December 2, 1911 



HORTICULTURE 



761 



TWO NEW CHRYSANTHEMUMS 



Mrs. A. M. Henshaw 



Mrs. A. M. Henshaw. a snow white flower, gracefully 

 Incurved petals. A rather tall grower but should hold its 

 own with any other white on the exhibition tables. A 

 promising variety, named after one of New York's popular 

 wholesale florists. 



William Kletnheinz 



This is another of Mr. Totty's 1912 pets. In writing 

 about it he says: "There is nothing small about the orig- 

 inal owner of the name and I thought it only in keeping 

 to name a big 'mum' after him." This is a crimson with 

 bronze reverse and will make a flower as large as the re- 

 doubtable Woodmason, with the color infinitely better. 



C. H. Totty says of Mrs. Gilbert Drabble, "My best introduction for 1912"; so surely it is well worthy of the Cover 

 Position in HORTICULTURE. It is described as a splendid flower of the purest possible white; the petals arranged in 

 a whorled form different in type from any white we have. The foliage is right up to the flower and the stem "stiff as 

 an iron rod." Our readers will make no mistake in buying these three novelties. 



go but returned with only twenty-nine 

 roses after being absent for two days. 

 In the retail business the same crude- 

 ness existed. I recollect when there 

 were no retail flower shops on the 

 ground floor in Philadelphia; Hanft 

 Bros, had a basement on Chestnut 

 street between Broad and 13th streets, 

 and James Ritchie had a cellar on the 

 northwest corner of Eighth and San- 

 som streets. The first shop on the 

 level of the street was open in a one- 

 story structure on 12th street below 

 Market by Pennock Bros. 



Orchids were scarcely known com- 

 mercially; now they are grown by the 

 hundred thousand for the Philadelphia 

 market, some men making their cul- 

 ture a specialty to the exclusion of all 

 other lines of work. Instead of a few 

 plants being imported occasionally 

 from Europe by amateurs there is a 

 steady annual supply coming in from 

 South America and other countries 

 which are the native habitat of these 

 gorgeous and elegant flowers. 



The growth of the wholesale com- 

 mission business in Philadelphia also 

 shows in a marked way the increase in 

 the business; the immense warehouses 



needed to hold the stock coming in 

 daily, at times literally in car loads, 

 is certainly impressive. The question 

 arises how is a market now found for 

 the great quantity now produced. One 

 answer is that the prices have become 

 so low that people in moderate cir- 

 cumstances can now afford to indulge 

 in what was at one time an extrav- 

 agant and almost impossible luxury; 

 and it is a fact that a large supply 

 often creates a large demand. This 

 fact was well illustrated by Peter Barr, 

 the great specialist in narcissus, who 

 visited Philadelphia a few years ago. 

 He said that in the early history of 

 his business when his stock consisted 

 only of a few hundred he sold them by 

 the dozen, but as his business grew 

 and he finally planted fifty thousand 

 rare bulbs on the banks bordering his 

 place he received several orders from 

 wealthy patrons for fifty thousand 

 just such bulbs; the supply created 

 the demand. 



There will be many times, no doubt, 

 when there will be "gluts" in the mar- 

 ket and the business temporarily un- 

 profitable as is always the case when 

 there is an over-supply of perishable 



merchandise. As a matter of fact, the 

 business never has been one of large 

 profits and probably never will be. 

 Men do not rapidly become million- 

 aires in the florist business as they 

 may do in the wine and liquor and 

 tobacco business. E. G. Hill, who is 

 well-known to most of you told me of 

 his attending a banquet of wine grow- 

 ers and merchants in France. More 

 than fifty sat down to the table and 

 each one was worth more than a mil- 

 lion dollars; no one has ever heard of 

 a florists' banquet of which the par- 

 ticipants were so financially situated. 

 If flowers should ever become as pop- 

 ular and as eagerly sought after as to- 

 bacco then we might all grow rapidly 

 rich. But we have our compensations, 

 if we cannot make money fast we 

 know our products tend to the eleva- 

 tion, refinement and happiness of man- 

 kind. 



Mount Sterling, Ky. — Graser & Hum- 

 phreys have given up the greenhouses 

 t." West Main street to John Corbett, 

 from whom they leased them. Mr. 

 Corbett has remodeled the place and 

 will conduct a general florist's busi- 

 ness. 



