r.'() 



HOKTICULTURE 



February 14, 1920 



moving the heavy crops that prevail 

 I'or more than half of the year and 

 moving them at better prices. 



I am reminded of several florists of 

 other parts of the country who to my 

 mind are doing a great deal to help the 

 grower; for instance, there is one who 

 has two stores. One caters to a high- 

 class trade, — fancy automobiles, driv- 

 ers in uniform, door men in uniform 

 and all the other fancy touches that 

 go to please the wealthy customers are 

 made use of. This florist holds to a 

 more or less high price regardless of 

 how the market goes, but he also runs 

 a branch store under a different name 

 and takes advantage of every flower or 

 plant that happens to lie in heavy sup- 

 ply and pushes it through this branch 

 store. Special sales of carnations at 

 75c., $1 and $1.50, roses at low prices, 

 in fact any flower or plant that can be 

 bought in quantity to help clear the 

 market and pushed out at a small 

 profit is handled through the branch 

 store. A few stores of this kind in 

 every city would do a great deal of 

 good. 



Then again I think of another promi- 

 nent florist, one with a broad way of 

 looking at conditions, who also main- 

 tains branch stores. He has a number 

 of them, several catering of course to 

 the fancy trade with all of its frills, 

 and quite a good part of the price .for 

 every dozen carnations or roses can 

 be credited to service and its trim- 

 mings, but he also has a "Cash and 

 Carry" store; no charge accounts, pay 

 for the flowers and take them along 

 with you. The parcel is done up neat- 

 ly, but no elaborate trimmings are 

 made use of. Another of his branches 

 is mainly a plant store, and then again 

 he has a store situated in the negro 

 section and every employee in that 

 store is a colored person. Now all of 

 these stores are under one head, but 

 they are not recognized so by the pub- 

 lic. 



Again we have the far Western flo- 

 rists who really seem to have a broader 

 way of handling the cut flower busi- 

 ness than what we understand in the 

 East. Florists in small towns in such 

 states as the Dakotas, Kansas and 

 others that we think of as almost 

 Western wilderness, we find to be de- 

 cidedly up to date. Special sales are 

 held of whatever may be plentiful in 

 the great Western markets, particular- 

 ly Chicago, as this is a natural feeding 

 ground. Small cities of from twenty 

 to thirty thousand population are so 

 well educated into the use of flowers 

 that in one case I heard of one of these 

 towns using two hundred orchids per 



week for several weeks. They sold at 

 a fair price at wholesale in Chicago 

 and were moved out to the retail trade 

 at a good profit. Those florists out 

 tliere are continually on the watch for 

 anything that they can buy in quanti- 

 tv as soon as the market breaks, and 

 help to use it up, which of course is 

 a great help to the growers. 



The florist in a section who will per- 

 sist in selling carnations at fl.50 per 

 dozen when he has to pay $10 per 

 hundred for them is simply forgotten 

 and ignored if he won't listen to rea- 

 son, for the other fellow goes right 

 along with a legitimate price and looks 

 out that his service is of the best quali- 

 ty, and sooner or latter the low price 

 florist finds his mistake. 



Another point that is causing a lot 

 of hard feeling is the habit of buying 

 stock from private estates. This 

 doesn't seem right and the commercial 

 men cannot be blamed for objecting 

 strongly to this practice. I don't be- 

 lieve that fault finding is going to do 

 a lot of good; good results can only 

 be accomplished by selling flowers, and 

 that means selling them when they are 

 plentiful. Anyone can sell them now, 

 and whatever price they will bring 

 comes pretty near to being legitimate. 

 Boston retailers have not paid any 

 more than other Eastern markets, not 

 so much in some cases. 



Before I stop, I want to say just a 

 little word against the practice of the 

 growers this year. When the market 

 is high it doesn't seem hardly the best 

 plan to take part of the small amount 

 of stock coming into Boston and send 

 it out to otlier towns. Take for in- 

 stance the big Chicago market which 

 carries a pretty good level month In 

 and month out. If any of our New 

 York friends have gone into Chicago at 

 any time for a number of weeks past 

 and tried to buy stock ahove the mar- 

 ket, in many cases they would have 

 been refused. The Chicago houses 

 would say "No, we haven't enough to 

 go around for our regular customers," 

 so I doubt if the outsider would have 

 been able to buy enough to make it 

 any decent sort of a speculation. 



TO CHARGE FOR BOXES. 

 Notice Sent Out by Wholesale Flor- 

 ists of Boston. 



Wholesale florists of Boston are to 

 follow the example of wholesalers in 

 other cities and charge for boxes. 

 They are sending out the following 

 notice: 



Owing to the prevailing conditions 

 and on account of the increased cost of 

 boxes and overhead expenses we, the 

 undersigned, WHOLESALE FLOR- 

 ISTS OP BOSTON, will be compelled 



to charge for boxes. BOXES ARE 

 XOT RETIRXABLE. 



We have very carefully considered 

 the situation and we are not charging 

 the extra cost of boxes on flowers, as 

 our sales are based on prevailing 

 market prices. 



Yours very truly, 



H. M. Robinson & Co., Inc. 



B. A. Snydeb Co. 



N. F. Mc-Cakthy Co. 



D0LA_NSKY-McD0N^UJ) Co. 



BosioN Floeai, Supply Co. 

 Welch Bros. Co. 



Wholesale Florists. 



THE FLOWER MARKET 



There has been no break in the mar- 

 ket as yet and naturally would not be 

 until after Valentine Day. Supply and 

 demand are just about equal, and both 

 were cut down by the severe storm. 



Roses and carnations and other 

 standbys are still on the scarce side 

 and remain high in price but with the 

 lengthening days and more sunlight 

 a change is in order very soon. Very 

 few of the shorter grades of Beauty 

 roses are arriving and the long stem- 

 med are still bringing from one to one 

 and a half. Russells, Premiers, and 

 Columbias are more accommodating in 

 the lower grades but the demand runs 

 more to the shorts, which tends to 

 keep the price high there as also in 

 the better flowers. Hadleys and Hoos- 

 iers are conspicuously off-crop. Ophelia, 

 Killarney, Maryland and Jonkheer, are 

 in fairly good shape. In Philadelphia 

 carnations start at fifteen but on the 

 fine ones like Pink Delight, Mrs. Ward, 

 Benora, Laddie, etc., they reach the 

 twenty mark. Sweet Peas are very 

 fine and are the great standby in mod- 

 erate priced work. Orchids continue 

 in good shape, the cattlyas being now 

 backed up by some very good, fancy 

 varieties of Cypripedium. 



In Boston the average price on roses 

 is twelve cents for cheap stuff and 

 thirty-five cents for good quality. Car- 

 nations sell for ten and fifteen cents, 

 and specials at twenty. These are just 

 about the same prices as prevail in 

 New York, Buffalo and Pittsburg. In 

 Boston callas are $3 and $4 per doz- 

 en; in other marlvets they run a trifie 

 higher. Sweet peas sell in Boston for 

 three and four cents, and some with 

 extra long stems at five. About ten 

 thousand came into one salesman 

 Wednesday morning after being held 

 up by the storm, but they were moved 

 without difficulty. In New York, peas 

 are selling up to six cents but in other 

 markets are a cent or two lower. 



Freesias run four to eight cents m 

 Boston and New York, but better 

 prices have been obtained in Pitts, 

 burgh. Violets run about two dollars. 



