502 



HOHTlcLLi LKJi 



April 10, 1916 



NEWS ITEMS FROM EVERYWHERE 



BOSTON. 



So\ cry At Co.. i<( Ho%lston street, 

 had llip Easter dcooratlons for four of 

 the largest and most prominent 

 churches In the city. 



Thos. J. Clark, of Boylston street, 

 opened up Doyle's old store for Easter 

 In conjunction with the Mass. General 

 Hospital, which was selling the pot- 

 tery made by crippled patients. 



Filene's Flower Shop doubled their 

 space for Easter week. It certainly 

 must have been worth while, as this 

 store covers what is probably some of 

 the most valuable land In the city. 



The Boston Rose Co. had some splen- 

 did Hadley roses April 2 from the 

 MoiitRomery Co, Their quick sale 

 showed the desirability of this rose, 

 which came originally from the Mont- 

 gomery Co.. of Hadley, Mass. 



The Mrs. Charles Riissell rose easily 

 led all other varieties last week. The 

 W'aban Rose Conservatories are indeed 

 fortunate in being the originators of 

 this beautiful variety, which has found 

 such favor with the public east and 

 west. 



The dire necessity of an efficient 

 local credit association certainly made 

 itself felt this week through the bank- 

 ruptcy of Wm. P. Pierce, of New Bed- 

 ford. H. M. Robinson & Co. and B. A. 

 Snyder & Co. are among the biggest 

 sufferers. 



McAlpIne & McDonald did a big 

 business in roses Easter week, espe- 

 cially for out-of-town orders. The en- 

 tire basement below the Co-operative 

 Market is now occupied by this grow- 

 ing firm, which just a year ago April 1 

 started business as wholesale florists. 



Penn the Florist did not feel the ef- 

 fects of Saturday's storm as badly as 

 some of the other local retailers. An 

 advertising campaign, which included 

 a half-page advertisement in one of 

 Boston's biggest dailies, helped out 

 wonderfully to keep up business to last 

 year's record. 



Mayor Curley has informed all the 

 heads of departments that they are ex- 

 pected to donate 5 per cent of tlieir 

 salaries to a conscience fund because 

 of the city's poverty. The total pro- 

 ceeds of this assessment, amounting 

 altogether to about $4000 will be ex- 

 pended in the development of the Con- 

 vention Garden in the Fenway. 



Saturday's storm worked havoc with 

 the "mushroom" stores downtown. 

 These ephemeral business establish- 

 ments are necessarily dependent on 

 transient trade, and with the coming 

 of the snow storm this decreased 

 rapidly on Saturday. These shops 

 proved a good outlet for the cheaper 

 plants and flowers Thursday and 

 Friday. 



Cucumbers will bo planted In their 

 place. Violet Krowers generally have 

 not had a very good year, an over- 

 abundnnce of flowers at the wrong 

 time bringing prices down to ridicu- 

 lously low flgiires. Early In the sea- 

 son too much foliage was thrown to 

 secure a satisfactory pick of blooms. 



The Breck-Robinson Nursery Co., of 

 Lexington made a very effective win- 

 ilow display for the Archway Itook 

 Store this week. It represented tlie 

 sandy cove of a lake. Back of the 

 beach was a thick planting of beauti- 

 ful little evergreens. Drawn up on 

 the sand could be seen a birch bark 

 canoe. A clear mirror made a neat 

 substitute for the water of the lake. 

 This little landscape attracted many 

 admirers. 



The storm did not affect the big 

 wholesale houses as badly as It did 

 the retailers. .N. F. McCarthy & Co. 

 were practically through with shipping 

 orders by Friday night, and except for 

 a little local trade that was lost Satur- 

 day the season was fairly good. Welch 

 Bros, stated that if the storm had not 

 occurred the Easter of 1915 would 

 have passed all previous records. Sev- 

 eral big orders from retailers were 

 cancelled Saturday. 



WASHINGTON. 

 George Gould, who was formerly 

 with the Washington Florists' Com- 

 pany, has accepted a position with 

 George C. Shaffer. He has been suc- 

 ceeded at his former place of employ- 

 ment by Walter Gordon, who is well 

 known among the trade. 



Rfford breaking crowds were to be 

 seen at the Botanical Gardens during 

 the Easter period and for the bene- 

 fit of the thousands of people who are 

 now visiting the city on the many 

 tours being made by the various rail- 

 roads. Superintendent George W. Hess 

 has been making a special exhibition 

 of orchids and other rare plants. 



The next regular meeting of the 

 Florists' Club of Washington, D. C, 

 will be held at 1214 F street, north- 

 west, Tuesday evening, April 13. A 

 moving picture exhibition of the latest 

 happenings in the European war zone 

 and other instructive pictures will be 

 the feature of the evening. Plans will 

 also be discussed for the giving of 

 the annual banquet during the month 

 of May. 



John Cummings. of Woburn. cleaned 

 up his last batch of violets Saturday. 



The Brookland Rose Society is ac- 

 tively engaged in the completion of 

 its plans for the annual rose exhibi- 

 tion to be held May 20 and 21. Frank- 

 lin T. Howe is chairman of the exhibi- 

 tion committee, while E. C. Saltzman 

 is chairman of the finance committee. 

 Two committees have been appointed, 

 as follows: Medal Committee, Frank- 

 lin T. Howe, J. E. Eastlack, and E. C. 

 Saltzman; committee on rose record 

 cards. Dr. William Turn, Dr. Alphones 

 Patton and Dr. Parker. Attractive 

 medals are to be presented to the win- 

 ners in the several classes. 



PHILADELPHIA. 

 Sonii' liitcn-slliig new roses wore 

 shown at Pennock-Mechau's during 

 Iho past week. Among them were 

 Augustus Hartman, a flne light crim- 

 son with pink reverse by Stephen Mor- 

 teuson; and three seedlings of Edward 

 Towlll, two of them pink of the La 

 France type, and one yellow. All of 

 these seem promising and will prob- 

 ably be heard from later. 



Easter Plant Trade. 

 The big idant grow.-rs, like Craig 

 and others who advertise and do a 

 country-wide trade, report a very sat- 

 isfactory Easter business. The smaller 

 growers who dep(?nd on local trade 

 suffered severely from the blizzard 

 which came on their best day — Easter 

 Saturday. Their case was certainly a 

 heart-breaking one and it Is not only 

 the many thousands of dollars lost but 

 that it fell on the shoulders of those 

 least able to bear it. Among the big 

 retail stores the demand was mostly 

 for the lower priced plants— the left- 

 overs being the expensive specimens 

 at J7, $10, $15 and upwards. Of course 

 this class of trade did not suffer much 

 from the storm. It was the out-of-door 

 men who got the worst of it in that 

 respect. There was nothing particu- 

 larly new to be seen in the plant line. 

 The stock consisted of the usual 

 staples with which we are all familiar. 



Flower Competition. 



After all is said, maybe it is a good 

 thing to have the imemployed. It 

 keeps down the wages. If there were 

 no unemployed, wages would go up. 

 And then where would the employer 

 be in the cost of production? So we 

 may apply the same rule to flower 

 trade competition. It we did not have 

 too much product the grower would be 

 likely to get too grasping; and the re- 

 tailer would then get it "in the neck!" 



A. B. Cart ledge, of Pennock Bros., 

 sized it up well when we talked to him 

 at retail for Easter lilies doesn't worry 

 on Good Friday. "Nine cents a bloom 

 us. We give service. The fakir, the 

 ten cent store, or the department store 

 can't touch us. Of course, at holidays 

 there are multitudes that have to be 

 satisfied with Inferior service and In- 

 ferior quality, but that has always 

 been since the world began. So we 

 never worry about that. We could not 

 handle all of it, anyway, so what's the 

 use of getting worried about the trade 

 we don't want. We get our share and 

 we get it on different lines and we are 

 satisfied." 



Bart is a philosopher! 



The greenhouse builders appear to 

 be "angels in disguise" after all. 



NOTES. 

 Utica, N. Y. — Milton Williams and 

 Louis Welder have purchased the 



