res- 

 cued with great difficulty. The board- 

 ing house for the men was over the 

 shed, with fourteen men in it. and al- 

 thmigh one man. who was already up 

 and milking the cow in the near-by barn. 

 <Ta\e a prompt alarm, the fire burned 

 so qui.'klv that the escape of the men 

 through the doorway was cut off, but 

 one man man"hging to get out that way. 

 The rest jumped from the windows, and 

 several jumped through the greenhouse 

 roof and were more or less cut by the 

 glass. A portion only of the plant is 

 a total loss. Those houses farthest re- 

 moved from the shed and barns (all of 

 which burned) including water tanks, 

 were saved, and every effort was made 

 to get the heating apparatus in running 

 ord'er liefore any damage could be done 

 by the cold. When the fire reached tbe 

 pump house the gasoline tank exploded, 

 completely wrecking the large building 

 in which it was located. Here no one 

 was hurt. Tlie damage amounts to 

 about $40,000. The work of rebuilding 

 will iiroceed at once. All the insurance 

 carried was $500. Every florist in town 

 visited the scene of the conflagration. 



The fir.st regular meeting of the Flor- 

 ists' Club was to have Ijeen held at the 

 Board of Trade rooms, but no one 

 thought of the meeting when the fire 

 was announced. G. F. C 



JAMESTOWN, N. Y. 



It lias been a long time since I paid 

 a visit to the Ijiko View Rose Gardens, 

 during which interval rapid strides 

 have lieen made in that mammoth es- 



tablishment. Superintendent Roney has 

 the advantage of having grown up, as 

 it were, with the plant, and consequently 

 finds it much easier to keep in touch 

 with such an immense business. Just 

 one-half day was consumed in going 

 through the houses and noting the 

 various stocks being grown. Now that 

 Easter is not far off, flowering plants 

 are receiving close attention. Alec 

 Scott has charge of this department, and 

 pointed out a grand lot of rhododen- 

 drons, lilacs, Ramblers, lilies and the 

 like. And, bv the way, speaking of lilies, 

 what is the matter with the Japan 

 longiflorura this year? A report from 

 all the growers would make interesting 

 reading. Ttiose who banked on Harrisii 

 are "in it" this season. 



In green goods the Boston fern is 

 irrown in large numbers — splendid 

 plants— for which there is a good, 

 steady demand. Palms are well grown, 

 also ferns for dishes. This branch has 

 enlarged of late. Asparagus and smilax 

 are grown in large quantities, but it 

 has Tjeen impossible to supply the de- 

 mand, which has been phenomenal this 

 season. 



Passing to the carnation houses by 

 way of a propagating house filled with 

 a thrifty looking lot of cuttings, I 

 noted Norway doing finely. Mr. Roney 

 speaks highly of this variety, which is 

 doing much better this year than last. 

 In fact, he considers it the best in the 

 large list of whites grown here. Gene- 

 see" comes next, being an excellent me- 

 dium variety. Both are clean and very 

 prolific. Crocker is seen to advantage. 

 A year ago nothing was too bad for it, 

 or," I should say, there was very little 

 to be said in its favor. But here it is 

 and one of the paying pinks. Lawson, 

 of course, is pre-eminent, then Joost, 

 Marquis, Cressbrook in the order named. 

 Apollo is the best scarlet; CVane and 

 America come next. Prosperity is a 

 prosperous variety. Tlie change from 

 benches to solid beds seems to be in 

 favor of the latter, some benches having 

 been retained for comparison. 



The question of tiled versus solid beds 

 is in favor of the solid beds, particularly 

 with roses. I noted beds directly op- 

 posite each other — the one tiled, the 

 other an ordinary well drained bottom. 

 There was a slightly stronger growth 

 on plants growing in the old style bed. I 

 noted another change, which was a 

 series of shelves running overhead at 

 an angle not to exclude light. Each 

 shelf is filled w^ith sufficient rose stock 

 to plant that particular house. Tlie 

 shelf has a patent fastening which en- 

 ables it to be placed at pleasure. 

 Beauty is grown on a larger scale than 

 formerly. Liberty and Meteor are both 

 well grown. Brides and Maids would 

 be hard to beat anywhere just now. 



The promise of heavy crops for Easter 

 is seen in every house, not excepting the 

 seedling carnations, amongst which are 

 some plomising youngsters. Mr. Roney 

 is a skeptic on seedlings, and one of 

 the last to take hold of a new variety, 

 but when he saw a box of blooms from 

 L. E. Iitarquisee. of Syracuse, just re- 

 ceived bv :Mr. Broadhead (who is con- 

 stantly on the lookout for a new thing 

 that is of startling merit) he admitted 

 that Flamingo. Albatross and Sunhird 

 were three birds that had come to stay. 

 I noticed a new variety of perpetual 

 sweet peas— dwarf habit, veiy free. 



Before leaving I was shown the site 

 upon which it is proposed to build an- 

 other block of forty-five houses, each 225 



