HORTICULTURE 



Vol. XXXII 



OCTOBER 9, 1920 



No. 15 



THE TALK OF THE TRADE 



At the last meeting oC the Garden- 

 ers' and Florists' Club of Boston, that 

 body passed a resolution which indi- 

 cates in a general way the feeling of 

 the growers as regards the Dutch 

 bulb grower. The uncertainty in price 

 which has prevailed this year and 

 which seems to have been altogether 

 unnecessary has worked out badly for 

 all concerned. The following resolu- 

 tion is what I have reference to: 



"Resolved, that the members of the 

 Gardeners' and Florists' Club of Bos- 

 ton, many of whom are large pur- 

 chaser of Dutch bulbs and plants, view 

 with deep concern and indigation the 

 continued importation of bulbs to be 

 sold in auction rooms at prices far be- 

 low those asked by canvassers early in 

 the present season, and call upon 

 other florist clubs and similar organ- 

 izations to join with them in refusing 

 to purchase any bulbs from Holland 

 next season, unless the growers and 

 the Dutch Bulb Growers' Association 

 take steps to put a stop to this unfair 

 and pernicious practice." 



It is a well known fact that many 

 who bought bulbs early paid a price 

 that was altogether too high, and even 

 at this present date there seems to be 

 no stable values nor prices which any- 

 one can work upon. It is simply a 

 case of buy your bulbs for the lowest 

 price possible and take a chance on 

 what will happen later on. Such 

 methods are never good for business 

 and cause more harm than can be un- 

 done for quite a while to come. It 

 leaves the grower no fair chance of 

 figuring costs and places the man who 

 this season may have bought early in 

 the position of competing with late 

 bought stock of just as good quality 

 but at a much lower cost. The mar- 

 ket of course does not recognize what 

 bulbs cost in the beginning; it simply 

 pays what stock is bringing as cut 

 flowers at the time of sale and that 

 is all that is of interest to the cut 

 flower buyer. 



Good stock in chrysanthemums is 

 showing up on the market now and in 

 reasonable quantities, and well-fin- 

 ished blooms are bringing good prices. 

 As usual, we have a set of four good 

 early sorts. There are of course other 

 varieties than I will mention which 

 are done well by one grower or an- 

 other, but in a general way, outside of 



Golden Glow which starts very early 

 and can be drawn out well through 

 the month of October, we have the fol- 

 lowing generally satisfactory sorts 

 October Frost, Unaka, Marigold and 

 Chrysolora. Ever since the introduc- 

 tion of these different varieties they 

 have been good varieties to depend 

 upon, and give good results from year 

 to year. 



The New York market the past week 

 had exceptionally fine blooms of Mari- 

 gold; great big well-formed, well- 

 colored flowers, and brought attractive 

 prices for the growers. I also noted 

 exceptionally well-grown stock of 

 Unaka in both the New York and Bos- 

 ton markets. 



The convention of the Florists' Tele- 

 graph Delivery Association to be held 

 in Indianapolis October 12th and 13th 

 will without any question prove again 

 one of the very live conventions of the 

 year. It is to my way of thinking one 

 of the conventions that shows every 

 minute full of action and good work; 

 In fact, there are numbers of florists 



who have nothing at all to do with the 

 retail trade who would not miss this 

 convention under any circumstances. 

 Judging from the jirogram as outlined, 

 the two days will be full of important 

 work. 



I have been interested In one matter 

 that has come up in connection with 

 the F. T. D. and which is receiving the 

 attention of florists in general, and 

 that is the minimum amount of order 

 that should be handled as a telegraph 

 order. Five to Six Dollars seems to 

 be the minimum amount generally 

 thought advisable, and I believe that 

 it would work to the advantage of all 

 if tills amount would be agreed upon, 

 as we all know there are times with- 

 out number when one flower or an- 

 other can be bought at such a figure 

 that a creditable funeral piece or box 

 of flowers in some other form can be 

 put out for less than this amount, but 

 there are so many times that it is im- 

 possible, so confusion and annoyance 

 will be eliminated if some set figure 

 is agreed upon. 



The relaying of messages is another 

 important point. It sometimes hap- 

 pens that in smaller towns, particu- 



Chrysolora Chrysanthemnm 



