June 6, 1914 



HORTICULTURE 



84» 



• Flower Market Reports 



The story of last week, 

 BOSTON Memorial Day, and the 

 present week in Boston 

 ii' one from which very little comfort 

 can be extracted by anybody. As pre- 

 dicted in these columns, there was an 

 inundation of flowers tor the floral hol- 

 iday the equal of which never before en- 

 cumbered this market. The peculiar se- 

 quence of weather vagaries diiring May 

 al! tended to a seemingly premedi- 

 tated deluge of material, early things 

 being delayed and late things hastened 

 sc that there was one grand conglom- 

 eration of outdoor and indoor products 

 such as never happened before on one 

 day. Growers and dealers who had 

 the privilege of establishing prices for 

 the stock paid little attention, how- 

 ever, to these portentious conditions 

 which were plain to the eyes of any- 

 one not purposely blind and proceeded 

 to set figures just the same as if no 

 accumulation existed. In the mean- 

 time the dealers in florists' supplies 

 successfully e.xecuted a maneuver 

 which beat all records and submerged 

 the town under an avalanche of 

 Vvreaths of prepared magnolia foliage 

 with artificial flowers, very attractive 

 to the eye of the average Memorial 

 Day customer and at prices that were 

 irresistible. With few exceptions the 

 retail dealers went very heavily into 

 these things. They extolled the keep- 

 ing quality of these "most appropriate 

 cemetery tributes" as compared with 

 the soft, wilting, natural flowers at 

 "extortionate" prices and certainly 

 took full advantage of the opportunity 

 to get even with the wholesale flower 

 trade for many an old sore. Depart- 

 ment stores, grocers, fakers and "hole- 

 in-the-wall" merchants all joined in 

 the game and the belated visitor to 

 the cemeteries saw little else but pre- 

 served magnolia wreaths on all sides. 

 It will be superfluous to attempt to 

 draw a word picture of the wholesale 

 flower markets under such conditions 

 or to describe the fate of the 

 mountains of roses and carnations, 

 barrels of lily of the valley, stocks, 

 sweet peas, candytuft, lilies, tulips 

 and spiraes which were thrown upon 

 this market last Friday and Saturday, 

 so we shall ring down the curtain and 

 give ourselves over to deep thought. 



The week previous to 

 BUFFALO .Memorial Day was 



rather a dull one. re- 

 ceipts heavy and sales at a low ebb. 

 There was an over-supply on every- 

 thing except possibly good colored car- 

 nations. Peonies, outdoor lilac, tulips, 

 lily of the valley, narcissi, irises, 

 deutzias and other stock helped break 

 the market and still the outlet had not 

 come. There was no sale for peonies 

 till Friday and no season has yet been 

 recorded where there were so few sold 

 and at such low rates, the high fig- 

 ure being $5 per hundred for the best 

 peonies, but the greater part sold for 

 tar less. The hot weather brought 

 about a heavy supply of carnations, 

 mostly white and Enchantress, and a 

 greater portion had to be moved quick- 

 ly, the weather had such a telling ef- 

 fect. The Beauty and other rose grow- 

 ers thought it was some other holiday 

 than Memorial Day and roses of all 

 grades, buds that never open and 



It is very true that 



Theodore Roosevelt 



Put Oyster Bay on the map as far as knowledge 

 of it to the outside world is concerned. 



It is equally true that 



The Pennock-Meehan Co. 



Put Philadelphia on the map so far as the 

 wholesale cut flower business is concerned. 



It is equally true that we have 

 inauy rtnn petit ors but we are not 

 JoiiloiiN. Tliere is room for us all in 



THIS BIG WORLD. 



Get under the Pennock-Meehan FlatJ and March on to Prosperity. 



S. S. PENNOCK-MEEHAN CO. 



The Wholetale Floritta of Philadelphia 



NEW YORK 



in West 28th Street 



PHILAJ)EI.PHIA 



im8-1620 Ludlow Street 



BAL.TIMORB 



Franklin and Bt. Fanl Street! 

 WASHINGTON 

 121G H Street, N. W. 



WHOLESALE FLOWER MARKETS — 



TRADE 



PRICES -Per 100 



TO DEALERS ONLY 



Roses 



Am. Beauty, Special 



" " Fancy and Extra 



No. I.... 



Killarney, Extra 



" Ordinary 



Richmond, Hillingdon, Extra 



" " Ordinary 



Maryland, Ward, Taft, Sunburst, Extra . 



" ** " *' Ordinary 



Russell, Shawyer 



Carnations, Fancy 



" Ordinary 



Cattleyas 



Lilies. Longiflorum 



Lily of the Valley 



Snapdragon 



Mignonette 



Dasies, white and yellow 



Sweet Peas 



Gardenias 



Adianlum 



Smilax 



Asparagus Plumosus, Strings (lOo) 



'* " & Spren. {loo Bchs.) 



BOSTON 



June 4 



ST. 



J 



LOUIS 



une I 



PHILA. 



May 35 



15.00 to 



3.00 to 



75 to 



12.00 to 



35.00 to 



10.00 to 



20.00 

 15.00 

 6.00 



5.00 

 3.00 

 5.00 

 3.00 

 8.00 

 a. 00 



15.00 

 3.00 

 1.50 



40.00 

 5.00 

 2.00 

 4.00 

 3.00 

 2.00 

 ■35 



20.00 

 J. 00 



15.00 I 



50.00 ! 



35-00 : 



20.00 

 15.00 

 5.00 

 4.00 



2. CO 



5.00 

 3.00 



4.00 



2.00 

 2.00 



•50 



40.00 



8.00 



3-00 

 2.00 

 4.00 



•»5 

 .20 



1. 00 



10.00 

 35.00 

 15.00 



to 

 to 

 to 

 to 

 to 

 to 

 to 



25.00 

 18.00 



10. OD 

 6.00 

 3.00 

 6.00 

 4.00 

 6.00 

 3.00 



to 



to 



to . 



to 



to 



to 



to 



to 



to 



to 



to 



to 



to . 



to 1 .35 



to 12.50 



to 50.00 



to 25.00 



3.00 



1. 00 



50.00 

 10.00 



4.00 



4.00 



5.00 



1. 00 



.40 



17.50 to 



10.00 to 



4.00 to 



5.00 to 



1. 00 to 



5.00 to 



1. 00 to 



6.00 to 



2.00 to 



4.00 to 



2.00 to 



z.oo to 



30.00 to 



3.00 to 



I. 00 to 



2.00 to 



3.00 to 



.50 to 



to 



4.00 to 



20,00 



35.00 



25.00 



25.00 

 15.00 



4.00 



10.00 

 5W 



10.00 



3.00 



1.50 



50.00 

 6.00 

 4.00 



8.00 



3.00 

 1.00 



iS-o* 



I. GO 



35'(S 

 SO.OB 



50.00 



others that were full blown when 

 taken from boxes were had in heavy 

 supply. Sweet peas galore, lilies came 

 in like Easter week, and there was the 

 heaviest supply of any Memorial week 

 than can be remembered. It can not 

 b(. said that the volume of business 

 vas light, although the prices were 

 away below previous years and in 

 many cases the stock had to be forced 

 on the buyers and at closing time on 

 Saturday the coolers were still carr>'- 

 ijjg a heavy supply. 



Unusual to a marked de- 

 CHICAGO gree were the conditions 

 Memorial week. Those 

 who had anticipated quantities of 

 stock were not disappointed but no 

 one had expected such a glut of all 

 kinds of flowers. The extreme tem- 

 perature of the preceding week ana 

 the hot winds had rendered the carna- 

 tions soft, and quantities of them were 

 dumped from their boxes to the waste 



{Continued on pagt S^) 



