20 



HORTICULTURE 



January 1, 1916 



CHRISTMAS IN CHICAGO. 

 East. West and South Send Stock. 

 No iiior«' eiu'oiiruKiii^; io|>ort has ever 

 been written of a Cliristmiis hero, tliun 

 is warranted liy the trade conditions 

 this year, roverlnj; the entire t'lirlst- 

 mas week. A remarkably unanlniouK 

 verdict is heard from all direc tly con- 

 neited with llie cut llowor and plant 

 business, that this marUol made a rec- 

 ord for >;ood stock, wliuh sold at u 

 price fairly satisfactory to grower, 

 wholesaler and retailer. The only 

 stock left unsold was that which came 

 in on the last day and was mostly cut 

 too close. This does not refer to 

 •pickled" stock, of which a certain 

 amount always finds its way in, and 

 this year was no exception, the grower 

 as usual gelling less than It he had 

 brought It in earlier or quite likely 

 having it thrown into llie barrel where 

 it belonged. 



Roses. 



The most plentiful stock in the mar- 

 ket was of Killarney roses, of which 

 there was a big supply and prices on 

 pink and while were made much lower 

 than previous quotations. Killarney 

 Brilliant fared differently, the stock 

 being less in quantity and much of it 

 better. Many more Ophelia could 

 have been sold, all commission houses 

 looking for more stock. Prices ranged 

 as high as 25c. Some magnificent Mrs. 

 Shawyer roses were offered for i;ac. and 

 extreme lengths brought more, but 

 there were not nearly enpugli to sup- 

 ply demand. There were plenty of 

 Richmonds and the very best did not 

 go above 25c. A few Hoosier Beauties 

 were seen and liad they been forth- 

 coming, a larger number would have 

 sold. The stems were longer than of 

 the Richmond but there was no advan- 

 tage in the color. Milady was a favor- 

 ite, and the color was good. All of the 

 deep hued roses had remarkably good 

 color in spite of weeks of dark weather, 

 with the exception of Mrs. Russell, on 

 which rose there was a great disparity 

 in the quality of the stock. Some 

 growers had 'blue" stock in spite of 

 all efforts while others were more for- 

 tunate and had splendid offerings of 

 this popular rose. Yellow roses were 

 in great demand and supply ran short 

 especially in Sunburst. 



American Beauty. 

 The market was not swamped by 

 eastern stock as was the case last year. 

 One large dealer considers twenty-five 

 to forty thousand a conservative esti- 

 mate which kept prices on home stock 

 from reaching the top notch of pre- 

 vious years, but did not break the mar- 

 ket as at last Christmas. The storm in 

 the East delayed some stock which 

 came in time for the following Mon- 

 day and sold to good advantage. Dur- 

 ing the week frozen shipments of 

 Beauties, orchids and gardenias ar- 

 rived from Boston, totaling several 

 hundred dollars in one house alone. 

 But few long Beauties sold for more 

 than ten dollars per dozen and many 

 more for less. It is regarded here as 

 highly improbable that this Mower will 

 ever bring the old high prices, for 

 various reasons, principally the quality 

 of the other and newer roses with 

 which it now competes. 



Orchids. 

 As this market has been shy on or- 

 chids for some time eastern and south- 



ern growers sliippcd here in quantity 

 Christmas week. Some wore late 

 and some frozen bul still there wore 

 enough left to bring down the price 

 and some were left unsold. 

 Cut Pointettias. 

 lieports differ regarding polnscttias. 

 Some houses were short while others 

 had some left over and there was plen- 

 ty of a poor quality shipped in. Some 

 boxes from California hud every leaf 

 in the bottom of the boxes and did nol 

 bring express charges. Fancy stock 

 brought $5.0(1 per dozen but $3.00 was 

 a more common price. 



Carnations. 

 No one was surprised at the scarcity 

 of this llower which was known to be 

 generally off crop. It was more than a 

 question of price; orders had to he cut 

 because there was nothing to fill them 

 with, and from the earliest bookings 

 customers were limited to a fraction of 

 what they wanted. 



Violets. 

 Kastern violets arrived daily during 

 Christmas week and the stock was of 

 good quality and not injured in transit. 

 Two dollars per 100 was the highest re- 

 ported, the great bulk falling below 

 that figure. The enormous quantity 

 handled during the week may be im- 

 agined when the sales of a single 

 wholesale house sometimes reached 

 100,000 in a day._ Local violet growers 

 also realized good returns from the 

 week's sales. 



Greens. 

 Holly, mistletoe and other greens 

 were almost as necessary as flowers. 

 Holly was well berried and the leaves 

 of a dark rich green. There was the 

 usual large stock of it on South Water 

 St.. coming from the South and East, 

 the latter leading in quality. Ed. Win- 

 terson states that the holly sales were 

 as far ahead of previous years as the 

 flower sales were, and his house has 

 made a specialty of holly for years. 

 His carload of greens included pine 

 branches, miniature pine trees, smilax, 

 holly, mistletoe, and by no means least 

 in importance, a turkey for each of the 

 twenty employees of the store which 

 accompanied a generous check from 

 the firm to each one. Mistletoe was in 

 evidence on every street corner and 

 was a mass of white berries. Like hol- 

 ly, it was extra fine. 



Plants. 

 Each year more jilants liave bfeen 

 grown in and about Chicago and it was 

 thought that the limit this market 

 could handle had been reached, but not 

 so. Sales were far ahead of any pre- 

 vious year and the repeat orders of the 

 last days showed that the retailers had 

 sold out. Stock was good in all mid- 

 winter varieties and the largest grow- 

 ers could have sold more had they had 

 the stock. 



VISITORS' REGISTER. 



New York — M. Liebman, Boston. 



Boston— Oscar Schultz, Newport, R. 

 1.; E. J. Harmon, Portland, Me.; Mau- 

 rice Fuld, New York. 



Cincinnati— Charles Winner. Leban- 

 on, O.; Mr. Uhl, Greenfield. O.: Wm. 

 Gardner, New Castle, Ind. 



Obituary 



George Pedrick. 

 George Pedrick. \\ho for the past 

 twenty-two years conducted a Qorist 

 business at Windsor. Out., died at hU 

 home December 18, aged 63 years. He 

 was born in Devonshire, Eng., and 

 came to Canada thirty-flvo years ago. 

 Ho Is survived by his wife and one 

 daughter. 



Alexander Chisolm. 

 .Mexander Chisolm died Dec. 21 at 

 the Sturdy .Memorial Hospital, North 

 Attleboro, Mass., following an iUneas 

 of many weeks. He was 75 years of 

 age. Mr. Chisolm was gardener for 

 H. P. Barrows of that town for near- 

 ly forty years and recently he laid 

 out the grounds at .Mr. Harrows' new 

 home. He leaves a son and a daugh- 

 ter. S. A. G. 



Charles H. Chenery. 



Charles H. Chenery, 50 years old. 

 a well-known market gardener, died at 

 his home in Belmont, Mass., on Sun- 

 day, December 26. He was born In 

 Belmont and had always lived there. 

 After completing his education in the 

 local schools, he entered the market 

 gardening business with his father, 

 and u|)on the death of the latter, a 

 number of years ago. assumed charge 

 of the business and conducted it until 

 his death. He was unmarried. 



NEWS NOTES. 



St. Joseph, Mo.— The Kelsey Nursery 

 t:onipany has leased 180 acres of land 

 for growing nursery stock. 



Los Angeles, Gal.- Paul J. Howard, 

 landscape architect, has opened an of- 

 flee at 1521 West 7th street. 



North Cheshire, Conn.— The heavy 

 snow of December 20 crushed in the 

 roof and broke considerable glass In 

 the greenhouse of Percy Sloper. 



Queens, N. Y.— Rockaway Floral Co.. 

 Inc.. flowers, plants, seeds: $10,000; F. 

 Jellenix, W. A. Herrmann, J. J. Mi- 

 chael. 703 Greene Ave., Brooklyn. 



Washington, D. C. — Dan Blackistone, 

 formerly of Baltimore, has opened a 

 very attractive retail establishment on 

 upper Fourteenth Street, Northwest. 



Kansas City. — Sam. Murray declares 

 the money so lavishly spent on his big 

 new flower store has already proved to 

 be a good investment. A big rush is 

 on this week. 



Geo. S. Hampton, treasurer of the 

 Jos. G. Neidinger Co., Philadelphia, 

 and Miss Bessie McLoughlin, of De- 

 troit, were married December 27. 



Augusta. Me.— Albert K. Gardner. 

 Stale hortictilturist, has resigned his 

 office with the department of agricul- 

 ture and is soon to begin new work 

 with the extension service of the Uni- 

 versity of Maine. 



Rochester, N. Y.— J. B. Keller Sons 

 have sent out an artistic folder with 

 a suggestive design under the title of 

 "Send Her a Flowergram." It seta 

 forth the advantages of using the F. 

 T. D. service through the Keller fa- 

 cilities and should prove a good busi- 

 ness builder. 



