April 16, 1903. 



The Weekly Florists' Review. 



877 



S. W. Tilton— "Never had better 

 trade." 



Kirkley & Son — "Business fine." 



A. G. Fiedler — "Outstripped previous 

 seasons." 



Philip B. Welsh— "Fully satisfied. 

 Trade excellent." 



J. J. Perry — "Sold out. Well pleased 

 with results." 



G. C. Personette — "Extraordinarily 

 good business." 



J. A. Eitter & Son— "Had fine trade. ' 



Mrs. Chas. Held — "It was a grand 

 season." 



In the variety of weather which pre- 

 vailed last week one day brought a hail 

 storm of several minutes' duration. For- 

 tunately, so far as heard, no damage 

 was done. 



E. A. Seidewitz. through the criminal 

 negligence of employes, lost some weeks 

 ago in a cold night over 1,500 of palms, 

 etc., by freezing. 



Tlie trade here now includes one mem- 

 ber who will furnish at once the flowers 

 and conduct the religious ceremonies at 

 the funerals of his patrons. R. 



ST. LOUIS. 



Easter Trade. 



In St. Louis the Easter trade in the 

 cut flower line was fully as large as in 

 former years, and the plant trade in the 

 West End is reported as enormous. The 

 weather was most favorable to flower 

 buyers, and those florists who have 

 greenhouses in connection with their 

 stores were loaded down from top to bot- 

 tom with all kinds of plants. Some of 

 them seemed worried up to Saturday 

 morning, fearing they had too much 

 stuff on hand, but before Saturday noon 

 they were fairly swamped with orders, 

 and today their places look) bare, hardly 

 a thing in the plant line being left. 



Cut Harrisii were most plentiful, but 

 plants somewhat scarce. Azaleas had a 

 great call, bringing from $1.50 to $5 

 each. Hydrangeas also had a good call. 

 In fact, everything that looked well sold 

 readily. The report seems general that 

 more plants were sold this Easter than 

 ever before. 



As to cut flowers, they were plentiful 

 in all lines. Cut Harrisii and callas had 

 a great call, both wholesale and retail, 

 with thousands of them in the market. 

 These retailed at $4 a dozen for Har- 

 risii and $3 for callas. Violets were poor 

 and scarce and the demand much great- 

 er than the supply. This was due to 

 the hot day the week before. A great 

 many carnations came in, but the de- 

 mand was so great that the supply did 

 not go around. Fancy stuff demanded 

 $6 per 100, and nothing could be bought 

 under $4. The supply in roses was 

 not so great, but what came in was 

 first-class and demanded top prices — 

 from .$8 to $12 per 100. More first- 

 class Beauties were in the market this 

 Easter than ever before. Everything 

 good in this line sold out clean. 



All bulbous stock was, as usual, plen- 

 tiful and of good quality. Tulips were 

 in good demand. Everything sold well 

 in this line, as this stock is always in 

 great demand at this time of the year. 

 And so the last great day of this sea- 

 son for the florists has gone and every- 

 body is well pleased with the business 

 done. 



The majority of the florists had their 

 windows handsomely decorated for the 

 occasion. Fred Weber. Tlieo. Miller, 

 Miss Newman. Waldbart. and Mrs. Ayres 



made fine shows of their Easter stock. 

 C. Young & Sons Co. and Rcissen were 

 in keeping with their usual fine displays 

 and window decorations. 



The plant stands at Union Market are 

 reported to have sold nearly everything 

 they had on Saturday; the increase 

 amounting to about 25 per cent. 



Prices on cut stuff opened up a little 

 stiflT this (Monday) morning, but will 

 no doubt fall before the end of the week. 



Notes. 



The big and happy "Baby Foley" (as 

 he is best known) and his partner, Ed 

 Glenn (I believe that's his name), were 

 in town the past week, but it was only 

 through an accident that I learned of 

 their visit. 



Charlie Ford, of Philadelphia, who 

 represents A. Hermann, of New York, 

 and a few others called on the trade the 

 past week with good success. 



Tlie club members are much pleased by 

 the announcement in the Review that 

 the Chicago boys will be with us Sat- 

 urday and Sunday. The committee on 

 entertainment is hard at work on the 

 progiamme. A trolley ride to the 

 World's Fair grounds, a theater party 

 and a bowling match are among tlio 

 features. Hotel Rozier, Thirteenth and 

 Olive streets, has been selected as head- 

 quarters during their stay. The club 

 will meet next Thursday afternoon to 

 make all final arrangements. The com- 

 mittee in charge is composed of J. J. 

 Beneke, Otto Koenig and J. F. Ammann. 

 J. J. B. 



CHICAGO. 



The Easter Trade. 



Taken altogether the Easter trade was 

 the best we have ever had, though there 

 were some weak spots here and there. 

 The retailers report the now expected an- 

 nual increase in the sale of flowering 

 plants and arrangements of same in bas- 

 kets and jardinieres. But an immense 

 stock of cut flowers was marketed and 

 the few complaints in the wholesale dis- 

 trict were caused by lack of full infor- 

 mation as to the possible supply and not 

 to the supply itself. 



The supply of lilies when it material- 

 ized was even larger than anticipated 

 and those who "had few lilies" on Thurs- 

 day but dumped immense lots on the 

 market on Saturday, had to take some 

 unpleasant medicine. Some of these late 

 lots had to be jobbed off at as low as 

 $4 and $5 per 100 to move them. But 

 aside from a few mistakes of this sort 

 trade in general was very satisfactory. 

 There were enough roses to about meet re- 

 quirements, but the carnation shortage 

 was fully as marked as expected. There 

 wasn't half enough, even at the high 

 rates prevailing. 



Among the retailers C. A. Samuelson, 

 E. Wienhoeber Co. and W. J. Smyth 

 went heavily into plants and plant ar- 

 rangements and all did an immense busi- 

 ness in this department as well as in cut 

 flowers. In plants lilies seem to still 

 have the lead, followed by azaleas. Ram- 

 bler roses, rhododendrons, hydrangeas, 

 pans of hyacinths, daffodils, etc. The 

 arrangements of plants in baskets, etc., 

 sold better than ever and the individual 

 sales averaged larger, indicating a more 

 liberal feeling on the part of customers 

 than in recent years. The Deutzia Le- 

 noinci makes a very attractive Easter 

 plant when the blooms are not so ripe 

 as to fall when handled. There was 

 more inquiry for something new and 



novel than last year and an attractive 

 combination sold more readily. Not so 

 much crepe paper was used, but a good 

 deal of Porto Rican tnatting and band- 

 some baskets and pot covers. 



Since Easter the supply has been suf- 

 ficient in all lines, except carnations, 

 white being especially short. Prices 

 have of course cased materially and 

 there is at time of writing a real weak- 

 ness in the rose situation. While with 

 some the best roses reach $8, with others 

 $6 is the top, and while .$.3 is practically 

 the bottom we hear of clean up sales at 

 less than $20.00 a thousand. The after 

 Easter demand is beginning to make it- 

 self felt and business ought to average 

 good now for some time. 



Tha drizzling rain that interfered with 

 the Easter shopping on Friday and Sat- 

 urday has continued since then -ivith but 

 few intermissions and the weather indi- 

 cations favor a shortening of the sup- 

 ply. 



Southern lilac is appearing in the 

 wholesale houses, but the quality is not 

 extra good. 



There is still an abundance of lilies in 

 the market. 



Vaiious Items. 



Wietor Bros, have a section of six 

 houses of Kaiscrin, La France and Gold- 

 en Gate that were rested in midwinter 

 and are now coming in with an enor- 

 mous crop of fine flowers. 



A. L. Randall will soon move to the 

 second* floor of the building at 19 and 

 21 Randolph street, where he will have a 

 space SOxiliO feet. 



Bowline. 



The games for position on the teamto 

 represent Chicago at the next convention 

 were started Tuesday night at Anson's. 

 Twenty-four entries were made. Thir- 

 teen participated in the games, with the 

 following results: 



Balluff 161 J»2 171 



Hauswlrth 50 135 m 



Winterson 1M> 156 20Z 



Oeo. Stollery 171 19' JlJ 



Fred StoUery 179 198 137 



L. Schaeter 191 116 1« 



F. Mattl 157 127 194 



H. W. Metz m \g 1^1 



npn Scott 142 I-J» J^**-^ 



cm Inmer-:: 167 149 150 



S^'k^r'.::::::::::::!™ lit nt 



BOSTON. 



Another floral epoch has passed. As 

 usual, my observations were mostly con- 

 fined to tlie Co-operative Market and 

 glimpses of the retail stores, but I saw 

 enough to realize that the business was 

 surely the equal to any predecessor, and 

 probably will prove heavier than any of 

 its kind. Some surprises were developed. 

 A week ago or more it began to be 

 plainly seen that there was an immense 

 supply of excellent potted plants of 

 all seasonable kinds coming in freely, 

 notwithstanding all the l>ad weather and 

 all reports to the contrary. Friday and 

 Saturday developed the fact that rose.* 

 and theprevailing bulb flowers were out 

 in generous supply, but not until Satur- 

 diiy was it ascertained that even violeta 

 were plentiful and to such an extent that 

 a break in price was necessary in order 

 to market them. Carnations cleaned up 

 first, and double jonquils hardly held 

 out. but with these two exceptions, and 

 perhai>s fine white flowers, all others 

 were in eood supply, indeed. 



More taste than usual was displayed 

 in arrangement of pl.ints at the differ- 

 ent retail stores, Calvin's Back Bay 



