June 6, 1914 



HOKTICULTUKE 



847 



Flower Market Reports 



{Continued from page S^J) 



pile. Even much of so-called fancy 

 carnations, shipped out in good faith 

 were sleepy when received and Mon- 

 day's mail brought protests from hun- 

 dreds of out-of-town customers. Prices 

 on the best carnations did not stay at 

 five cents as quoted but were gladly 

 moved for three, and Memorial Day 

 made a record for low prices in all 

 kinds of stock. For the retailers the 

 conditions were somewhat reversed. 

 They could limit their stock, which 

 the wholesaler could not, and the low- 

 er prices pleased their customers and 

 made ready sales. Sunday was count- 

 ed as a part of the big day and sales 

 in the retail stores kept up well until 

 noon. The market on Monday was the 

 scene of a general cleaning up and 

 barrels of waste stock were thrown 

 out. Today (Tuesday) every bucket 

 and vase is filled to the limit and 

 nothing short of a carnival could work 

 off the stock. Peonies are going the 

 way of the rest and it is unlikely that 

 many of them will bring express 

 charges. An enormous crop of roses 

 is now on and sweet peas are coming 

 in in great quantities while the usual 

 miscellaneous flowers add to the sup- 

 ply. Cape jasmine is coming from the 

 south. There is a fair supply of or- 

 chids. Very good lilies are also in. 

 Lilacs and other out-of-door flowers 

 are gone. 



Decoration Day 

 CINCINNATI proved to be far dif- 

 ferent than was ex- 

 pected. Most of the growers kept on 

 sending in advance reports as to the 

 prospective cuts for that day. so that 

 while we all hoped for a very big sup- 

 ply we were expecting at the best only 

 an ordinarily good one. Cuts were so 

 large, however, that the market could 

 not begin to use them all. Prices fell 

 very rapidly from good ones to buyers' 

 prices in job lots. The glut that was 

 left over after the day is so large that 

 the wholesalers are almost ready to 

 pay you to take it away. Eventually 

 they will have to pay when a large 

 part of it is hauled to the dump. The 

 hot weather also put a very big crimp 

 in the demand for flowers. All the 

 outdoor roses and other blooms blos- 

 somed out in all their glory and the 

 people used these instead of buying 

 flowers from their florists. Farmers 

 and gardeners also came in with the 

 crops from their gardens and sold 

 them at any figure they could get for 

 them. As far as having stock left over 

 is concerned most retailers suffered as 

 well as the wholesalers. A consider- 

 able number of flowers arrived in an 

 unsalable condition. Happily some 

 much needed showers on Monday 

 brought cooler weather and as soon 

 as this glut passes away market con- 

 ditions will be back to their normal 

 point. 



Telephone 8860 Madison Square 



WOODROW & MARKETOS 



WHOLESALE 



Plantsmen and Florists 



37 and 39 West 28th St., NEW YORK 



EDWARD REID 



WHOLESALE FLORIST 



1619-21 Ranstead St., Philadelphia, Pa. 



CHOICE BEAUTIES, ORCHIDS, VALLEY, ROSES 

 and all Seasonable Varieties of Cut Flowers 



William F. Kasting Co. 



^A/Hole8al 



383-387 ELLICOTT ST. 



loris-fcs 



BUFFALO, N. Y. 



NEW YORK QUOTATIONS PER 100. To Dealers Only 



MISCELLANEOUS 



Cattleyaa •- 



Lilies, Lonsiflonim 



Lily of the Valley 



Snapdragon 



Mignonette 



Daises, white and yellow 



Sweet Peas (per loo bunches) 



Gardenias 



Adiantum 



Smilax 



Asparagus Plumosus. strings (per lOo) 



" " & Spren (loo bunches) 



Last Half of Week 



ending May 30 



1914 



First Half of Week 



beginning June 1 



1914 



15.00 



2.00 

 •5° 

 1. 00 



■50 

 1. 00 

 2.00 

 10.00 



.50 



( 10.00 



35.00 



15.00 



35-0O 

 4.00 

 2.00 

 3.00 

 2.00 

 2.00 

 6.00 

 25.00 

 ■75 

 16.00 

 50.00 

 35.00 



10,00 

 3.00 

 J. 00 

 a.oo 



1. 00 

 1. 00 

 a. 00 

 10.00 

 ■ 35 

 10.00 

 35.00 

 20.00 



35.00 



5.00 



2.00 



3.oe 



3.00 



2.00 



6.00 



25.00 



.75 



16.00 



50.00 



35.00 



There was no no- 

 NEW YORK ticeable advance in 

 prices for Memorial 

 Day in this market. The volume of 

 flower receipts was tremendous, and 

 then there was not the amount of car- 

 nations shipped out as has been the 

 usual case. Carnations were especial- 

 ly very plentiful, selling from $1.00 to 

 $3.00 per hundred. Last year the 

 prices were double. Peonies arrived 

 in lots of thousands of dozens, fine 

 quality of the best varieties, and sold 

 only fairly well at 25c. and 50c. per 

 dozen. Best lily of the valley did not 

 realize more than $20.00 per 1,000. 

 Roses went from $5 per thousand to 

 $5 per hundred for the best. This was 

 the situation all along the line. There 

 was also an enormous abundance of 

 outdoor flowers — snowballs, spireas, 

 etc., all of which helped to overload 

 the ^^narket and keep the prices on 

 other stock down. Summed up. one 

 might say that a tremendous amount 

 of flowers were sold, but the average 

 prices obtained were low as compared 

 with former years. Again the growers 

 repeated their folly of holding back 

 their cut in order to have heavy ship- 

 ments on the holiday. Imagine, for 

 example, holding back carnations a 

 week in the very hot weather prevail- 

 ing the early part of the week. Box 

 after box of carnations were noticed 

 with blooms all dried up. At present 

 the market is still overstocked with 

 all seasonable flowers. Poenies are 

 overplentiful and do not clean up even 

 at $12.50 and $15.00 per thousand. 

 Business is very moderate, and one 

 half of the supply would easily fill all 

 demands, but it may be that, some of 

 the outdoor stock being finished, and 

 some of the growers throwing out to 

 replant, a stiffening up of prices and 

 a better cleanup of the daily receipts 

 may be had. 



Not in the mem- 

 PHILADELPHIA ory of the oldest 



wholesaler has 

 there been such a redundancy of sup- 

 ply in the cut flower market as last 

 week. The whole world was full of 

 flowers, and all the country people 

 seemed to think Philadelphia was 

 crazy for every out-door blossom. One 

 wholesaler said that he had been in 

 the business for twenty-eight years 

 and that during all those years he had 

 never seen anything like it in the way 

 of plethora. Every man in the whole- 

 sale centers worked five times as hard 

 as he had ever done before in Memo- 

 rial week and shipped out five times 

 as much stock as he had ever done 

 before, but when it came to dollars 

 and cents there was very little to 

 show for it over previous years. Com- 

 missions are based on high prices, and 

 when prices go to pot the commission 

 dealers are practically working over- 

 time for nothing. They must increase 

 their charges for marketing or else 

 go broke! Up to May 25 things looked 

 all right, A hot spell brought not only 

 the avalanche, but it made the flowers 

 soft so that their shipping qualities, 

 no matter how freshly cut or how care- 

 fully packed, were impaired. And the 

 retailers at distant points — did they 

 have common sense or courtesy? In 

 many cases they ordered shipments 

 returned, causing double expressage 

 when a telegram might have saved 

 the situation. Isn't there such a thing 

 as being a good business man and be- 

 ing a gentleman at the same time? 

 Of course everything suffered — indoor 

 stock as well as outdoor stock. Peony 

 Pestiva maxima that was selling for 

 ten to twelve cents a bloom a few 

 days before was being offered on the 

 street Saturday — nice freshly cut 

 blooms — twelve for a nickel. A sad 

 story. The "surplus devil" reigned 

 supreme. 



{CfiftttHvtd oti pttge Sj2) 



